Email marketing guidelines

 
 

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The Golden Rule

The three key steps you should follow are:

  1. Consent Only - send commercial electronic messages with the addressee's consent - either express or inferred consent.
  2. Identify - include clear and accurate information about the person or business that is responsible for sending the commercial electronic message.
  3. Unsubscribe - ensure that a functional unsubscribe facility is included in all your commercial electronic messages. Deal with unsubscribe requests promptly.

What you need to know about permission

By far the most important aspect of email marketing is the concept of permission. It's the only thing separating you from the spammers of this world, but for many it remains a grey area. It doesn't need to be. First of all, let's clarify what spam is, and then what kind of permission you will need to use Mailer Magic.

This is so important. You can land yourself in legal trouble if you don't comply with the law.

Being 'legal' is not enough

While the Australian Spam Act 2003 and CAN-SPAM laws are a step in the right direction for classifying and reducing spam, we don't feel they go far enough. Our definition of spam goes beyond the laws in most countries and encompasses what we believe to be true permission email marketing.

Spam is any email you send to someone who hasn't given you their direct permission to contact them on the topic of the email.

But that's not enough. Permission is a fuzzy word open to interpretation. Let's get into some specific scenarios so it's clear what does and doesn't constitute permission.

The type of permission you MUST have

You can only email subscribers using Mailer Magic if you obtained their permission in any of the following ways.

  • They opted in via your web site

    This could either be through a newsletter subscribe form or by ticking a checkbox on another form. This checkbox cannot be checked by default and it must clearly explain that checking it will mean you will be contacting them by email.

  • They completed an offline form and indicated they wanted to be emailed

    If someone completes an offline form like a survey or enters a competition, you can only contact them if it was explained to them that they would be contacted by email AND they ticked a box indicating they would like to be contacted.

  • They gave you their business card

    If someone gives you their business card and you have explained to them that you will be in touch by email, you can contact them. If they dropped their business card in a fishbowl at a trade show, there must be a sign indicating they will be contacted by email.

  • They purchased something off you in the last 2 years

    By making a purchase from you they have provided their permission implicitly. Feel free to email them but at the same time, we think it's always better to ask anyway, so why not include an opt-in checkbox as part of the checkout process.

Scenarios that DON'T equate to permission

Basically, anything outside the examples above doesn't equal permission in our view, but here are some examples to make sure we're crystal clear.

  • You obtained the email addresses from a third party

    Whether you purchased a list, were provided one by a partner or bought a bankrupt competitor's customer list, those people never gave YOU permission to email them and they will consider your email spam. No matter the claims of the source of this list, you cannot email them with Mailer Magic.

  • You scraped or "copy and pasted" the addresses from the Internet

    Just because people publish their email address doesn't mean they want to hear from you.

  • You haven't emailed that address for more than 2 years

    Permission doesn't age well. Even if you got their permission legitimately, they won't remember giving it to you. If you haven't sent something to that address in the last 2 years, you can't start now.

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