Benefiting from consumer legislation

The experience of other industries across the world and over the years shows that increased regulation leads to more mature and effective business practices that benefit companies as much as consumers.

Companies become more successful when they embrace laws and good practices that are meant to protect consumers. This will be true in email marketing, too, because the regulation and discouragement of unwanted or unsolicited commercial mailing will work in the favour of legitimate marketers.

Marketers who embrace best practices already follow an opt-in permission based direct marketing because they understand that the less spam there is, the less clutter and annoyance their customers have to deal with. Clients will be more likely to opt-in for marketing emails if they believe their data will not be sold on to spammers and that they will be able to opt out whenever they want to.

In addition, bulk mailers that do not send emails to people who don't want them or never asked for them have better relationships with ISPs and email services such as Gmail. That means their legitimate mails are reported as spam less often and have a better chance of getting through spam filters to the users inbox.

The most significant change to email marketing regulation introduced by the CPA is the mandatory compliance with an official "do not contact" list that will pre-emptively block direct marketing to consumers who put their names on the list. Also significant is the CPA's tighter standards for data collection, which make it mandatory to receive active (rather than passive) opt-in permission from consumers.

There is a need to differentiate between email subscription services (eg: news & finance update subscriptions) and direct email marketing. Email subscription services that do not fall within the CPA's definition of 'promotion' are not subject to regulations for direct email marketing under the CPA.

The lines between the two may not always be that clear. Another grey area is whether it is acceptable to attach marketing information to electronic bills for customers who have opted out of marketing emails.

Where companies have doubts, the rules they should apply include 'don't annoy the customer' and 'ask permission rather than forgiveness'. Email marketing is not just about getting your product offers in front of the consumer's eyeballs. It also important to provide a brand interaction that consumer's value and enjoy. That means avoiding any practices that will lead to spam complaints.

The company recommends asking all customers to opt-in before sending communications. Data sourced from list brokers must be thoroughly audited to ensure that one has permission to send commercial mail to consumers on the database. To conform to the Act, companies should provide consumers on an email database with an easy to use opt-out mechanism that reliably removes them from all direct communication channels and databases.

Marketers who are following good practices will have no problems complying with the CPA. Those that are not yet following these practices will find that following them leads to better customer relationships when they implement them.

The adoption of stricter legislation regulating email marketing in the US and Europe preceded a very strong growth curve in email marketing spending in these countries. Strong but sensible, regulation of electronic direct marketing leads to better quality email campaigns, which translates into increased success levels for marketers. Marketers should not fear these laws, but see them for the opportunity they are.