Responsible outreach

Introduction

Get Leads Plus helps research businesses and prepare outreach. You remain responsible for establishing an appropriate basis for contacting recipients and for the messages you send. A public email address, an approved draft or opening your own email app does not automatically make outreach lawful.

Three different questions:

Qualification

whether a business fits a campaign. The app suggests this from the business's public website.

Source verification

where contact information was found. The app shows the page an email address came from.

Outreach permission

whether there is an appropriate legal basis for this particular sender to send this particular message. The app does not decide this.

A qualified prospect is not "compliant" or "consented".

Outreach in Canada (CASL)

Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) applies to commercial electronic messages, including email, sent to an electronic address. According to the CRTC, a commercial message generally needs three things: consent, identification of the sender, and an unsubscribe mechanism, unless a specific exception applies.

• Business-to-business messages are not automatically exempt.
• Express consent is a clear opt-in from the recipient. Implied consent arises only in situations set out in the law, such as an existing business relationship.
• A published business email address may support implied consent only when the publication conditions are met: the address is conspicuously published, it is not accompanied by a statement that the person does not want unsolicited commercial messages, and the message is relevant to the recipient's business, role, functions or duties.
• Keep records that support the basis you rely on.
• An email asking someone for consent is itself a commercial message and needs its own basis.
• Being listed in a free directory, such as Local Foodies, does not by itself create consent or a business relationship with the listed business.
• How long implied consent lasts depends on its basis. Do not apply one expiry to all implied consent.
• The unsubscribe mechanism in each message must remain valid for at least 60 days after the message is sent.
• Unsubscribe requests must be honoured without delay, and no later than 10 business days after they are sent. Our practice is stricter: record an opt-out in Get Leads Plus as soon as it arrives, which marks the business do not contact immediately. Do not wait for written evidence; for a verbal request, a note made at the time describing what was requested, when and through which channel is enough.

Get Leads Plus does not decide permission from the page an email address was found on.

Keeping evidence of your basis

If you rely on a published business address, we recommend saving:

• the publication URL where the address appeared;
• the date you saw it;
• the relevant page evidence, such as the text around the address or a screenshot, including any "no solicitation" notice or its absence;
• a short note on why your message relates to the recipient's business role.

A source URL alone does not establish permission. The app saves the page an address came from; it does not save page screenshots or decide whether the conditions are met.

Outreach in the United States (CAN-SPAM)

According to the FTC, the CAN-SPAM Act covers all commercial email, not only bulk email, and makes no exception for business-to-business email.

• Use accurate sender and header information and truthful subject lines.
• Clearly disclose that the message is an advertisement where required, and include a valid physical postal address.
• Include a clear, easy way to opt out.
• Honour opt-outs within 10 business days, and keep the opt-out working for at least 30 days after sending.
• Do not charge a fee, ask for more than an email address or require account creation to opt out.

Sending from Canada to a U.S. recipient can involve CASL as well as U.S. rules. The recipient's country alone does not decide every rule that applies. Other privacy and state laws may also apply.

Public-source research and privacy

Automated collection of public email addresses can raise address-harvesting and privacy issues. Canada's federal privacy law (PIPEDA) removes the usual exceptions for collecting or using an individual's electronic address gathered with a computer program designed or marketed mainly to generate or search for and collect addresses. This page is guidance only. It does not approve every collection method, including the research methods this app uses.

• Information being public does not automatically allow every use of it.
• Collect only what you need for relevant business outreach.
• Avoid sensitive or unrelated personal information.
• Respect website restrictions and access controls.
• Review how information is stored, shared with research and AI services, kept and deleted. See the Privacy Policy (draft, not yet in effect).
• An email address you add yourself is not independently verified.
• Checking where an address came from is not a deliverability check and is not consent.

Before you contact a business

This checklist is for your own review. The app does not record ticked items, and completing it is not proof of consent or legal compliance.

1. Identify the business actually sending the message and the places whose rules may apply.
2. Review the recipient, their role and why the campaign is relevant to them.
3. Establish and document your basis for contacting them, including the evidence above.
4. Check for published "no solicitation" statements and earlier opt-outs.
5. Confirm the business is not marked do not contact or paused.
6. Review factual claims, the subject, the offer and the recipient.
7. Include your business identity, mailing address, contact information and opt-out instructions.
8. Open the draft in your email app and keep the required information in the message.
9. Record the contact accurately.
10. Watch for replies and record opt-outs promptly.

Using your own email app

1. Review and approve a saved draft.
2. Use Review and open email, then Open email draft. This attempts to open the email app set up on your device.
3. Send from your email app.
4. Return to Get Leads Plus and record manual contact.

Who can do what: approving drafts, opening email and recording outbound contact are limited to owners and managers. Owners, managers and members can edit a draft (each edit is a new version and clears approval) and record an opt-out. An opt-out marks the business do not contact at once and saves who recorded it, when, and the evidence. Only owners and managers can correct suppression records; do not remove a genuine opt-out merely to resume outreach, and record the reason and supporting evidence for any correction or subsequently established permission.

Get Leads Plus cannot see the final message, whether it was sent or delivered, replies in your mailbox, or edits made in your email app. Opt-outs that arrive in your inbox must be recorded in the app. Do-not-contact in Get Leads Plus cannot stop emails you send outside the app. Using your own mailbox does not protect you from mailbox provider limits or legal responsibility.

Fictional examples

These are invented for illustration and are not legal determinations.

Example A — needs review

A restaurant owner's email is published on the restaurant's contact page with no "no solicitation" notice. You want to introduce a local food listing relevant to running the restaurant. A published-address basis may be possible, but you still need to confirm the conditions are met, keep a record, and include identification and an unsubscribe option.

Example B — should not proceed on a published-address basis

The same contact page says "No sales or marketing emails, please", or your message promotes something unrelated to the owner's business role, such as personal financial products. Do not rely on the published address for this message.