If you live in Nigeria your government probably won’t take a whole lot of action if you decide to send unsolicited email with little regard for the recipients’ rights (or intelligence). However, if you live in Australia, or any of the other more progressive countries with stern privacy laws, the consequeneces of sending out bulk email can be severe, even if you think you’re doing the right thing (in one case a managing director of an infringing company was ordered to pay $1 million out of his own pocket).

People generally only want to receive email they’re expecting to get, so no matter how great you think your offer is, if you send an unnounced message to a bunch of people who aren’t waiting to receive it, it’s not going to go over very well. At best they’ll ignore you, at worst, they’ll report you to the authorities. The Australian government provides a handy online form for reporting spam and to their credit, they even provide a plugin for Outlook and Outlook Express, which means that if you send email people aren’t expecting to get, you are literally only one mouse-click away from being reported to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (other countries have similar systems in place).

If someone does lodge a complaint against you (everyone’s definition of spam is different, even people who opted in can change their mind, it happens) and it’s your first offence, expect to receive the following email from Alana Keynes, or one of her colleagues in the Australian Government (or a government near you).

The following message was passed onto me by the client who received it (we had nothing to do with it, I swear!) And remember, this is just for a first, seemingly innocent offence. Do it again and you could end up in court:

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To Whom It May Concern:

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is responsible for the investigation of complaints of alleged breaches of the Spam Act 2003.

This email is to inform you that ACMA has received a complaint from [the complaintants email address was here] alleging that a commercial electronic message (email), that did not meet the requirements of the Act, was sent on 1 July 2008 from [senders name went here] with the subject heading “Association Member Survey”.

Specifically, the complainant alleges that no consent to receive such messages was given.

The Act makes it an offence to send unsolicited commercial electronic messages with an Australian link. ‘Unsolicited’ refers to messages that are sent without the consent of the recipient.

The Act requires that senders of commercial electronic messages must include accurate identifying information about the organisation or person that authorised the sending of the message, and must include a functional unsubscribe facility.  All requests to unsubscribe must be actioned within five working days.

At this time ACMA would simply like to ensure that you and your staff are fully aware of the Act’s requirements. To assist in this, ACMA maintains extensive information regarding compliance at www.spam.acma.gov.au (click on ‘Understanding spam’ and ‘Ensuring that you don’t spam’).

However, please be aware that if ACMA receives further complaints about your activities, or other information that indicates non-compliance with the Act, we may initiate further investigative action.  This could include further inquiries into this complaint or a formal ACMA investigation as to whether a breach of the Act has occurred.

It is important that all senders of commercial electronic messages are fully aware of the requirements of the Act, as the penalties that can be imposed under the Act are substantial, with fines of up to $220,000 per day for a first offence for a business entity.

Please ensure that the complainant’s email address is removed from all electronic mailing lists immediately, and that all future electronic correspondence complies with the Act.

Please respond to this message to ensure it has been received by the correct recipient.

Regards

Alana Keynes
Compliance Officer
Anti-Spam Team
Australian Communications and Media Authority
1300 855 180

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Bottom line: Just because people are a member of an organisation, or accidentally left a box ticked on an online survey they filled out, doesn’t mean they want to hear from YOU. Don’t send anyone anything unless you know they specifically requested it or you’re wasting time, pissing people off and jousting with the law, none of which is good for your brand. My golden rule for sending commercial email messages is:

“Only send an email if you know the person would complain if they didn’t get it.”

Footnote: US marketing guru Seth Godin has an excellent email checklist you might like to consider before you send any email message, bulk, commercial, personal or otherwise. It’s well worth a read.

Tags: spam

This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 9:38 am and is filed under Email Marketing, Hot Tips, Online Marketing Mistakes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.