Email Marketing… Keeping on the Right Side of The Law

If you are new to email marketing you may not know there are rules and regulations set out to help you and your customers. The most common question I get asked is who can I send email marketing to and what permission do I need?

Permission
There are two kinds of permission. Implied permission and express permission. Implied permission is a little loose and covers anybody who you have an existing business relationship with. Express permission is everyone who has directly given you permission by opting in or subscribing either online or in-store.

Address
You must clearly include a valid postal address for your business in your email campaigns. This can be your street address, a postbox or a registered commercial mail-receiving company that your business uses.

Frequency
There are no legal rules of engagement, this comes down to common courtesy. Think how often you like to receive emails from a company and what type of business they run. For example… a supermarket marketing email can acts a weekly reminder to do your online shopping but another business thanking you for your visit then promoting their products on day 1, day 3 and day 5 may become a bit much.

Opt-Out
Let recipients opt-out easily. You should provide a link somewhere in the email for users to opt-out easily.

Identify
Clearly identify that your message is an advertisement. E.g. if there is an offer state what the offer is.

Misleading
Don’t use misleading header information. This specifically applies to: From name, subject line and reply-to address. Email marketing laws stipulate that you must not include incorrect or misleading information in these fields to try to trick people into opening your email campaigns.

New law
New legislation from the General Data Protection Regulation will come in to force from 25th May 2018. It will require your business to take extra measures to ensure customer data is kept safe and used properly. More info >

More guidance

• .Gov on the law in terms of advertising and marketing: Direct Marketing > 
• Electronic Email marketing: ICO on Email Marketing >
• Your email marketing and anti-spam law: Law Donut on Email Marketing >​