How are companies faring under Can-Spam? Pretty well if they were doing the right thing before its passage.
So said panelists at Donnelley’s Information Privacy Forum in Aspen.
For example, IBM has long pursued a “self-regulatory management strategy,” said Bill Romenesko, privacy officer for America’s Market Intelligence Group, IBM. Big Blue makes sure that the messages are appropriate from a regulatory standpoint, and that it has permission to send them.
“We’re very stringent,” Romenesko said. “We get a better response and they’re happy getting the e-mail from us.” That’s better than hearing them say: “You spammed me, IBM, I told you not to,” he said.
Generic permission “doesn’t cut it anymore,” Romensko added. “You have to ask specific permission. We have one of tightest permission statements.”
Jones Apparel Group, the parent firm for Nine West Footwear many other retail brands, has also taken a customer-centric approach, according to Dianne Binford, senior director of consumer direct marketing for the company.
Because it is so hard for a retailer to collect e-mail addresses in the store, the firm does some appending, and sends those customers an initial e-mail stating that it would like to communicate with them through that medium.
An earlier attempt at appending three years ago was “a miserable disaster, reflected in complaints and huge unsubscribe rates, Binford said. “The only clickthroughs were on our privacy policy and unsubscribe link.” But the company tried again, this time using Yesmail as vendor, and is achieving better results.
What was different the second time around?
“The source was far more recent and relevant, and people really did relate to idea that they had asked to receive e-mails about fashion,” Binford said.
Nine West had also improved the “methodology and framing of the initial e-mail to them,” while focusing on very recent repeat customers who have a clear relationship with the firm, Binford continued.
“Transparency is not something we can limit to privacy policy,” she said. “It’s something evident in every interaction.”
Nine West Group seems unique in that it never cross-sells between the brands.
“We want to understand each base, and how to market differently to them,” Binford explained. “To cross market to us would be against our objective.”
Despite that, all the customers’ names are kept in one database. But the firm keeps track of “what brand got her opt-in, and what brands did not,” Binford said. “And when she updates who she is with one brand, it is updated across all the brands with whom she has a relationship.”
The firm has proceeded “cautiously and slowly and gradually” with its e-mail program,” and it has paid off, Binford continued.
“Consumers has never particularly expressed to us any disconcerting anxiety about our direct marketing,” she said.
The challenge was to craft an accurate and forthright privacy policy that “would reflect our practices in an environment where there are so many brands in one database,” Binford added.
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