Email Marketing - What you need to know about permission

By far the most important aspect of email marketing is the concept of permission. It is the only thing separating you and the spammers of this world.

Just because people publish their email address does not mean they want to hear from you and getting permission is so important, because not only will you give your brand a negative image you could also find yourself on the wrong end of the law.

Our definition of spam is:

Spam is any email sent to someone who has not given you their direct permission to contact them on the topic of the email.

As permission is a word open to interpretation here are some specific scenarios so it is clear what does and does not constitute permission.

Permission you MUST have

You should only email subscribers who have:

• Opted in via your website
  This could be through a newsletter subscribe form, during signup for your ecommerce website or ticking a box on a contact form. You must clearly explain that if the person ticks the box you will contact them by email and you must not have the box checked by default.
• Completed a paper form and ticked the wanted to be emailed
  If someone completes a paper form like an enquiry form or survey you can only contact them if the form explains that they would be contacted by email AND they ticked a box indicating they would be contacted.
• Given you their business card
  If you are given a business card at a networking event you must explicitly ask for permission to add the person to your list before you can contact them. If you are exhibiting at a business fair and have a business card box there must be a sign indicating people will be contacted by email.
• Purchased from you in the last 2 years
  By buying from you they have provided their permission implicitly.

This DOES NOT equate to permission

Really anything outside the examples above does not equal permission, but here are some examples of how you can really harm your brand.

• You obtained the email addresses from a third party
  You may have purchased a list, bought a competitor's customer list after they closed or where given the list by a partner but those people never gave YOU permission to email them and they will consider any emails spam.
• You copy and pasted the addresses from the internet
  We get between 10 and 20 of these emails a day because we operate a franchise as well as Creative Hub and our email address is on the printing.com website. Everything from printers to translating documents, to IT support goes straight into our junk emails without reading a single one. Just because people publish their email address does not mean they want to hear from you and they will consider any emails as spam.
• You have not emailed someone for more than 2 years
  Permission does not age well. Even if they did give you permission from one of our above examples, they will not remember giving it to you. If you have not sent an email to the address in the last 2 years, you cant start now.

Permission guidelines handout

To help you we have a print out and keep sheet that covers:

• Why permission is necessary
• Who it is OK to email
• Who it is not OK to email

Of course if you would like more information on email marketing or more about permission you can contact our team for advice.