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Our email inboxes are a very personal space, and most of us don’t appreciate having to sift through unsolicited emails at an increasing rate. Still, when it comes to sending their own email campaigns, many economic developers feel pressured to deliver their message to the largest possible audience and suffer consequences like high unsubscribe rates, being marked as spam, or even being blacklisted by major email service providers.

The dangers of bad email practices are very real: As we become more annoyed with the number of unsolicited emails we receive, we are more likely to react by ignoring them or complaining about them – both of which can cause irreparable damage to a community’s brand.

Email Legislation in Canada
Unlike the CAN-SPAM laws in the U.S., Canada currently does not have specific email privacy legislation, but PIPEDA does cover many aspects of email marketing indirectly. Earlier this year, the Canadian government tabled Bill C-27: The Electronic Commerce Protection Act to specifically address email marketing, counterfeit websites and spyware. Alternate spam legislation is also going through Canada’s senate. So in the absence of clear laws, what’s an email marketer to do?

Best Practice: Permission-Based Email

Regardless of legislation, it just makes good sense to send your emails to people that actually wish to receive them. Sending unsolicited email frequently results in confusion and annoyance, and does nothing to strengthen your community’s image with your intended audience.

Email lists should be judged on quality, not quantity. Do your recipients recognize and welcome your communications? Do they open them? Click on your links? Do your open rates stay consistently high or are they dropping off? How many people are unsubscribing?

Think of it as the difference between a cold call and a warm lead or referral. Time is best spent on the latter because it is more likely to garner results and create a relationship. Just because it takes less effort to hit “send”, doesn’t mean you should abandon this principle.

Checklist for Email Marketers:

Who can I send email to?

• People who have specifically signed up through your website
• People who completed offline forms & indicated they wanted to be emailed
• People who gave you their business card and asked to receive email – If someone gives you their business card and you have also explained to them that you will be in touch by email, you can contact them.
• You have had business communications with them in the last two years. This is implied permission, although asking them directly is much better.

Who can’t I send email to?

Anybody that is not covered by the list above! Here are some examples:

• Lists or email addresses received from a third party – Includes any list you bought or rented, got from a partner or membership  organization. No matter the claims of the source of this list, you cannot send email to them.
• Addresses you collected or “copy & pasted” from the Internet – Even if they look like ideal customers for you, you can’t email someone just  because you found their address.
• Addresses you haven’t emailed in the last 2 years Permission doesn’t age well. Even if you got their permission legitimately, they won’t remember giving it to you. If you haven’t sent something to that address in the last 2 years, you can’t start now.

Resist the temptation to create giant lists of people that don’t want to hear from you. Instead, work hard on the most important thing that will help your list grow organically: your content. Send people something they want to read and can benefit from. You’ll retain your existing subscribers and be more likely to bring new ones on board.