By John Shattock, The Marketing Coach – www.marketingcoach.co.nz
What’s this anti-spam law everyone is talking about, and how does it affect NSA members?
Like me, you will have received numerous emails in recent days from businesses asking you to confirm it is OK for them to stay in touch.
The phrase they use is something like: “The Unsolicited Electronics Messages Act 2007 requires us to make sure you still want to receive correspondence from us via email.”
You may be wondering whether you need to do this too.
Let’s get this straight. The Act does not require you to reconfirm everyone on your list. If you obtained permission originally, you do not need to do anything.
Even if you did not obtain permission, you may still not have to do anything.
If you have done business with the recipient previously, they have provided their email address to you, or requested information from you by email – then those situations come under what the Act calls “inferred consent”.
But if your email list includes people whose addresses you obtained by other means, then you could be asking for trouble by continuing to send them commercial emails. Those emails asking you to confirm it’s OK to keep in touch are seeking “express consent”, albiet somewhat belatedly.
For example, if you got my address from the NSA membership list and included me in your electronic mail-outs, you have neither “express” nor “inferred” consent and you are in breach of the Act.
There’s no need to worry about me. In my business I need to be a student of other people’s marketing. But others could get upset and complain.
On the website Internal Affairs has set up about the Act, a not-for-profit organisation is used as an example of Inferred Consent:
“Inferred consent is limited in its application. For example if people join a tennis club you can infer consent to send them a tennis newsletter, but you could not infer consent to send them an investment newsletter.”
How to get people to subscribe to your email list (even while you are speaking) is another story (or maybe even a seminar).
The other important requirements now required by law are: All email newsletters need to include your full contact details
You must have a working method for people to leave your list. This must operate for at least 30 days after emails are sent and “unsubscribe” requests must be actioned within 5 days.
Online resources:
