How does consent differ for transactional alerts vs marketing digests?

Hybrid emails containing both transactional and marketing content create compliance complexity because the two components follow different rules. CAN-SPAM allows including marketing in transactional emails as long as the primary purpose remains transactional. CASL is stricter, requiring that any commercial content in transactional messages either be directly related to the transaction or have separate consent. GDPR focuses on whether processing is necessary for the contract.

The primary purpose test under CAN-SPAM examines several factors: whether the subject line would mislead recipients about content, the placement of transactional versus commercial content, and the overall proportion of each type. Order confirmations with a small product recommendation section typically pass; thinly-disguised marketing emails with a tiny transaction reference typically fail.

Best practice keeps transactional and marketing messages separate whenever possible. Mixed messages risk spam filtering because recipients trained on pure transactional emails may report hybrids as spam. They also complicate unsubscribe handling since recipients may want to stop marketing while keeping transactional notifications. Clean separation between transactional and marketing emails keeps your compliance clear, your deliverability strong, and your subscriber expectations properly set.