One item that may be required for bank approval is a sample of marketing email communications to demonstrate compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act. For official information from the FTC, please see: CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business, but here is an overview of what we need to see in a sample for our due diligence review:
- Show that the email is from your company. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To” should demonstrate that the email is from your company and the email address is under your domain.
- Don’t use deceptive subject lines.The subject should accurately reflect the content of the message.
- Identify the message as an ad.The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
- Show your business address.Your message must include your valid physical postal address.
- Include clear instructions or a link to unsubscribe. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future.
Here is an example of what we require, annotated with the compliance items above.