Viewing all posts categorized as 'Private Eye'

There really is a baby in that bath water.

I’ve never used that idiom before, but in this case, I feel compelled to use it in response to an article in BtoB Magazine that actually promotes the use of unsolicited commercial email (UCE). In the article, Gary Halliwell, CEO of NetProspex, says that “there’s nothing prohibiting a marketer from sending an e-mail to someone who hasn’t opted in. The recession has forced us to drop this etiquette.”

Everyone has a different definition of what spam is, yet I think we can all agree that at a baseline it starts with unsolicited commercial email — promotional messages sent to consumers who have not requested them. My feeling is that just because we are burdened by an economic recession right now does not give us license to abandon the principles of responsible, permission-based email marketing. By lowering our standards when the going gets tough, we risk losing our industry’s credibility with consumers altogether.

I’ll keep my underlying point here brief: PLEASE DON’T SEND SPAM! If you’re still new to email or striving for more education, please refer to these best practice guides which include recommendations and guidelines that the vast majority of the email industry follow:

• Direct Marketing Association US
• Direct Marketing Association UK
• Email Sender & Provider Coalition
• Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group

Last year on Data Privacy Day, I offered our readers a list of The Top 10 Things An Emailer Should Never Do. This year, I’m paying tribute to Data Privacy Day in a slightly different way — I’m asking that email marketing leaders take a few moments to consider these thought-provoking privacy topics for further consideration. Keep in mind, these are open-ended questions and don’t necessarily have one right or wrong answer.

Top Ten Email-Related Privacy Questions for 2010:

1. If you knew who, or how many, of your email subscribers were also Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or other social networking ‘friends’ or ‘followers’, how would you communicate with them differently?
2. Have you considered the potential synergy of using email behavioral tracking information to drive online advertising media buying efforts?
3. Are you tracking email acquisition sources or other user attributes to identify patterns and reduce recipient abuse complaints?
4. Will your users perceive a potential benefit or be turned off if you collect more demographic or lifestyle information via acquisition or preference center pages?
5. Is it time your privacy policy was updated?
6. Do you reference your data services providers (such as your ESP) in your privacy policy and indicate how subscriber and website visitor data is being tracked and used?  Email privacy@cheetahmail.com for a copy of a full compliance briefing guide on this topic.
7. Do you enable third party cookies to be used on your website for advertising purposes, and if so, is there a section in your privacy policy or elsewhere explaining how users can opt-out from receiving these cookies?  For more information on this topic, please refer to these cross-industry guidelines.
8. Have you ever thought about how email traffic drives your competitors’ website activity and how it could improve your own email relevance?  (Yes, this is a shameless plug for our sister company, Experian Hitwise, and it has little to do with privacy, but it’s still worth considering!)
9. Have you ever referenced or referred subscribers to the Privacy Policy or User Policy Guide of your ESP to provide educational information on how your ESP uses client data?
10. Do you know your company’s Chief Privacy Officer or other privacy affairs representative?  Isn’t it time you did?

For more information on Data Privacy Day, we encourage you to visit the official Data Privacy Day 2010 website.  To discuss any of the above questions or others you have about privacy in general, email privacy@cheetahmail.com.