Email Marketing Legalities – The Rules
There are four main rules when it comes to email marketing, which are governed by the Privacy and Electronics Communications Regulations Act 2003 (EC Directive) and Data Protection Act ’98.
1. Permission and Consent
You must have permission to contact the person that you are emailing i.e.: they must have opted in at some point. There are three ways in which they could have opted-in:
» Their email was collected in the course of a sale or negotiation – this could have been whilst making an online quote or filling in a survey. The sale does not have to have been completed, but they have to have been given the opportunity to either opt-in or opt-out at some stage in the process.
» They have agreed to receive emails regarding a similar product or service.
» They simply did not opt-out – they must have been given this option in the first place.
2. Who
If you are emailing then you must not conceal who you are - the recipient must know who the email is from.
3. Valid
The email that you are sending must have a valid originating email address via which they can contact you for opting-out purposes.
4. Unsubscribe
You must provide the facility to unsubscribe from your emails.
Consumer Data and Business Data
The ‘grey areas’ of email marketing apply to consumer data and business data. If you have had a relationship with a company or organisation then you can market directly to them. You can even collect data on companies from resources like open directories (or even Yellow Pages) and use this data to directly market to. This does not, however, apply to consumer data where they have to at some point agreed to receive emails from you. Whether you are talking to a consumer or corporate audience you must always follow points 2,3 and 4.
Buying Data
The data that you buy could have been collected one of many different ways including surveys, telephone interviews, online questionnaires or from a 3rd party. If you are buying data then you can be assured (as long as the company is reputable of course) that it has passed all of the checks for consent and permission and now all you have to do is make sure that they know who you are, allow them to opt-out and make sure that they can contact you should they so wish to do so.
If you are at all confused by email marketing, then why not contact us and we’ll be more than happy to explain the opt-ins from the opt-outs.





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