Consent
Know whether you rely on express or permitted implied consent, and retain records supporting that basis.
Email & newsletter advertising in Canada
Inbox access is
a permission asset.
Email marketing can mean communicating with your own consented audience or buying sponsorship inside someone else’s newsletter. Those are different products, with different list, creative, compliance and measurement questions.
CASL basicsConsent · identification · unsubscribe
The CRTC describes these as the three general requirements for commercial electronic messages sent to electronic addresses in Canada.
Two different media models
Owned email and newsletter
sponsorship are not the same buy.
Separate the audience relationship from the advertising placement.
Owned email
Your consented list
- You manage consent and list hygiene
- You control frequency and message
- Performance depends on your audience relationship
- CASL applies to commercial electronic messages
Newsletter sponsorship
Publisher-owned audience
- You buy placement inside another publisher’s email
- The publisher manages the subscriber relationship
- Audience fit and placement context become media-buy questions
- Clarify disclosure, clicks and reporting
Visual checklist
Healthy email economics start
before the send.
A large list is not automatically a valuable list.
1PermissionCan we legally and appropriately send?
2Audience fitDoes the list match the offer?
3DeliverabilityWill the message reach inboxes?
4CreativeSubject, message, CTA
5OutcomeLead, sale, booking, retention
Canadian compliance
Do not treat CASL
as a footer checkbox.
For commercial electronic messages, the CRTC says senders generally need consent, identification information and a working unsubscribe mechanism.
Identification
Commercial messages must identify the sender and include required contact information.
Unsubscribe
The unsubscribe mechanism should be clear and readily performed; official guidance says requests must be actioned within 10 business days.
List acquisition
Buying or harvesting addresses creates compliance and trust risks. Know how every address entered the list.
Canadian compliance sources
Email marketing references
These official federal resources provide the CASL framework summarized here.