B2B emails - what's allowed?

[newbie21]

This seems to be such a minefield. Can you send unsolicited emails to other businesses in your field? What about sole traders who may use a personal address? If it's not allowed are there any consequences? :|

 

[INDIZINE]

Email spam is usually where they are sent in bulk. To send an individual email is ok from what I have read of late. This is for any business regardless where run from.

You cannot direct mail (ie post) to a sole trader using their home address, nor telephone them at home, if they use their home address as their business address.

 

[newbie21]

Thanks Indizine,

Do you mean sending the same email to different businesses period or a multiple recipient email?

I've read that such emails are either illegal full stop, would have to include an 'opt out' (and am not sure what that entails) or that they should include certain information and contact details of your business.

:|

 

[Monsoon_Interactive]

I would strongly suggest only sending emails to those email recipients who have requested to receive email from you. Sending UCE will get your IP's & Domains blacklisted and will hurt your "legitimate" sending for months to come.

 

[Diggler]

Sending any sort of email, mail, telesales etc... is totally legal to any business. Once you advertise yourself as a business you are opening yourself up to sales people. The email side though, even though it is legal, it does not mean it is a good idea. As monsoon mentioned, if you receive a complaint to your ISP you will probably have your IP blacklisted, which will probably annoy your hosting company especially if you are on a shared server since every other site owner on that server will suffer the same blacklisting.

 

[robwoollen]

I'm interested in the complaints procedure. Surely there would have to be some back-up for this. For example, on the mailing list I bought recently, 4 people have clicked the "REMOVE" opt-out link. I have removed them and sent them a confirmation of this fact. I understand they would have cause for complaint if I were to recontact them, but I won't

Surely you can't get somebody black-listed without showing they have acted unreasonably (ie not removing you)?

Otherwise, couldn't I just wipe out all my competitors (or at least my main one) by complaining about them?

I'd be really keen to hear how this is policed

 

[jimmy555]

This seems to be such a minefield. Can you send unsolicited emails to other businesses in your field? What about sole traders who may use a personal address? If it's not allowed are there any consequences? :|

Your hosting company could turn-off your website if they detect thousands of unsolicited emails being generated on their server.

You should stick with the important emails, and should avoid unsolicited emails at every cost :redface:

 

[directmarketingadvice]

You cannot direct mail (ie post) to a sole trader using their home address, nor telephone them at home, if they use their home address as their business address.

Are you sure?

It sounds fairly unlikely to me.

I'm a sole trader and I work from home. If a prospect calls me up is he breaking the law?

Steve

 

[Gillie]

How the hell do you know when someone is using a home address and when a sole trader aint? Isn't that a little hit and miss?? I couldn't tell you from looking at an address if its home or not!

 

[shallam]

If you want to be doing large scale email marketing, then I would recommend you use an email broadcasting service rather than risking having your own domain name blacklisted.

These services are not expensive, and they also provide very useful metrics to let you know who opened your message, who clicked on which links, and other valuable marketing information.

These services can only be used with permission based email marketing lists, and of course the best quality lists are lists that you have grown yourself, from prospects who know your business and want to hear more from you.

 

[collins585]

Do not send emails to contacts you have acquired on a rented list - IT IS ILLEGAL. Set-up a webform on your website where your customers or people interested in your company can opt-in to receive your email communications.

I recommend you ask your web developer to ensure that all details of people that opt-in to your list feed into a database where all the data is stored and can be exported in a .csv format.

It is also very important that you allow your email recipients to opt-out from your list each and every time you send a campaign. Make sure you remove these contacts from future email communications.

Regarding whether to go for desktop software vs an online provider / managed service provider. It depends on volume - most ISPs will only allow a maximum of 1,000 emails to be sent per day, if this limitation is fine for you now and in the future then go for desktop software. Any thing above 1,000 emails and I would go for an online provider or a professional email service provider.

My personal preference is to use a managed provider, it costs a little more, but most do great design, have great deliverability rates (even to Hotmail etc.) and offer invaluable advice (legal aspects).

 

[jimmy555]

interesting tips by collins

 

[Darren Falkingham]

It does sometimes feel like a grey area. For this reason alone, it's always best to give the Information Commissioner's Office ([SIZE=-1]www.ico.gov.uk) [/SIZE]a call to get their advice on any B2B email campaign that you're thinking of running.

I was pretty sure that the law does allow you to generate B2B business by phone or email, as long as the offer that you're putting forward is relevant to the recipient - it's your responsibility to make sure that the business you're contacting is likely to have a need for your product or service.

And emails must have a clear unsubscribe link and you must display your company details (registered number, address, website, etc).

 

[VCT]

According to the Privacy and Electronic communiocations Act 2003 you can only email individuals who have 'opted-in' to recieveing communications from you, whether personal or business. Opt-in maybe through a contact form on your website for example of verbal concent given over the phone may be cosidered a 'soft opt-in' however where you are cold calling businesses to get this permission you must ensure they are not TPS registered.

We produce a range of information leaflets and have a couple on the above act which you can find on our website. Or if you want to PM me, with your permission, I can email them to you.

 

[TheOrangeBox]

This seems to be such a minefield.

it isn't

Can you send unsolicited emails to other businesses in your field?

as long as it a business related matter then of course you can

 

[TheOrangeBox]

According to the Privacy and Electronic communiocations Act 2003 you can only email individuals who have 'opted-in' to recieveing communications from you, whether personal or business.

this is incorrect

Do not send emails to contacts you have acquired on a rented list - IT IS ILLEGAL.

this is also incorrect

 

[VCT]

The ICO produce really easy to follow guidelines to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, they are the body who regulate and will punish companies who do not comply. This can be downloaded from thier website. It clearly states that the intended recipient must have indicated that they do not object to receiving messages from you, this includes where you are sending marketing messages to individuals within a company.

"You would need to demonstrate that the subscriber has positively opted in to receiving further information from you."

 

[Penny Haywood]

The Direct Mail Association DMA will point you in the right direction and tell you how to get hold of the lists of people who have opted out of telephone & mail contact (including small businesses working from home). But that starts from a negative.
I think it's better to think up good offers, downloads etc to entice people to give you their permission to contact them.
It's so easy to damage your reputation by spamming and you can't trade for long without a reasonable reputation.