The law governing email marketing:
Email Marketing Law
Email marketing can be very useful, especially for small businesses because it is a low-cost
way of potentially reaching a lot of customers.
However, spam (the unsolicited sending of emails) and legislation is in place to deal with
email marketing.
The Law
In May 2018, the former Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) was replaced with
the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).
Broadly, GDPR is an EU regulation that applies to all EEA member states, including the UK
(regardless of Brexit) and DPA 2018 is the UK data protection law that mirrors the majority
of the GDPR requirements.
GDPR applies to anyone processing personal data. The definition of personal data is wider
than under the DPA 1998 and includes data held manually as well as electronically.
The
GDPR has the same key principles as the DPA 1998, There are, however, changes and additional
requirements that the GDPR imposes. An 'accountability' principle has been introduced, as
have higher standards for consent as a legal basis for data processing. Individuals have
been given more rights, including the right to be informed, to access data, to object, and
to restrict data processing, as well as the right to data portability and the right to be
forgotten.
Broadly, the legislation means that consumers must have opted-in to receive emails from you
before you are able to send marketing emails to them. If collecting email details on your
website you should have a privacy policy.
The main rules are as follows...
- The sender of the email must not hide their identity and must provide a valid address for the opt-out of future emails.
- The sender must not send marketing emails without the recipient’s prior consent to do so. The consent should be in the form of an opt-in or an extremely explicit opt-out. The law does waiver when it comes to contact details collected through the course of a sale or in sale negotiations whether those details can also be used for marketing purposes. In these circumstances, emails can be sent if emails relate to similar products or services and when the address was collected the recipient was given the opportunity to opt-out.
Breaking the law is serious and can result in substantial penalty charges being imposed.
Buying Email Lists
There are many providers of email lists where you can select potential
customer email data for sending of emails to them. Such lists can also provide other
useful marketing data.
It is important to ensure that the data you purchase has been acquired in accordance
with the law. You should check how the data was collected and if consent was given by
the individual. If not, not only is the law being broken but the list is probably also a
waste of money.
SMS Marketing
The same form of rules applies to those businesses who carry out SMS marketing.
How We Can Help You
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