When it comes to the reputation of YOUR business, and the goodwill that a positive reputation generates, there are several things you should think about when formulating your e-marketing plan.
The Spam Act is more than just a list of obligations placed on businesses that send commercial electronic messages. In fact, the Spam Act is a great starting place for getting your e-marketing right because its purpose is to ensure confidence in electronic messages as a marketing method. Consider, as an example, the potential benefits you can gain from working the three main principles of the Spam Act into your e-marketing processes:
Consent
Focusing your marketing on people who have expressed a desire to hear from you can save you a lot of hassle in the long run. While your marketing approach may allow you to target a large number of electronic addresses (email or mobile phone) for minimal cost, think about the costs associated with dealing with recipients that have never heard of you or aren’t interested in your products.
Do you want to waste your time dealing with phone calls or emails from annoyed people? Have you considered how your reputation will be impacted when these people tell their friends about their experience?
Do you ‘know’ that the people on your list gave consent to receive messages from your business, or are you taking someone else’s word for it? Remember, you will be held responsible if you get this wrong.
Below are comments from some of the complaints the ACMA has received in the first half of 2011:
I purchased a product from their website, however I chose not to subscribe to the email notification of deals. This instruction was not followed and I have received unrequested emails everyday since.
Unsolicited promotional email claims that I have registered to receive it, which I have not. The email address to which it has been sent is an alias only, and is never used for sending emails or for registering with such sites. It has clearly been trawled from our website.
I have never purchased from this company. Furthermore, when attempting to unsubscribe using the link provided, it requests that I "create an account". This is completely unacceptable!
Sender ID
We’ve already touched briefly on some of the suspicions consumers have about messages received via email or SMS. If your message doesn’t clearly identify who you are and how you can be contacted (and perhaps provide some further corporate information), there is a much greater chance that your message will be seen as ‘dodgy’ by the recipient (which can’t be good for your reputation) and be deleted (or reported to the ACMA) without a second look. And even if you include the name of your business, if the recipient doesn’t know who you are or recognise the name, it makes it that much harder to establish that you are on the level.
So, even if a consumer takes the time to look at your offer, what are the chances of someone buying from you if they don’t know who you are?
You should also consider whether the name on the message is the same as the business name the customer may have dealt with in the past? If your business happens to have multiple trading names, or has recently changed its name, it may be worth mentioning this.
Below are comments from some of the complaints the ACMA has received in the first half of 2011:
I have never heard of this company yet they have sent me advertising material. While it offers an unsubscribe link, I should not have to unsubscribe from something I never subscribed to.
I received an unsolicited commercial email from this business which I have no prior knowledge of, or contact with.This appears to be a genuine business, but their staff have made no effort to demonstrate that it had either my express consent or my inferred consent to send me unsolicited commercial email. I can only assume that their business model is based on purchasing email addresses from a bulk email address supplier and then sending their email to those addresses.If this isn't spam, I don't know what is.
There is no information in the email other than the website. When I asked for more details I was refused.
Unsubscribe
A question you should ask yourself when developing your e-marketing approach is whether you really want to market to someone that isn’t interested in your product? Once a person has attempted to unsubscribe, sending them more messages won’t win them over; it will ruin your reputation with that person, and anyone else they tell about it – and they STILL won’t buy anything from you.
And what about those people who don’t have a need for your products now, but may do in the future? If your unsubscribe process is clear, simple and effective, there is a good chance they will come back to your business in the future. Of course, if your unsubscribe process is convoluted, ineffective, or just plain non-existent, you’ve ensured they won’t ever buy from you – and neither will their friends.
Below are comments from some of the complaints the ACMA has received in the first half of 2011:
I signed up to a discount deals provider and then decided that I wanted to unsubscribe. I have unsubscribed two or 3 times now but they still keep sending me piles of emails. I just want them to stop.
The unsubscribe link is not effective. There’s no clear way shown how to unsubscribe. I contacted customer service who responded saying it would take up to a week to remove our email address. Not good enough!
I am still receiving emails despite using the "Unsubscribe" process on 3 occasions and having a phone call with them where they supposedly removed my email address from all records. I now consider these emails to be unsolicited.
