Canada, Where Lead Gen Dies!
Sorry this isn't a blog. I was trying to think of something upbeat and motivating for my first entry. Instead I'll take a risk and speak my mind. So more of a rant really.
And in no way is this about the people of Canada. It's about government regulation. I personally respect and know many people in Canada.
This is a plea. I don't want the same regulation infecting Australia where I live at the moment. If it did I would up and leave in a heart beat.
Nobody seems to be talking about it yet it has the possibility of completely changing the whole digital marketing industry worldwide in favor of the multi nationals or corporate's.
If this cancer spreads it will smash affiliate marketing, solo marketers and small business who rely on digital marketing.
I'm talking about Canada's anti-spam legislation (CASL).
You can think "this is just Canada it doesn't effect me."
I would agree, only nobody is fighting back at all. That gives a green light to governments worldwide.
This is the crux of my argument:
We need anti spam laws to protect against unsolicited emails in our personal accounts. For example those Viagra emails we have all experienced.
I've had friends approached by the federal police because people have hacked into their own personal in-house servers and used it for spamming. That's bad.
That's what the laws and regulation are there for. However, CASL goes much further.
To comply is very complicated. They define implicit and explicit consent, completely removing a users personal agency, i.e. a nanny regulation.
They including time frames you can and cannot market to a user depending on those definitions they themselves defined, Bullshit!
It puts all the legal stuff on the marketer. Why?
If you land on a page and you yourself decide to take an action for example, provide a name and email. Then it's more than reasonable to assume you are going to receive marketing messages.
This is not comparable to people stealing email addresses and marketing to them illegally.
If you land on a website and fill out a form like name and email, by doing so you reasonably expect marketing messages from that person. That's the personal agency we need to offer people.
You as the user are taking an action by signing up. If somebody actually spams you illegally the you aren't taking an action. That's the distinction.
The new CASL regulation means you have to have a tick box unchecked, that's explicit, with at least a link to the your own spam and privacy policy.
That extra step will have a drop off rate and massively increase your cost per lead if you're running Google or Facebook ads for example.
It's an attack on small business in my opinion.
Here's an email client in Canada completely selling you out and trying to manipulate you.
http://blog.mailup.com/2014/06/marketers-practical...
Shameful.
They use language like:
"The beauty of this grandfathering provision..."
Look at their way of complying and you decide yourself how that will effect your cost per lead with PPC.
http://screencast.com/t/y7LA2IkDx3
Sorry for the rant, I needed to get that one off my chest.
Dan
Recent Comments
3
Hmmm. interesting information. I was under the impression that if they clicked on a link to subscribe that would be considered express consent on their part.
Thanks for sharing this info.