8 out of every 10 email messages are spam, according to the architects of The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 in New Zealand. Unfortunately I’d say 99% of that spam comes from outside NZ.

But local businesses can be at fault too  – opening themselves up to not just prosecution, but also ridicule from the very people they were trying to attract. This week a local sign company received just that when they sent out an unsolicited email to Christchurch designers.

According to this Act, spam is any correspondence that is unsolicited, commercial and sent via the internet or by text. Faxes and phone calls are not covered by the Act.

There are 3 steps to compliance:

1. Must have consent, of which there are also 3 types:
   1. ‘express‘ consent – direct permission such as signing up on a website to receive emails from you
   2. ‘inferred‘ consent – the nature of the relationship or transaction you have with the recipient infers that they will want to hear from you
   3. ‘deemed‘ consent – by conspicuously publishing their contact details and electronic address they have deemed to have given their consent to  receive messages from you that are relevant to their expressed interests or business
2. Must identify who you are and how you can be contacted.
3. Must have a working unsubscribe facility, which must be actioned within 5 working days.

The email that was sent from the sign company to designers may have come under the category of ‘deemed consent’ but it did not have an unsubscribe facility. It also contained all the recipients’ email addresses, instead of hiding them in the BCC! Mine landed in my junk folder and I wouldn’t even have noticed it if it hadn’t been brought to my attention by a fellow designer, unhappy with the spam nature of the email.

The whole exercise reflected badly on the company’s reputation – they looked unprofessional!

It really isn’t that difficult to comply with the law and to minimise annoying the recipients of your marketing emails. There is plenty of information and marketing advice available to help companies before they make such fundamental mistakes with their email marketing.

This New Zealand Anti-Spam Video from YouTube talks about the anti-spam policy introduced by the government of New Zealand.

Posted on October 7th, 2009 by Wendy Riley-Biddle
Filed under: Marketing