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Effective e-mail marketing in an age of privacy
New
technologies often spark abuse and misuse. The mushrooming of Internet and
Email usage has brought with it a proliferation of unsolicited and unwanted
email communications. For recipients of this barrage of unwelcome messages,
the issue is one of privacy yet still being able to receive messages of interest.
For reputable associations, the concern is one of online marketing effectiveness.
Here are a few simple tips to help you balance the issues of effective online communications with the rights of privacy.
- If you use online mailing services, make sure the lists have been developed from listservs rather than by stripping Email addresses from news groups and online services. This avoids recipients receiving unsolicited and unwanted mail.
- When creating your own list, specifically collect the names from your own customer list, visitors to your web site, or other direct business contacts.
- Provide a conspicuous privacy policy on your web site and other materials that informs the consumer how the information being collected will be used. The policy should also include ways in which the consumer can limit how the information is used.
- If your online forms use check boxes for visitors to request to be added to your mailing list, make them obvious. Make sure the box is unchecked so that the visitor has to take the action to be added to your mailing list. Web site visitors often carelessly fill out forms; you do not want to offend someone with an “unsolicited” mailing simply because the visitor overlooked something.
- Provide opt-out opportunities for the visitor to be excluded from your mailing list, to be excluded from the mailing lists of others, and to limit the disclosure of the information gathered.
- Reconfirm that the potential recipient wants to be on your mailing list even if the recipient has filled in an online form requesting to be on your mailing list. Forged requests are common.
- Provide opt-out opportunities in all mailings for recipients to be deleted from your mailing list.
- Online solicitations and mailings should be identified in a way that allows recipients to readily recognize them.
- On-line mailings should include your name, email address, postal address, telephone number and fax where you can be contacted.
- Honor all requests to not receive future online solicitations or to have their email addresses removed from lists or data bases that are made available for rental, sale, or exchange for online solicitation.
Direct Marketing Association Guidelines
Marketers should consult The DMA's Guidelines for Personal Information Protection (Articles 7, 8, and 9) for suggested measures that should be taken to ensure security. These articles lay out the guidelines direct marketers should follow for the security of personal data, for authorization of visitors to areas where personal data is processed and stored, and for secure transfer of data. For more information contact The DMA at (212) 768-7277, Email consumer@the-dma.org, or visit the DMA’s web site http://www.the-dma.org.
July1998
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