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A podcast for those who design, develop and run websites.

Boagworld is the blog of web strategist Paul Boag who lives in the heart of rural Dorset (hence the cows). He produces a weekly podcast with UX consultant Marcus Lillington on building and running websites. They also run the web design agency Headscape.

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Does your email marketing break the law? 10 hints to best practice

Posted in Marketing on: Wednesday, November 3, 2004 by Paul Boag

I found an excellent resource some time ago addressing the new legislation regarding email marketing. I suddenly remembered it today while listening to a lecture on the subject and thought I might post some information on it here.

The resource I am referring to is a fact sheet produced by Scottish Enterprise that can be downloaded in PDF format from their site.

Download the fact sheet now (PDF – 265kb)

The fact sheet largely discusses the EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic (DPEC) but has an excellent section right at the end referring to general best practice.

Best Practice in

Inform the user

If e-mail addresses are to be used for marketing purposes, this should be clearly stated at the point of collection.

The ability to opt-out

Once informed, the user should be able to refuse permission for their e-mail to be used for marketing purposes (i.e. opt-out).

Keep it relevant

If e-mail is to be sent to those with whom a customer relationship exists, the should be in reference to similar products and services.

Do not share email addresses without permission

If the e-mail addresses are to be shared with third parties, this should be clearly stated at the point of collection.

Do not harvest email addresses

E-mail addresses should not be harvested (e.g. copied from websites) and used for marketing purposes without the recipients’ knowledge.

Option to unsubscribe

Recipients should be able to refuse permission for further marketing messages to be sent to them at any time.

Do not hide identity

Your identity as the sender should never be disguised or concealed.

Do not hide the option to opt-out

In every communication, recipients must be given a simple and clear means of opting out from receiving e-mails.

Honour user requests

When an opt-out request is received it must be honoured, with the contact details ideally being "suppressed" rather than deleted.

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Additional Information

Produced by Headscape

Boagworld is produced by the web design agency Headscape founded by Marcus, Paul and Chris Scott. Headscape also has a number of other talented guys who blog. Check them out.

  • Craig Rowe is one of our amazing developers and writes some superb posts on everything from .net to AIR apps.

  • Ed Merritt is a Headscape designer who's blog contains examples of his work and a number of free Wordpress themes.

  • Dave McDermid is a Headscape developer who has an excellent blog. He blogs on everything from AJAX to security.

  • Rob Borley is one of our project managers and blogs regularly on client and project management issues.

  • Leigh Howells is our multimedia design guru (whatever one of those is). He blogs on a mixture of design and music.

Paul elsewhere

Paul just can't shut up. He publishes regular audioboos, has a personal blog and is addicted to twitter. He also writes and speaks regularly. Check out the most recent below: