Direct E-Mail Marketing
Privacy Policy
Include your privacy policy and whether you pass recipients information to third parties. You must provide them with the opportunity to unsubscribe and be removed from your mailing list and database.
Summary
- Ask permission. - Make sure you have the permission of your customer to enter into an ongoing dialogue. This means they will value your communications rather than resent intrusions into the email or post box.
- Communicate regularly. - Keep in touch with your customers in a meaningful way. Build their interest in, and understanding of your company and its products and services.
- Listen carefully. - One-to-one opens up the possibility of a two-way conversation. You must reply when they do. Respond to the feedback you receive and observe where possible their wishes.
- Make it easy. - A response mechanism should be simple and easy.
- Make the most of the fulfilment process. - When you are fulfilling orders -- even if this is a membership application -- use the opportunity to forge a closer relationship with the customer and to cross-sell other appropriate offers.
- Are the benefits communicated?
- Is there a call to action and do people know how to respond?
Addendum – new Government rules
Businesses using e-mails and text messaging for direct marketing purposes could find themselves facing civil action and criminal proceedings. Dale Williams of Rickerbys Solicitors, Cheltenham, discusses this further.
It is common practice for businesses to send direct marketing information to people electronically. Such communications are governed by regulations and below is a non-exhaustive list of points to be aware of:
The communication must make clear on whose behalf it has been sent. It must be clearly and unambiguously identified as a marketing communication.
An ‘opt in’ requirement is to be introduced in October 2003 requiring that individuals must have given specific consent to receive such communications. The only exception is where an individual has received services or products from the business previously. The business may then market its own similar products and services to that individual. However there must be a clear ability to ‘opt out’ at the time the individual’s information was collected and each communication sent.
The Information Commissioner recommends as best practise that preference services are used to ascertain whether an individual has indicated they do not wish to receive direct marketing.
There is a right under the Data Protection Act 1998 for individuals to request their removal from any marketing database. Such a request must be complied with in a reasonable time. (See 310k Internet Solutions Fact Sheet on the Data Protection Act).
If communications are being sent outside the UK different regulations may apply. If these regulations are not followed a business may find itself subject to civil action or criminal proceedings. Spamming may become a thing of the past! a sample batch and test for accuracy before buying. Purchasing a list will give you a good start but they tend to be expensive