CASL - Is It Time to Re-examine Your Email Marketing Practices?

Every once in a while something happens to make you stop and re-examine an are of your life - or your marketing programs. For many of us, CASL may well represent that opportunity.

The first area to examine is "email marketing's role in your overall marketing mix". In the mass media world we came from it is easy to apply mass market thinking to email marketing. What that results in: sending a single eFlyer to a million email opt-ins, with a 19% open rate and even lower click through rates. Some would say this is just adding to the clutter out there, rather than producing a specific measurable result, which is the core of all direct response marketing initiatives. It is definitely one possible use of email marketing, yet we question whether it is the most effective.

At it's core email marketing presents the opportunity to "speak" with an individual. The more you know about that individual, the more relevant your conversation can be. Think elevator conversations. Your conversation with a complete stranger can only be about the weather - light, fluffy and very impersonal. Yet on that same elevator with someone you have worked with for years and know their family, the conversation can be far more meaningful - about family or weekend plans. In the previous example, if you know something about the million people on your opt-in list (what they clicked on in the past, what their interests are, do they like sports, do they read literature, do they love music, what types, etc), you can now craft the mass market message into more relevant chunks, creating marketing messages that resonate with more people. Properly executed, do you think your open rate will increase?

We are not saying there is no room in the marketing plan for mass media campaigns. We are simply asking if we are using each tool avaiable to us in the most efficient manner - not from our perspective - from our customer's.

Our new Canadian Anti Spam Legislation (CASL) with $10 million dollar penalties and opening marketers up to class action law suits is certainly cause to re-examine our email marketing programs and practices. A complete audit of current practices is in order. The way you collect "express written consent", the lanuguage you use at opt-in as well as the messages you send - all must align. Now is a good opportunity to go even deeper - re-assessing your objectives and email marketing's role in your overall marketing mix.

These are exciting times for marketers.