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The
EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive will
become law on October 31st and will be backed up with
UK legislation on December 11th that will make Spam a
criminal offence. You will only be able to send email
and SMS communications to customers if you have prior
consent.
To most marketers it won’t mean any major differences as permission based opt-in marketing methods have become standard for many years in the UK. However to ensure that you don’t get tripped up by this new legislation we have produced a short guide for you. Legislation main points
Sourcing lists The list rental market is likely to change. There are many lists in the market that sell themselves as opt-in but on closer inspection are clearly opt-out. If you rent a list that is an opt-out list then generally you are likely to be the one to find themselves in hot water, not the list broker. A general set of questions you should ask your broker is:
Not only would you be breaking the law with these opt-out lists you will also get a poor response. Opt-in lists are full of recipients who want to receive your emails – all current research supports this argument. Building your house list When building your list ensure you carry out the following procedures:
The CAP Code Although this legislation gives you the opportunity to continue to market corporate customers on an opt-out basis, this still goes against the CAP Code which states that all recipients must have opted-in to digital communications. It is expected that the CAP Code will be changed but it is still something to bear in mind. The following link provides a comprehensive account of the new laws with further information on areas such as enforcement and gaps that have been identified in the legislation. http://www.marketinglaw.co.uk/Searchresult.asp?Article=894 Summary Our advice is simple – permission based marketing is proven to be more effective than opt-out marketing. Spend your time building a list of people who want to be on that list – whether that is through telemarketing, direct mail, your website or renting an email list. Give your customers real value in your newsletters and emails – and give them what they want. |



