by Rosemary Smith, Opt4

Good email marketing practice involves constant care regarding the hygiene of data being used. From a legal point of view, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 [PECR] clearly state that email addresses used in marketing promotions must be carefully managed. From a commercial point of view, the impact of bad data on any campaign can be disastrous.

Managing in-house email lists

E-marketers should take care that internal lists are kept clean. It is worth concentrating on the following areas:

• Maintaining in-house suppression lists (never delete an individual’s email address or you will not be able to fulfil the requirements of suppressing messages in the future when using rented data which may contain the address).
• Developing permission management systems which are able to cope with the requirement for an individual to withdraw (or add) permission at will.
• Separating contact details according to the type of permission the individual has given or withheld

The age of data and how recent the contact/last open was collected should also be a key factor when deciding who to email.

There is no hard and fast rule with regard to the frequency of contact. A great deal depends on the relationship with the individual and the content being delivered. If there is a genuine “news” element, as well as marketing content, the acceptable frequency will be higher. Promises made at the time of collection (e.g. “We will only send you messages once a month”) will limit the frequency but may encourage higher opt-in levels. If, however, you break these promises, you can expect unsubscribe rates to go up.

Third party email lists

When using third party email data, only host mailing arrangements are regarded as best practice where the data owner broadcasts the email content to the file on behalf of the advertiser. Before attempting to enter into a host mailing agreement email marketers must be sure that the email addresses being targeted have been obtained with positive consent (unless the audience is B2B when opt-out is sometimes viable).

The Information Commissioner’s Office [ICO] has issued guidance which includes a stark warning to marketers that they will be held responsible as the “instigators” of email campaigns if the data they use proves to have been collected unfairly. The Advertising Standards Authority has been similarly unsympathetic to marketers who have been sold an email list that hasn’t been collected properly, stating that it is the client’s responsibility to check the provenance of the data they are using.

The DMA Email Best Practice Guidelines suggests a checklist that can be used to ensure that the email addresses have been collected in compliance with PECR.

• How and when was the list built?
• What data protection notices and privacy policies were in place at the point of data collection?
• What indications were given by individuals, at the point of their email address being supplied, as to their preferences in respect of future email marketing directed to them?
• How have “unsubscribe” requests, received since use of the list started, been processed and the relevant addresses suppressed?
• Has the Data Controller been otherwise legally compliant as regards the collection and subsequent use of the email addresses?

Other rules that need to be met when sending third-party messages relate to: the content of messages; the identification of the sender and/or the user in the “from” box and a suitably clear subject line identifying the message as a commercial communication.

As rules in other European countries (and, indeed, certain US States that have adopted email regulations of their own) vary considerably, marketers should always take relevant legal advice before undertaking international email/SMS campaigns.

Appending data

Commercial services have been developed to append email data from external opt-in sources to physical addresses or to add “lifestyle” data to personal data which includes an email address.

In the first case, the recipient of an email or mobile message may be surprised or even angered to know you have their email address. Whereas the opt-in for third-party use has been obtained by the data supplier, the individual may have actively chosen to withhold their email or mobile details from your company. For this reason, the DMA Email Best Practice Guidelines urge caution and the Information Commissioner’s advice suggests that a first message to the individual should include an opt-in for further use.

The value of good email data

Email addresses which have been gathered without the relevant permissions to make their use legal are worthless. Many businesses have been caught out by poor practice and badly written fair collection notices; some have applied the wrong levels of permission (opt-out instead of opt-in for example) or “colonized” email addresses acquired in viral promotions (friends can give you names and email addresses but they can’t give you consent).

These are costly mistakes when you consider the value of email addresses to your organisation. The DMA’s Email Benchmarking research, for example puts the average figure at £9 per email.

Maintaining the quality of email data as well as gaining and keeping permission to market will become more important. Using poor quality data will leave companies counting the cost opt-outs and running the risk of being branded spammers.