3 February 2010
Email marketing is fast becoming the way that companies contact their clients, customers and subscribers to let them know what's happening. It's cheap, quick and funky to use this type of communication, but what permissions do you need to keep within the law?

First of all, let’s clarify what spam is, and then what kind of permission you will need to use email marketing safely. What is spam? and how do you avoid it?

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.

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 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 explicitly asked for permission to add them to your list, 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 about the specific topic.

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, but here are some examples to make sure it’s 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 legitimately.

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.
If you need any advice don't hesitate to contact us.