In 2010 I am a happy little frog named Joe Canadian who sits
in a nice pan of cool water when bill C-28 begins it’s early progress through
the House Of Commons. CASL sounds like a wonderful little piece of legislation
to Joe Canadian the happy little frog. It is a law to protect Joe from
spammers. It sounds so sweet. The government must have his best interest at
heart. Joe does not ask who brings this law to the House. He does not ask how
it will affect him. After all, Joe is not a spammer. Joe is a realtor.
Joe happily goes on his way and does not notice when the
legislation gets a little more intense on January 1st, 2014. The
water is getting warmer in his little pan of water but he does not know it. It
was so gradual and besides now it is quite comfortable. Surely the government
is looking after his interests. He continues to do business like he has always
done business. He has open houses, he shows houses, he has this nice sheet that
he leaves out at the entrance where the guests can sign in and leave their
email addresses. Later he will add them to his email list and send them updates
about houses going on the market.
Joe learned all about content and adding value at a seminar
last year. So his newsletter gives great tips. He shows people how to prepare
their existing homes for the market. There are renovation tips. There are home
decorating tips. There is information about the best areas in which to live and
articles about the best schools. He has been getting great reviews from people
who get it. Some even repost it to their social media sites. Joe has been very
clever and used a system where he can actually see who opened his emails, who
clicked on his articles, and he can measure their interest. Overall it has
helped him to increase his sales by 15% last year and he can attribute a few of
his latest deals to this process. He is quite happy.
Poor Joe does not know that the water is heating up in his
little pan of water and that he is about to get cooked!
The Canadian Anti Spam Legislation is about to steal his
hard earned list. Joe Canadian who is a realtor is about to be very effected by
something that is way outside of his control. His sister who owns a spa is also
about to be effected. His mother-in-law who owns a flower shop is also about to
be effected.
CASL puts them all in very hot water indeed. Now they must
prove consent. July 1, 2014 the water just went into a boil. The lists that
they built from long term customer interaction, and adding value to content are
just as “at risk” as the real spammers lists. They are told that they have 36
months to turn that verbal consent into a double opt-in, but what if one unhappy
customer, or one devious competitor reports them in the meantime? The onus is
on them to prove their innocence. Once they are in court being boiled away to
nothing, they will have their chance to prove that they did indeed comply. It
will only cost them thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of lost time, so
why should they complain?
Joe found out about this just days before July 1st.
He should have been paying attention of course, so it is his fault. After all,
everyone in Canada should watch every piece of legislation going through the
House Of Commons daily because one never knows when someone with an agenda
wants to boil you. So now Joe will get rid of several really good prospects
from his list and comply with the theft of his hard work. He will hire a social
media management team to keep compliant in the future. He will take extra
insurance on, just in case of lawsuits or fines. One needs to be prepared, and
it is only a few thousand extra money a year to do all of this. So Joe Canadian
should just accept his fate and his little pan of boiling water and let himself
get cooked.
Joe, pick up the phone and call your MP! Organize a protest.
Write an article. Do something! You are getting cooked!
Always Loyal2U,
Kerry George
If you want tips on how to deal with CASL see our page at our Loyal2U site. There are also some great articles about this issue on LinkedIn.
