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Breaking the Spam and Privacy Law?

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Mention ‘law’ and it puts most of on the back foot and in defence mode. We immediately ask: What have I done wrong?

Well as marketers there are so many laws now that being defensive is understandable. It’s not like we want to break the law, we are after all law abiding citizens.

However it’s not always possible to be complaint with this law and that law especially when compliance often comes down to interpretation of the legislation.

So what laws do we need to comply with and how can we continue to succeed as marketers?

Spam Law

Your local country’s Spam law is a must comply for your business and if you’re an independent marketer, encourage your clients to put the necessary features in place to manage customer data capture and communication.

In New Zealand, the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 has been around for nine years yet there are small business getting the wrong advice from website developers during the website creation, on how to meet it’s requirements.

Just last week, on a local website, there was an invitation to join their mailing list and it was non-compliant, i.e. it didn’t have the double opt-in process. The set up was also open to bot spam. Essentially, anyone, real or otherwise, could add email addresses and they’d automatically be on the mailing list – which is a no-no.

Double Opt-In

The double opt-in process requires the action of accepting the email address on the webform on the website, then the ESP (email service provider) automatically sends an activation link within an email to the said email address.

The owner of the email address (the subscriber) then needs to click on the activation link to join the business’s email marketing list. This action, confirms the subscriber is a real person and more importantly it was that person whom requested to join the business’s email list.

If you’re not sure if your business is compliant, read the rules again and take action. Here is our Anti-SPAM Compliance NZ category with lots of articles on the spam laws.

Privacy Law

In an earlier post we covered this new law that’s less than a year away. Here is the article: Are you ready for the new Privacy Act? While there’s still time to get your house in order so to speak, it’s worth working on your systems for collection personal customer data.

There’s been no shortage of media attention to the EU’s privacy law – the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and countries are revising their respective law too so while New Zealand is following suit albeit later, there’s no room for ignorance and the time to act is now.

Succeed As Marketers

Keeping one eye on how we capture personal data and communicate is a given as a marketer however it’s not our only focus, we do need to success for our business and our clients. In our next blog post will offer up tips on how to focus on taking the action that works every time. 101 laws that will keep push through the noise and improve engagement and conversion.

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