Bill C-28 Legislation for Email Marketers

So you think that email marketing in the B2B sphere is going to be curtailed by Bill C-28, thankfully it won't be. Here is the pertinent information facts how this will effect business marketers.

Below are the relevant sections of the government of Canada's website, which are very reasonable.

Legitimate businesses that use email to market their products to Canadians should not be negatively impacted by this legislation. The consent regime is based on existing marketplace best practices and uses a consumer opt-in approach, which stipulates that businesses must get express consent or implied consent prior to sending commercial electronic messages. Apart from express consent, consent to receive commercial messages is implied:

1. where an existing business relationship exists with a customer or client, or
2. the electronic messages are relevant to the recipient's business, role, function or duties, and the electronic address has been conspicuously published or disclosed, without a statement that the person does not wish to receive unsolicited commercial electronic messages.

The Act does not prohibit the legitimate collection and compiling of lists of email addresses, provided the activity follows the rules regarding consent in the legislation and other principles that apply within federal and provincial privacy laws. Federal privacy legislation, the
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), sets out the rules for the collection, use and disclosure of such personal information, and these continue to apply under the new Act. Under PIPEDA, an organization may not collect personal information without the knowledge or consent of an individual unless the information is publicly available (according to regulations). In addition, the organization must state the purpose of the collection of that information.

Canadian Opt In Email Lists

Email marketing has changed a lot since the boom of email marketing around the turn of the century. CPM's or Cost Per Thousands were ranging in the 200 to 350 range per thousand. Marketers were rushing to test this method of marketing that drastically reduced their costs and offered a new potential revenue stream of online shoppers who had previously qualified themselves. Unfortunately these valuations proved to be unrealistic and did not provide quality return on investment. As a result, publishers have had to bring down the cpm and in many cases drop it all together. Turning to CPA(Cost Per Acquisition) programs which reward publishers based on the actual success of their program. Email marketing has become cheaper and easier to test.

West List Co. welcomes Sheikh Sadi Khan

West List Co. is happy to welcome Sheikh Sadi Khan to our group. Sadi brings an international flavour to WLC. He has a Masters Degree in Computer Applications from Stamford University in Bangladesh. He will be responsible for Data fulfillment, Data Enhancement and everything IT related.

Canada Post ... The Problem with ...

Okay, so here is an open letter to the people at Canada Post regarding there lack of forethought on growing their business. Many DM efforts have used the unaddressed ad model, because why bother use a list that Canada Post doesn't sell? Opening because it drastically increases the open rate over unaddressed add mail - however, the cost savings is so minimal on the process. 22 cents for unaddressed, compared with addressed at 46 Cents, but the open/response rate for a quality mail piece is drastically higher for the latter.
Canada Post, run by the Government, got the funny idea that they could make more money acting as the list broker. By offering postal code drops, you no longer need a targeted list? Right? NO! Postal Code mailers provide DMers some targetability, but the lack of personalization and demographic data segmentation has put a huge cut into response rates. The sad thing being, by doing this - Canada Post has bitten the hand that feeds it!

The Rise of integrated Digital Data Media

As marketers start to integrate all of their programs and channel data into a better more rich understanding of who their customers are, platforms will provide greater flexibility. Currently companies like 8020 Solutions in Toronto and ExactTarget.com have the ability to give marketers more tools and avenues for developing more loyal customers. As we learn the differences of each customer, we will market to them based on those preferences. The utilization of SMS, EMail, Loyalty, Coupons and more will provide so many data points, consumer response sky rocket.

Industry Leader Responsibility - Step up already

This mission statement is aimed at the Leading List Brokerages in the Direct Marketing world. In recent years we have heard and seen unethical practices revolving around list managers calling mailers direct to offer better net rates, lower commissions, essentially cheaper prices if they bring their orders direct. This unfortunately devalues the entire industry and hurts the industry. My blog is meant to change the view that the rest of the industry is the enemy, it should not be this adversarial. It is one thing to compete, but using information that is provided as part of the purchasing process to go direct to a client is unethical/corrupt.

The Large players in the industry should be encouraging new list brokers to become educated and drive more business to direct mail. The biggest challenge with the direct mail method is if it isn't done properly the marketer never gives it another try. Especially with so many other DM and Digital Marketing methods that can be easily quantified. When a seasoned list broker knows which lists to recommend the whole industry benefits. Stealing business from that list broker is a short sided practice.

Can Spam Wording - Disclaimer

Hi All,

I just received an unsolicited email and was intrigued by the bottom of the email. It gave a very clear disclaimer about Can Spam Laws. I thought you might find this of interest.

"This is an advertisement and a promotional mail strictly on the guidelines of CAN-SPAM act of 2003 . We have clearly mentioned the source mail-id of this mail, also clearly mentioned the subject lines and they are in no way misleading in any form. We have found your mail address through our own efforts on the web search and not through any illegal way. If you find this mail unsolicited, please reply with "Remove" in the subject line and we will take care that you do not receive any further promotional mail."