Businesses and marketers can easily get caught up in all the excitement of a new advertisement because it’s well within budget and ticks all the boxes they were going for. However, they may forget or ignore the marketing regulations they need to follow. These rules are often easy to implement and worth the extra effort.
Protect Your Business With These Marketing Regulations
Here are various marketing regulations to be aware of. Follow these laws to avoid heavy fines, suffering downtime, and losing brand reputation.
False Advertising
False advertising is exactly what the name suggests. A business can not advertise that it sells a specific product or service when it doesn’t. It must be upfront about what it produces and delivers and follow the truth in advertising laws.
For example, let’s say a business sells electronics. Creating a video ad campaign with the newest iPhone might not be the smartest idea if it only sells last year’s version. This activity would be false advertising in the most basic sense. Marketers and businesses must be honest and not mislead their customers with their marketing efforts.
The CAN-SPAM Act
Email marketing is one of the best advertising and lead-generation methods available to businesses, but it needs to follow the rules outlined by the CAN-SPAM Act. These regulations state that a company must accurately identify itself and not use misleading headlines. The content of the email needs to reflect what the tag suggested.
Here is a list of the rules outlined in the CAN-SPAM Act:
- The company can’t use misleading information, such as deceiving headlines or false domain names and email addresses
- The business or marketer must disclose that the email is indeed an ad
- The location of the company should be included
- Customers should have the option to opt out of any marketing messages
It is also important to note if the company hires a marketer for email marketing. Both parties could be liable if the marketer violates CAN-SPAM Act rules. Businesses should ensure they follow the guidelines in their marketing efforts.
SMS Marketing Efforts
Businesses cannot start sending promotional content to customers — even if they have the client’s information — without their permission. There are many ways companies can receive consent while still following the law.
Organizations must follow specific practices to promote a contest on their social media pages. Customers must know that signing up allows the company to send them advertisements via SMS. Remember to add a way for them to opt-out. Businesses could also have shoppers sign up when they purchase something in a store.
Livestreaming
There are several things to consider when live streaming. Customers and employees must give permission to be in the video if the event will take place in public. Have a moderator to ensure all important topics are addressed and wrapped up on time.
Also, pay attention to the background. Ensure no confidential information is lying around or copyrighted music is playing in the background. Following these steps will keep the company from getting into legal trouble with its live-streaming events.
Copyright Infringement Laws
This marketing regulation can be tricky to follow due to all the different copyright infringement laws out there. The main takeaway is to use original content or have consent to use it for commercial purposes.
In other words, using a picture found on Google for marketing purposes is not a great idea. In most cases, that image will belong to someone else, and companies that use it open themselves up to all sorts of legal troubles.
Here are some things marketers can do to ensure they’re following the law:
- Look at the content licensing information
- Create original content
- Purchase stock images
- Give credit to the original creator of the license states to do so
3 Easy-to-Follow Rules
These marketing regulations can be summarized into three easy-to-follow rules — be honest, give credit when due, and have written consent. Marketers that follow these guidelines have nothing to fear.