Zywave sales and marketing tool ahead of other email vendors in helping brokers comply with the law
Milwaukee, WI – July 14, 2014
Zywave today announced new functionality in its Canadian sales and marketing platform, Broker Briefcase, to help brokers comply with recent Canadian legislation regulating commercial electronic messages. On July 1, 2014, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) came into effect. Under the law, Canadian businesses that send commercial electronic messages (CEMs) must:
- be able to prove that they have prior recipient consent,
- include valid sender contact information, and
- supply a functioning unsubscribe mechanism in each message.
To assist clients with compliance, Zywave has released a new feature that enables users to track and report comprehensively on recipient consent permissions. Zywave brokers can also take advantage of existing functionality such as a simple unsubscribe mechanism, and best practice advice from industry experts for complying with the law.
What’s changing?
Sending CEMs to an e-address without consent is now prohibited under CASL. In order to qualify as commercial, CEMs only need to encourage commercial conduct and do not need to have an underlying expectancy of profit. For many insurance brokers, compliance will mean treating every email sent from the company domain as a CEM, drastically impacting current marketing initiatives.
As of July 1, 2014, the law is in place and enforceable and penalties for non-compliance are severe, with fines up to $10 million per corporation per violation.
“Compliance with CASL will be paramount to the future success of any insurance brokerage that does business in Canada,” says Nicole Bulanda, Canadian Market Analyst and Zywave’s in-house CASL expert. “The new consent tracking mechanism in our product is an unprecedented resource to help brokers keep track of email permissions, something other email vendors are not yet offering.”
Turning challenge into opportunity
As brokers adjust to the new law and work to maintain compliant marketing lists, top firms will take advantage of CASL as an opportunity to provide additional value to their clients. Because many insurance brokers work with commercial clients, those businesses face similar concerns regarding the new CASL regulations, so brokers can act as an advisor to help clients navigate the new reality.
Zywave brokers have access to resources and best practices to support this need as well, including a 12-part CASL Compliance Toolkit for employers that includes a corporate policy template, plain-language interpretation of the law and employee education literature.
About Zywave
Zywave is the leading provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology solutions for the insurance industry. The company’s products include Web-enabled marketing communications, business intelligence and analytics, and agency automation tools. More than 2,700 brokerages worldwide use Zywave’s proven solutions to help them differentiate from the competition, enhance client services, improve efficiencies and achieve organic growth. To learn more, visit www.zywave.ca.
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