Guidelines for contacting leads

When you purchase leads, you need to abide by 2 laws for contacting them: 

• The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which regulates calls and texts
• The CAN-SPAM Act, which regulates emails

Make sure you’re following the guidelines outlined here when reaching out to leads you purchase. 

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regulates telemarketing calls, autodialed calls, prerecorded calls, text messages and unsolicited faxes. 

Checklist

1. Companies must have a “Do Not Call” list that keeps track of people who have asked not to be called.
2. Companies are required to be up to date on and honor the National Do Not Call Registry.
3. Callers have to provide their name, the name of the company they are calling on behalf of,, and a telephone number/address where they can be contacted.
4. No calls should be made before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. (local time).
5. Callers/companies can’t use artificial or prerecorded voices when getting in touch with a residence.
6. If auto-dialing, calls cannot connect to multi-line businesses.
7. No unsolicited advertising faxes are allowed.

Read more here.

The CAN-SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them

Checklist

1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. 
5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. 
6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. 
7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. Even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you must ensure that you are compliant. 

Read more here.