Email marketing and unsubscribes

Johannesburg – Email marketing, easily the two most hated words in the marketing media arsenal. And love it or hate it, it’s not going away any time soon.

“Probably the thing that drives most email marketing recipients insane,” says Chemory Gunko, MD of Dsignhaus, “is the amount of spam and phishing mailers that arrive unannounced in their inboxes.”

Add to this the general public confusion over SA email legislation, and you have enough of a maelstrom to make any marketer want to run for the hills.

“The fact is,” says Gunko, “SA email legislation dictates two things: an opt-out functionality and the Do Not Contact Me List.”

Opt-out pretty much speaks for itself: any marketer who sends you email marketing, has to give you a place where you can easily unsubscribe from their list, and has to honour your request to unsubscribe from the list.

The Do Not Contact Me List, otherwise known as the National Opt-Out Registry, is a whole different kettle of fish entirely.

This registry, operated by the DMA (Direct Marketing Association), is an opted-in database of people who have elected to not receive any marketing information from any marketer in South Africa. While this seems like a good idea in principle, the facts themselves are very different.

To begin with, the registry is owned and managed by the Direct Marketing Association, which means that you have to be a registered and paid-up member to access the list, and then check it against your own list.

“This is often beyond the means of many small business owners and agencies, who are desperately trying to cut costs, and see email marketing as an affordable and effective way to reach current and potential clients,” Gunko remarks.

Even scarier is what actually happens to the data once you’ve joined a list like the National Opt-Out Registry.

“The mistake that many people make is thinking that unsubscribing to a list, or even on the National Opt-Out Registry, means that their information will no longer be out there,” Gunko remarks. “The opposite is in fact true.”

In order to ensure that information is not inadvertently sent to people who have unsubscribed, you have to keep all the information of the people who have unsubscribed, firstly to ensure that you don’t send to them inadvertently, and secondly to prevent them from being sourced as a record and added to your current sending list.

“This gets especially hairy when you consider that the National Opt-Out Registry is mainly categorised by SA ID numbers, and not email addresses or telephone numbers,” says Gunko.

“Effectively it means that every potential business or agency that may possibly send email marketing to you has to keep a copy of your ID number on record, in order to comply with legislation.”

This is enough to make many people squirm in their seats, and rightly so, because people can access a bunch of information on you with your ID number and contact details. This though, isn’t nearly as scary as the fact that the Dept. of Home Affairs is already selling databases with your ID number on, as well as databases containing your fingerprints.

Gunko concludes, “Whether you like it or not, lists, databases, and people marketing to you is never going to go away.”

“The safest thing you can do is to understand how to properly use your email software, and mitigate the risks that come from unsavoury senders.”

A note to the editor

Dsignhaus is a B2B Marketing Services Agency with in-depth and specialist knowledge in the field of email marketing.

Submission & EnquiriesChemory GunkoMD & Creative DirectorDsignhaus (Pty) LtdTel: 011 025 4165Cell: 082 224 2357Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Web: www.dsignhaus.co.za

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