Consent, unsubscribe and legal basics for email marketing under CAN-SPAM, GDPR and PECR, written for senders who want to stay clean.
Compliant email marketing comes down to sending only to people who agreed to hear from you, identifying yourself honestly, and making it easy to stop. In the US, CAN-SPAM sets rules on content and unsubscribes; in the UK and EU, GDPR and PECR generally require prior consent for marketing email to individuals. This checklist summarises the basics and is not legal advice.
8 min readDouble opt-in means a new subscriber signs up and then confirms by clicking a link in a confirmation email before they receive marketing. It proves the address is real and that its owner wanted to subscribe. That improves list quality, reduces complaints and gives you a stronger consent record.
6 min readPlan a gradual daily sending ramp for a new mailbox or domain.
Open free toolCheck a subject line and body for spammy phrasing, shouting and link overload.
Open free toolBuild SPF and DMARC DNS TXT records for your sending domain.
Open free toolSee how a subject and preheader truncate on mobile and desktop inboxes.
Open free toolRuns in the Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, AOL and Proton tabs you are already signed in to. Filter by sender or campaign, set reading times and limits, keep a local activity log. No mailbox passwords, one-time licence.