Compliance

There are several areas that should be considered when commencing your own campaigns and here at ‘Pinnacle Messaging’ we have tried to provide some simple guide-lines as well as offering downloadable files on current rules and legislation for you to study in greater detail, should you choose to do so.

There are several sensible best-practice rules that are obvious but need to be followed:

• Be honest and up-front

• State who you are, where you may be contacted, and make clear the purpose of the contact

• Make the point of the communication clear and do not shroud it in obscurity

• Ensure that the data you are using is TSP verified or has opt-in or soft opt-in status

• Offer clearly an opt out option and ACT upon it if requested, and with good grace

• Don’t mix the purpose of the contact – Is it for the purpose of a survey or an attempt to sell – do not leave yourself wide open to an accusation of misleading the listener

• If calling – control the speed of auto-dialing and MAKE sure you can respond fast enough – one of the biggest No-No’s are silent calls – these can be frightening to the recipient – If your overall call ratio results to 3% or above of silent calls you may be liable to prosecution

• Legislation of email broadcasts is not designed to make it illegal it is designed to protect the individual and reduce the levels of “Spam”.

• Always include a disclaimer stating the email has been sent to a targeted business user base as part of a one-time only broadcast

• Ensure your email content is specific to the businesses you are emailing and not aimed at their employees

• Ensuring your product/service is targeted on a B2B (Business to Business) level and not B2C (Business to Consumer) is the key

• Never spoof your IP address or falsify sender details – this is fraudulent

The views expressed on this page are purely opinions and guidelines, and ‘Pinnacle Messaging’ can in no way be held responsible for their veracity. The Downloads are current as of 31st December 2008.