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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 marketers, the concern is one of
online marketing effectiveness.
Here are a few simple tips to help you balance the issues of effective
online marketing 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 consumer 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.
Michael T. Brandt
July1998
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