Andy Yates, Co-Founder of Spam Ratings
Very interesting article and discussion. My view is that email marketing, and indeed all forms of marketing, are all about transparency and consent.
If websites treat internet users fairly and openly by laying the options before them, letting them know what they intend to do and giving them a choice then they can help their businesses - not harm them.
As an example at www.SpamRatings.com we have just carried out detailed research that shows that more than half of 100 top UK brands breach current email best practice guidelines as outlined by the Information Commissioner's Office (the data protection UK authority) and the DMA - the marketing industry's own trade association.
In other words self regulation is clearly not working as short term economic pressure leads to websites bombarding customers with unwanted and unasked for emails.
The result - all this does is make customers reach more quickly for the delete button when they see emails from these 'trusted' brands - at once killing their future email marketing effort and damaging their brand and reputation.
When will websites learn they need to be more responsible with our private email address and our privacy? If they can't clean up their act themselves then we at Spam Ratings support legislation that will force them to act honestly and fairly with internet users and customers.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
