If you’re Canadian, you’ve probably received a lot of emails in the last few weeks, asking you to confirm your consent to continue hearing from various businesses. This is part of the new CASL legislation that goes into effect today (July 1, 2014) and if you email Canadians (even if you’re not Canadian), you need to know about it.

What I like about this Canadian anti-spam legislation is that it supports what I consider the best practices (and good manners) of permission-based email marketing. Requiring consent is not only nice and respectful, it’s the best way to encourage long-lasting, mutually-supportive relationships with your community.

I encourage you to read up on the actual law (here’s a helpful site from the Canadian government: http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home) but, to get you started, here’s a very quick overview of some of the essentials:

• You must identify yourself and your business in your enewsletters
• Your email must have an easy unsubscribe mechanism (and unsubscribes must be honoured within 10 days)
• Your email must contain a valid mailing address and either a telephone number, email address, or web address
• You must have consent (and proof of consent) to email the Canadians on your list

You won’t be receiving a “consent required” email from Pink Elephant because we’ve always been compliant. If you receive mail from me, it’s because you requested it through Pink Elephant Academy or Pink Elephant Creative (and I love you for it, dear readers and friends!).

Not on our list? I’d love to write to you, now and again, with marketing musings to help you reach more clients, and exclusive (and time-sensitive) discount codes to help you save a little money while you do it. Click here to opt-in, and to take the Happy Homepage Quiz.

~~~ Writer Carrie Klassen is a green tea enthusiast, fine point pen aficionado, INFJ Scorpio, and chief creatrix at Pink Elephant Creative, a website writing and design boutique for inspired small business owners. She also writes workbooks and leads business workshops at Pink Elephant Academy for Entrepreneurs.