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for email marketers
DMA rules to separate good guys from spamsters
By Marty Beard
In the coming and going of internet fads, direct email marketing seems to hold the greatest untapped promise, at least according to some new media seers.
But email marketing has a huge problem, and that's spam, the unwanted and often untraceable email pitches hawking everything from herbal Viagra for women to cheapo second mortgages.
All of this raises a question, and certainly a worry for legitimate direct marketers: Will greed kill the great goose of email marketing, with all of its promise?
The Direct Marketing Association hopes not, and in an effort to discourage some of the more offensive email schemes, it has put out guidelines for its members to follow.
The aim is to help consumers more easily distinguish legitimate email solicitations from the stream of junk solicitations that seems to grow with each passing month.
"What we’ve done here is codify what are essentially the standard business practices of reputable marketers," says Patricia Faley, vice president of ethics and consumer affairs at the DMA.
The DMA rules most certainly won’t spell the end of unwanted emails. But they will clarify standards for reputable email marketers, establishing rules for protecting consumer privacy and security.
There are two parts to the new DMA guidelines, one set governing email solicitations and another governing online privacy policies.
Under the rules, an email solicitation must disclose the marketer’s identity and have a clear and straightforward subject line.
Additionally marketers must furnish detailed contact information allowing a recipient to opt out of a list and also to opt to keep his or her name from being added to other lists.
"They get two opt-outs in every email--an opt-out from that company, as in ‘I don’t want to hear from you again,’ plus an opt-out from distributing their name to third parties, which is really what consumers most care about," Faley says.
Also, DMA members must display a physical address either in their emails or on their web sites. The thinking is that offering a physical address helps establish a better rapport with consumers, who are more likely to trust a company they could conceivably visit if they wanted to complain in person.
"It gives consumers a way to know exactly who the marketer is, and they get to know exactly the clear purpose of the email," Faley says.
Consumers are also given the option of having their names added to the association's Email Preference Service. If a given consumer puts his or her name on the Email Preference Service, DMA members must remove that name from their lists and stop further prospecting.
"It really gives consumers a basis for trust, a sense of control, and an ability to control the emails that they get from reputable marketers," Faley says.
In addition, DMA members will be asked to display their privacy practices on their web sites and be clear about the type of personal information they’re using and how. Along those lines, direct email marketers will have to keep consumer data secure.
They’ll be required to adhere to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, meaning that if they target children ages 13 or younger, there are additional steps to take, such as making sure they have parental permission to collect data.
DMA members who violate the guidelines will be expelled from the organization.
As commercial email messages pile up, some sort of regulations are clearly in order. An August 2001 report from Forrester Research showed that in 2000 half of online consumers considered email a good way to learn about new products and promotions. But that percentage slipped to 38 percent a year later.
But rules or no rules, email messages will stack up in consumers’ in-boxes. Spending on email marketing will hit $9.4 billion in 2006, up from $1 billion in 2001, according to Jupiter Media Metrix data. In 2006, the average user will receive 1,400 spam messages.
"The spam artists are people who don’t want others to know who they are or where they are, and they don’t want to give people the opportunity to opt out," Faley says.
"So it’s going to be pretty easy for consumers to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys."
February 8, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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