PM_220208_p012 20/2/08 16:53 Page 12
12 Precision Marketing February 22 2008
News Analysis
46%
of all retailers are failing to comply with
email marketing legal requirements
Email marketing may be on the rise but the latest research shows that many practitioners are failing to
comply with best practice standards. This could have serious repercussions for the industry as a whole
Email marketers warned about high price of failure
Sara Kimberley
especially for retailers who can be done right and how seri- that consumers can see why
send their email in-house. They ous the repercussions of getting they are being contacted and
With nearly half – 46 per cent – should monitor how the major it wrong can be. how they are expected to
of all retailers failing to comply ISPs and FreeMail providers This boils down to some respond.”
with the most basic legal display an email and take a look key factors, he asserts, such Rufus Leonard Strategy
requirements in their use of at how popular anti-spam filters as offline creatives tackling Director Andrew Pinkess con-
email marketing, how can the are classifying them. Mistakes a discipline that has entirely cludes: “You have to work that
industry press home the within the HTML code can thus different rules of engagement, a much harder to even get people
urgency of best practice before be solved before an email is sent lack of uniformity in terms of to open your message. To cut
it is too late? out, therefore not affecting the testing and proofing and, per- through the clutter, email needs
The findings of the retail campaign.” haps most importantly, the seri- to be as integrated as possible
benchmarking report, con- Meanwhile, Hicklin Slade & ous absence of targeting and with what is happening in-
ducted by dotMailer, are likely Email marketing Partners head of digital Ed measurement. store, picking up on seasonal
to send shivers down the spine Latest report is ‘eye-opening’ Lecky-Thompson, reckons one He adds: “Brands must tackle events, promotions etc. It also
of any trade organisation which of the main reasons for these these issues, but they also need needs to tie in with previous
polices the discipline. failings is that online market- to become experts in the legis- purchasing behaviour.”
eCircle chief executive ings. He says: “An email service ing is still seen as a cure-all by lation to ensure they don’t fall Email, it seems, is not quite
Volker Wiewer is one of many provider should look at more retail brands and marketers foul. Above and beyond this, such a simple medium, after
who is not surprised by the find- than just the content of emails, who don’t understand how it they must be transparent so all…
Tracking online behaviour is a key strategy for many Web brands, but the practice could become a thing
of the past if the EU Parliament can prove that IP addresses should be classed as personal information
Can Web brands survive EU threat to gathering data?
Jenny Hoffbrand
addresses – the 32-bit number on search engines. lucrative if Google succeeds
used to identify a computer – Unsurprisingly, search com- with its $3.1bn takeover of Inter-
Sitting in your office with the should be treated as personal panies have opposed moves to net advertising company Dou-
door closed and your computer information. classify IP addresses as per- bleClick, allowing display
screen strategically facing Germany’s Federal Data Pro- sonal data. Google’s privacy advertising to be more targeted
the wall, it is very easy to tection Commissioner Peter counsel Peter Fleischer told a than ever before.
believe that your online actions Schaar recently spoke in favour hearing of the working group WebTrends senior director of
will stay private. But every of making IP addresses subject that there is no black or white technical services for EMEA
click you make is tirelessly to the same rigorous laws that answer. Conrad Bennett believes that if
recorded by most websites you are applied to other personal He said: “Sometimes an IP Schaar gets his way then com-
visit – for now. information under the Data address can be considered as panies will no longer be able to
Many brands use sophisti- Protection Act. Schaar chairs personal data and sometimes store or use a lot of the data they
cated technology to track the the working group which not, it depends on the context, have collected.
online behaviour of their cus- advises the EU on data privacy and which personal informa- Bennett says: “It would pre-
tomers in order to optimise and security. tion it reveals.” vent us from doing some things,
their websites and better target The group is preparing Fleischer argues that but it’s not an insurmountable
the needs of visitors. to release the findings of Google’s core business depends technical barrier. It sounds
But these practices could a report which looks into on knowing who is consulting Web use nefarious, but we would find a
soon be a thing of the past if the the practices of IP address log- what online. This knowledge Every click is tirelessly recorded way around it. It wouldn’t be
EU Parliament decrees that IP ging and targeted advertising could become even more the end for Web analytics.”
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