E-mail marketers watch out for the regulator watching you

MEDIA & MARKETING:E-mail marketing is attractive, easy and free - just make sure you stick to the rules, says Siobhán O'Connell

E-MAIL MARKETING is very tempting, because it doesn't cost anything and is easy to do. But these days there's always a regulator looking over your shoulder.

This week, Irish Nationwide was fined €50,000 by the Financial Regulator after sending out an e-mail touting for deposits. The regulator ruled that the building society had "failed to act professionally" and was in breach of the regulator's consumer protection code.That rap on the knuckles would not have happened were it not for the panic gripping financial markets.

But any business can get hauled across the coals if if doesn't stick to e-mail rules. According to multi-channel marketing provider Customer Minds, most marketers fail to fully meet their obligations, even when sending permission-based marketing.

The Dublin firm analysed more than 100 e-mail newsletters and found that 80 per cent failed to include their registered company number and phone number, while 60 per cent did not include their street address. Under Companies Act regulations, these omissions can lead to a fine of up to €2,000.

Customer Minds found that one in five marketers do not include an obvious unsubscribe mechanism in their e-mail messages. Even if there is one, it must work or the Office of the Data Commissioner may come calling. This regulator took Ryanair to task after a woman complained she could not unsubscribe from the receipt of marketing material from the airline. Ryanair's e-mails did have an opt-out facility, but to opt out, the recipient had to send a blank e-mail to an e-mail address which began with the word "leave" and which consisted of more than 70 characters comprising letters and digits. The complainant failed to unsubscribe as she did not realise "leave" was part of the address. After commissioner Billy Hawkes intervened, Ryanair simplified the unsubscribe process.

Data protection expert Maureen Daly of Beauchamps Solicitors advises: "Unsolicited direct marketing electronic mail cannot be sent to a person unless they have given their prior consent or the business and a customer have engaged in a business transaction within the previous 12 months."

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As an advertising medium, the internet can be very precise in terms of recording how many people view a particular ad on a website and if they click through. But what's the demographic of these viewers?

In an attempt to find out, many leading Irish websites commission research company Behaviour Attitudes to survey 10,230 people through the year and ask them about their internet usage. The resulting Joint National Internet Research delivers a profile of the people who use 19 websites run by newspapers, RTÉ and Yahoo but also some smaller ventures such as Learning Ireland, Hot Press and Pigsback.

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The latest JNIR, covering July 2007 to June 2008, was the second internet usage report and the participating websites are the same as in the first report. So why aren't more websites signing up?

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One barrier to entry is the cost of being included in the research, which amounts to €14,000 per annum. Christina Mullan, co-ordinator of the JNIR committee, acknowledges the cost issue and says her challenge is to find a more cost effective solution for the smaller Irish websites.

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Mullan recently wrote to ad agencies asking for their views on how the research can be improved. The response from the media buyers is that they want more data on how often individuals use particular sites. Says Mullan: "We're going to look again and see how we can introduce frequency and reach numbers. But it's a difficult nut to crack. It's not as simple as analysing the number of people who see a TV ad."

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Still, the JNIR does contain information that is very useful to advertisers. For instance, a hotel advertising breaks is more likely to get a response advertising on a newspaper website than on RTÉ or Eircom.net, while Ticketmaster emerges as the best choice for online clothes retailers.