Email Consent Settings play a large role when you are sending an Email Campaign, or when you are troubleshooting Email Delivery in Member365.
Maintaining proper Email Consent for each of your Contacts is required by law, under Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and under the CAN-SPAM act - the United States Anti-Spam legislation.
This article will cover what each type of Email Consent under CASL means in Member365, but those definitions should be considered guidelines and not legal advice. In the case of doubt or ambiguity, please refer to the previous link to CASL for more information.
This article will also outline the messaging requirements under the CAN-SPAM act.
The entity sending a message is always the one expected to prove that they have obtained consent to send that message, regardless of the type of consent.
What is Email Consent?
For a full breakdown of CASL law and Email Consent, refer to the link provided above. In short, Email Consent in Member365 tracks and manages which types of Emails can be sent to which Contacts, and which types of Emails cannot be sent to which Contacts.
Emails that Require Consent
If a Contact has no Email Consent, they will not receive certain types of emails. The types of emails that require Email Consent to deliver include your non-essential and non-system emails: anything from the Email Campaigns Module, Workspace Discussion Notifications, and anything else that isn’t an essential system email.
Emails that don’t Require Consent
Email Consent will not affect the Emails that are essential for your Organization to operate and communicate with your Contacts.
In other words, these essential system emails will send even if someone does not have Email Consent.
Things like Invoice Purchase Receipts, Login Information, and Event Registration Confirmation will send to Contacts regardless of their Consent Settings, since they’re essential for the operation and completion of your Member’s transactions.
What type of Email Consent do I need?
The only difference between each type of Email Consent is how it’s granted, and how long it lasts. Aside from that, all forms of Email Consent work in the same way.
In other words, a Contact with ‘Expressed Consent’ will receive all the same emails as a Contact with ‘Implied Consent’.
How do I manage Email Consent for my Members?
We have an article that covers the management of Email Consent Settings in Member365! Consult that article if you would like to learn about how you can manage the Email Consent Settings for your operation.
Expressed Consent
The first type of Email Consent we will cover is Expressed Consent, which is something that a Contact needs to expressly agree to.
What is Expressed Consent?
If a Contact has Expressed Consent, it means that they have explicitly agreed – verbally or in writing – to receive Email Communication from you.
When does Expressed Consent Expire?
Expressed Consent is permanent and will not expire. A Contact needs to explicitly opt-out or unsubscribe from your Email Communication in order to relinquish their Expressed Consent.
How is Expressed Consent Granted?
A Contact can opt into Expressed Consent by checking off a Disclaimer during registration, by opting into a Sign-Up Form, or by accepting your Consent Request that you can send when viewing your Email Consent Settings.
Implied Consent
The second type of Email Consent we will cover is Implied Consent, which means that the Contact has shared their Contact Information with you.
What is Implied Consent?
If a Contact has Implied Consent, it means that they have shared their Contact Information with you: that could mean by becoming a member, by completing a transaction in the system, etc.
The Contact’s information is either published in plain sight, shared with you as part of a business or commercial transaction/agreement, or shared with you as part of a non-business relationship.
When does Implied Consent Expire?
Implied Consent is granted while the Contact Information is shared with you, and lasts for two years. Implied Consent can also be revoked at any time if the Contact opts out or unsubscribes.
Members who do not Unsubscribe will have Implied Consent as long as their Membership is Active. Once their Membership is no longer Active, their Implied Consent will last for two years or until they Unsubscribe.
Non-Members will be granted Implied Consent upon registration for Events, Store Purchases, and any other transaction. The Implied Consent for these Contacts will last for two years following their latest purchase or until they Unsubscribe.
How is Implied Consent Granted?
Members are granted Implied Consent automatically when they become Active, unless you enrolled them manually. Active Members will maintain Implied Consent as long as their Membership Status is Active – and for two years after they are no longer Active – or until they Unsubscribe.
Non-Member Contacts are granted Implied Consent automatically when they complete a transaction in your system: Event Registrations, Store Purchases, etc. Their Implied Consent will last for two years following their latest transaction, or until they Unsubscribe.
CAN-SPAM guidelines
Under Can-spam law, members have automatic implied consent. But they must be able to opt out of marketing emails. You do not need to get members’ consent to send them marketing emails, but members don’t lose their ability to opt out of marketing emails from you just because they have a membership. If you would like to send an email without the unsubscribe link be sure that the primary purpose of the message fits within one of the five categories of “transactional or relationship” set out in the Act. If it doesn’t, you need to include a way for recipients to opt out of further marketing messages from you.
Emails like renewal reminders, or confirmation emails, will still be sent even if the member opts out of communications.
Congratulations, you now know how Email Consent works in Member365!
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