Complying with email law

Many unscrupulous marketers are no doubt exploiting loopholes that remain in the law to continue spamming users.

Leaving them aside, one has to question why so many organisations still unwittingly send customers mail that they've opted out of receiving. The answer is that they have not integrated and fully-automated the systems that drive their online marketing. The good news is that fixing this problem will also significantly increase the efficiency and impact of your email marketing strategy.

Compliance is harder than you think
Many marketers maintain multiple customer databases (CRM databases, internal contacts databases, email marketing databases) and use all of them to email to customers. This makes complying with the ECT Act far more difficult than anyone initially thought it would be.

For example, the marketing department uses the email database to send promotions to the entire database while the internal sales division uses the CRM system to send individual promotions to their own customers. If someone unsubscribes from all company communications after receiving a marketing email, the CRM system is not updated. This means that the person may continue to receive promotional messages from the sales team, for example.

The answer is integration
Integration of these databases will solve the problem. The concept is simple, but implementation is difficult. Success demands a strong internal sponsor, a diligent champion, cooperative techies and a flexible email solutions provider. Above all, you need to develop detailed "use case" and technical documentation as well as a detailed project plan to move things along.

Start by answering the following questions:

What data (list the profile fields) need to be kept in sync?

What database will prevail in case of conflicts?

What is the primary key (email address, customer ID, account number etc)?

How frequently should databases be synced?

Are there additional business rules that need to be applied before data is updated?

Automation is the flipside of integration
Automation usually comes with in integration. There is no point in figuring out how data must be synched and updated if one is not going to automate the process. If an integration system relies on manual intervention, it is open to human error. Do an audit of all your data processes and evaluate what else can be automated.

The benefits of automation and integration
By properly integrating your databases and automating your data processes, you will not only ensure compliance with the ECT Act, but you will also achieve enormous efficiency in your email marketing activities. The automation of repetitive tasks will free up productive time to allow you to become more proactive and strategic. Offer testing, detailed segmentation, personalised content, remarketing based on past results - new strategies that will have a very real effect on your online marketing results.

You will also have time to start developing email marketing programs as opposed to simply sending out individual emails. For example, welcome emails, compliance programs, birthday wishes and account renewals can all be set-up as ongoing programs that need no further manual work once they are set up. The messages go out every day - all you do is evaluate and optimise.

Integration and automation are the keys to increasing the efficiency and impact of your email marketing many times over. So take the leap and start integrating your databases and automating your processes immediately to maximise results from email marketing.