Why do you need a 'data hygiene policy'?
What information should you provide when you capture an email address?
How do you know which email lists are OK to rent?
These are just a few of the issues addressed by the DMA's recently-published email-marketing "Best Practice Guidelines", developed in collaboration with many of the UK's leading proponents of the email marketing industry including the Information Commission, LINX and DMA members.
The purpose of the Guidelines is to help marketers using this highly effective marketing medium to achieve the higher goal of 'Best Practice' by:
- helping to stimulate the positive development of email as an effective marketing medium;
- reinforcing the key legislative issues of which clients should be aware;
- sharing examples and practical advice in terms of how clients can maximise their results from using this medium;
- providing practical advice about complying with working practices and standards of the Internet industry.
In so doing, we hope to help raise standards within this industry and combat the increasing prevalence of spam.
The Guidelines were started in 2001 in the form of the Email Marketing Association (eMMA) Charter. That Charter was used successfully to lobby the EU during the formulation of the recently adopted Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. The following year eMMA merged with the DMA and the work was continued by the Email Marketing Council (EMC) within an active working hub.
Looking to the future, it is difficult to believe that electronic communication will not form a critical role in the communication between organisations and their stakeholders. Therefore it is only a matter of time before email becomes a mainstream media. It is the DMA's hope that these Guidelines will provide a framework to help the UK industry grow in the most responsible way.