SOC 2 and Your Email Stack

SOC 2 compliance extends to every vendor that touches customer data. Your email marketing tool stores subscriber email addresses, engagement data, and potentially other personal information. This makes it part of your compliance scope.

The easiest path is choosing a vendor that already has SOC 2 certification. Their certification means they have been audited by an independent third party and meet the Trust Services Criteria for security, availability, and confidentiality. This reduces your vendor assessment work and gives your auditor confidence.

The Vendor Assessment Process

If your email tool does not have SOC 2 certification, you need to assess their security practices yourself. Request their security documentation. Ask about encryption, access controls, and incident response. Document your assessment and your decision to use the vendor despite the lack of formal certification.

This assessment is not a one-time exercise. SOC 2 requires ongoing vendor monitoring. Check annually that your email vendor's security practices still meet your requirements. If they improve (and get certified), great. If they regress, you need to document the risk.

Security as a Selling Point

For SOC 2-compliant SaaS, your compliance status is a selling point with enterprise customers. Your email marketing can reinforce this. Quarterly compliance updates, security feature announcements, and certification milestones build confidence with security-conscious buyers.

The email tool you choose is part of this story. When a prospect asks about your vendor security, being able to say "our email marketing platform is SOC 2 certified" is much better than explaining compensating controls.