In case you didn’t know it, January 28 was Data Privacy Day, celebrated in 29 countries worldwide! While we weren’t able to procure any Rick Astley appearances or even a severely miscalculated power slide by Bruce Springsteen, we did manage to check in with our resident privacy and compliance expert, Ben Isaacson. Below, Ben I. gives a quick run-down on the things that the truly responsible email marketers among us should never, ever, ever do!

Top 10 Things Responsible Email Marketers Should NEVER Do:

1. Never send an email to recipients who have complained and ask them, “Why did you press the spam button…I thought you liked our stuff?”
2. Never personalize emails by casually dropping Big Brother-ish web analytics data; “Since you opened and clicked through 4 of the last 6 emails, we thought you’d like this offer.”
3. Never further personalize emails by saying, “We saw you shopped for 3 hours the other night for this exact item, so here it is!” 
4. Never require customers to register (or login) before they can unsubscribe from your list.
5. If you append Experian INSOURCE® (or other) demographic profiles, never over-share non-personally identified information; “Since you are a single male over 35 who loves dogs, we thought you’d also love this.” 
6. Never share email lists with partners.
7. Never embed registration forms in emails.
8. Never tell users they must reconfirm their list subscription by clicking through and providing all of their personal information. 
9. Never use Refer-A-Friend technology to automatically add forwarded friends to your email list.
10. Never mail your unsubscribed recipients and say; “We know you unsubscribed, but our Email Service Provider told us it was OK to keep mailing you!”  :-)

Happy (Belated) Data Privacy Day!

What sets fashion-concious consumers apart from all the rest? As you may expect, many of them rely on the media to learn about next season’s trends and to start planning their shopping lists. Experian Simmons recently conducted a study to learn more about this unique, fashion-saavy group, taking a closer look at the key behaviors and traits of those consumers who use fashion magazines to help them determine what clothes to buy.

Here are a few key findings:

• Those residing in the West and Northeast are more likely than the average adult to consult fashion magazines to help them decide the clothes they buy.
• Most of their online activity consists of shopping, followed by gathering information for shopping, instant messaging, airline/car/hotel info or reservations, and digital imaging/photo albums.

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Looking back on the Super Bowl advertising, I picked up on one trend that bears mentioning to all you emailers out there.

Yes, I too noted the bizarre juxtaposition of depression-fueled Cash4Gold going head-to-head against perennial powerhouses like Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch. But more interestingly to me, I also saw some interesting multi-channel promotion with Audi’s email campaigns promoting their in-game advertisement. An advertisement promoting an advertisement? Existential questions aside, it’s a fairly interesting tactic.

Audi sent two mailings in the run-up to the big game, with the first going out on Jan. 22nd and the second on Jan. 27th (10 and 5 days before the game, respectively). While neither mailing gave away the commercial’s big surprise – that Jason Statham, the actor from The Transporter films, reprises a similar role for Audi’s big ad – they did provide some background information for their email subscriber base. In that sense, it’s a pretty cool idea; you give your most hardcore followers some “insider info” that they’ll use to evangelize your brand on their own. Audi even gave their email subscribers web access to the ad a full day before it aired live, and harnessed viral power by allowing users to forward the hidden link to their friends.

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