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B2B email spam laws

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A refresher for on the rules around sending email (and SMS) to prospects.

New Zealand privacy and email marketing

With regard to the NZ Privacy Act 2017 and updated 2020.

Top level obligations

  • Be transparent. Don’t hide anything.
  • Make sure you have consent.
  • Always give people the opportunity to opt-out or unsubscribe.

Deemed consent is what most B2B marketing would be using for email marketing.

[Quote from article linked above]

However, the area of ‘deemed’ consent is still an area open to interpretation in New Zealand. What was Keith’s advice on this?

“In New Zealand, if you deem your service or product is relevant to the person whose data you’ve collected (or whose contact information is publicly available), then you have permission to send them communications as long as this is covered in your Privacy Policy.” However Keith pointed out that this is actually a requirement of the UEM Act, not the Privacy Act.

BUT you first need a strong privacy policy on your business website.

Here’s a sample NZ privacy policy (and one from Australia).

USA and Canada and GDPR (Europe)

These jurisdictions have different rules – but many of the underlying principles are similar.

Hope that’s useful for everyone.

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spam tin as a metaphor for bad email

Overcoming a spam label by MailChimp

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One of my clients did something ill-advised and their account got flagged by MailChimp as  spammer.

Goodness that’s a tough call and the restrictions placed on the account are significant.

The good news is that I succeeded in untangling the situation and restoring the account.  BUT it would have been better never to have got into that situation in the first place.

And so if you’re tempted to re-use an old mailing list, don’t.  Digging out old lists from a few years ago who haven’t been mailed and who haven’t had a history on your account is a big risk.  If your email service provider gets a higher than normal bounce or spam reporting rate, it will be noticed.  I think ISPs are very vigilant at this time.

If you do want to re-use an old list, I suggest you create a separate audience and after the first mail-out has identified unsubscribes and bounces, then later merge it into your main audience so it doesn’t contaminate your good standing.

Good mailing list hygiene

Something to do today – run through your email list and check off whether you have everything in place to enable personalisation.  Correct first name, last name, company name?  No capitals? Can you deduce recipients’ names from their email address e.g. fred@xyz.com

Now start planning out your segmentation.  Here are three easy segments for you to set up.

  • Customers
  • Prospects
  • Industry groups

Focus on retention

For most direct marketing at these times, I recommend retention rather than acquisition.  It’s easier to keep than acquire a new customer.

Three quick campaigns you can run

  • Repurchases – a suitable date after the last event
  • Best sellers – your top 20% of sales by product
  • Referrals and testimonials – ask your customer to do ONE thing for you

Untangle a spam label by Mailchimp

 

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