As interactive marketing professionals, we constantly hear about CRM, “Customer Relationship Management.”   The core of which is the database of prospects and customers.

Find out who they are, find out what they do and what they like, develop a brand relationship and increase the customer value through loyalty or other direct marketing activity.  Cradle to grave, if you’re good.

Our brief is to collect names and demographic detail, and often the measure of success is the number - more is better.

The process is to avoid is coming afowl of the privacy legislation when you reap, and avoiding becoming unsolicited bulk email when you sow.  So many old databases of customers and clients are now incomplete.  No email addresses, no ‘opt in’ validation.

Rebuild, Renovate, Reestablish.

Ok, no problem, this is bread and butter. But is it?  I received a number of emails from what might be considered the “3″rd biggest teleco in Australia with no unsubscribe option.  I gave them a call when I got the second one.  Small oversight, but it could cost big bucks per instance, so multiply by your list number and you get the idea.

But that’s small potatoes when it comes to ‘oversights.’  As you plow through your regulations, cross off your checklist of good eDM citizenship, don’t forget,  children are different.

If your product and your message is aimed at children, you have a whole different list of requirements.  Get to know them and make sure you don’t just take the “Standard” solution or you could end up in on the floor before the emperor and the dude with the big knife.

Sony Dinged $1 Million for Child-Privacy Breach | Threat Level from Wired.com

References:

Australian Association of  National Advertisers Code for Advertising  & Marketing communications to Children: http://www.aana.com.au/childrens_code.html

Spam Act of 2003 - Australian Government, Department of Finance and Deregulation - Information Management Office: http://www.noie.gov.au/ie

Tags: Marketing //