Liquor chain Cellarmaster Wines has paid an infringement notice of $110,000 for its email marketing which the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has found to be in breach of the Spam Act.
According to the investigation by ACMA, Cellarmaster Wines were sending some promotional email marketing messages which did not have an opt-out facility. Some messages were also sent to customers who had previously opted out.
Whilst Cellarmaster Wines is not a customer of Vision6, their fine presents a timely reminder for all businesses about their own email marketing messages and to reflect on the measures that are in place to ensure your spam compliance.
So what exactly are your legal requirements when it comes to spam?
If your business uses any form of e-marketing, including email, SMS (text message), MMS (image-based text messages) or instant messaging, you must understand and meet the following three key requirements of the Spam Act (source: ACMA).
1. Consent – the message must be sent with the recipient’s consent. The recipient may give express consent, or under certain circumstances consent may be inferred from their conduct or an existing business or other relationships.
2. Identify – the message must contain accurate information about the person or organisation that authorised the sending of the message and how to contact them.
3. Unsubscribe – the message must contain a functional ‘unsubscribe’ facility to allow the recipient to opt out from receiving messages from that source in the future. Unsubscribe requests must be honoured within five working days.
How does Vision6 help you with spam compliance?
Vision6 provides a range of features that give peace of mind when it comes to your legal requirements with spam.
Firstly there is a double opt-in facility that allows you to capture and record express consent from your subscribers. This is what we recommend as best practice on the matter of consent.
Secondly, any email created in Vision6 will automatically contain your company name and address by default. So there’s no need for you to include additional identification details (unless you want to of course).
And finally, Vision6 includes an automated unsubscribe facility by default in all of your email messages.
A final note on spam
Everything we’ve spoken about above relates to your legal obligations around spam. But remember that this is just your bare minimum requirement.
I also recommend you focus on sending personalised content that is valuable, interesting and timely for your subscribers. After all, if you send email content that subscribers actually want to receive, then they are less likely to want to unsubscribe.
For more detailed tips and advice on how to use email marketing the right way for your business, subscribe to our blog by entering your email address in the box at the top of this page.
Find out more about compliance and data protection in our on demand webinar, Expert Series: How to Prepare for Tighter Data Protection Regulations.
