Email marketing and the law: a quick guide
Email marketing is without a doubt one of the most cost-effective and immediate forms of direct marketing available to us. Pound for pound when compared to direct mail, other printed media and traditional advertising, email marketing gets your message in front of more people, more often and at significantly less cost.
In order to curb the overwhelming amount of spam email out there, the law regarding email marketing has tightened up considerably in recent years. Knowing the rules and staying on the right side of them is important not only to meet your legal obligations, but also to protect your own reputation. All this spam flying around has given most people a pretty dim view of unsolicited marketing emails!
This article has been written to give you a basic overview of the key things you need to know if you are considering email marketing. It is not intended to be exhaustive (for more detailed information see the Privacy and Electronic Communications section of the ICO website).
What the law requires:
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website states the following:
Unsolicited marketing material by electronic mail (this includes texts, picture messages and emails) should only be sent if the person has chosen to receive them, unless the email address was obtained as a result of a commercial relationship. The individual should always be given the opportunity to stop receiving the emails.
Key Principles:
- You can only send marketing emails to individuals who have ‘chosen to receive them’.
This means that the individual concerned should have given a specific, informed indication of consent. It doesn’t have to be a ‘ticked box’ on your website although that is accepted as an appropriate method. - The ‘Soft Opt-In’ exception.
There is an exception to this rule which is referred to as ‘soft opt-in’. Soft opt-in allows you to send marketing emails where you have obtained an individual’s contact details in the course of a sale or negotiations for a sale of a product or service to that individual. The conditions are that whatever you send must relate to similar products/services and that the individual should have been given the opportunity to refuse the use of their details for marketing purposes. - Individuals on your mailing list should always be given the opportunity to stop receiving the emails.
A simple but clear ‘unsubscribe’ link included in your marketing emails should suffice here. This removal process is usually automated, however, if you are managing your mailing list manually then make sure you stay on top of your unsubscribe requests. Your customers will take a dim view of receiving more marketing emails from you after they’ve asked not to! - Buying lists of email addresses.
If you are considering buying in a list from a list broker or similar the same rules regarding consent apply. The individuals on the list must all have consented to receiving marketing emails from a third party about your particular subject, product or service. Make sure you look into the detail of how a list was collected to make sure you can legitimately use it. Note that ‘soft opt-in’ cannot apply to bought lists as you must have had prior, direct contact with the individuals.
For more information on Creative Stream’s fully managed email marketing solutions contact our client services team on (0114) 2823413 or submit your enquiry here.
