Changing newsletter frequency

[Namita_Parikh]

With new email compliance laws in mind, does anyone know if changing the frequency of a newsletter is possible? For example, we send to leads on a monthly basis (and that's what they subscribed to), but would like to email them more often if we are legally able to. Please feel free to share any resources or information that could be helpful! #emailcompliance ##casl #gdpr #newsletters

[SanfordWhiteman]

This really isn't a question of compliance or legality so much as a question of content.

Marketo itself doesn't know you're sending a "newsletter", but if you have enough content for different frequencies, say sorted by importance, you can choose someone's track based on program status or other characteristics (as long as higher- and lower-frequency tracks alike are below the global limit).

[Namita_Parikh]

Sanford Whiteman‌ that makes sense, but I'm wondering if someone who starts to receive more newsletters/emails than they signed up for can report us for a compliance violation. 

[SanfordWhiteman]

Of course they can report the email as spam (although getting in legal trouble is less likely if it's just about email frequency, rather than about emailing at all).

But the point is, Marketo doesn't have anything to say about legality one way or the other.

[Tom_Kerlin2]

One approach that might help your team address this issue in the long run would be to build out a subscription management center. That way your recipients can elect what types of communications they want to receive, and on the subscription landing page you can add a note about how frequently you'll be sending out these communications. Once that's done, you can add a section to your newsletter that promotes the new subscription page and then send it out during your next regular cadence.

You need to have either of the following in order to lawfully email someone under GDPR:

1.) Explicit consent

2.) There needs to be a 'Legitimate Interest'

Here are CASLs requirements for commercial electronic messages: 

1.) Obtain consent (express or implied)

2.) Provide identification information

3.) Include an unsubscribe mechanism in each message.

There is nothing in CASL (or GDPR i believe) that requires you to state the frequency of messages, which has a lot more to do with exercising common sense and good business practices. If you already stated the frequency then try and stick to it. (Don't send more often than you say you will unless you're already communicating with the recipient about the change in frequency.) Otherwise you can expect your unsubscribes to go up.