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Privacy Policies And Email Marketing
One of the first lessons that you'll learn in
doing business online is the importance of a mailing list. A mailing list
captures the visitors who decide not to purchase your products or avail of your
services the first time they load up your website. There are roughly around
99.7% of these visitors, at the average. Immediately, you'll realize how
critical it is not to lose these visitors, as they could account for a great
percentage of the sales for your future offers. In Internet marketing, a lost
visitor is a lost sale, after all.
To prevent this loss of visitors and
potential sales, online businessmen have resorted to the use of a mailing list
to acquire the contact details of the users who get to visit their website.
Gold is in your mailing list, as many people proclaim, and this statement is
very true. With a mailing list, you would be able to employ an email marketing
campaign to warm up your subscribers for a future sale and to inform them of
your newest products.
But this method is fraught with risks, mostly of
the legal kind.
The reason? Email marketing deals with a very sensitive
right guaranteed for each individual regardless of race, nationality, age,
gender or creed. This right is called privacy, or the right to be secure with
one's personal details and against unwanted intrusions.
People
generally hesitate to give out their personal information for fear that this
will be used for purposes other than those they have consented to. This
hesitance, if left unanswered, could spell doom for your mailing list, for your
email marketing campaign, and potentially, for your business as well.
It is very important that you assure your visitors that their personal
information would be protected once they do decide to subscribe to your mailing
list. This can be done through what is termed as a Privacy Policy. A Privacy
Policy is a printed declaration stating the following salient guarantees:
>> An explanation as to how their personal information would be
used. This should be as detailed as possible. A Privacy Policy takes the form
of a contract, and any act on your part that is not covered by this declaration
would be tantamount to a breach of the same, which could bring about some dire
consequences for your business.
>> A manner by which your
subscribers can edit their personal information. More than the benefit this
would give you, as enabling your members to reflect appropriate changes on the
information they have submitted would make it easier for you to conduct your
email marketing campaign, this allowance would also reassure your subscribers
that they could easily change any erroneous detail that would appear on their
profile.
>> Guarantee that the network by which their personal
information will be transmitted is a secure one. All efforts should have been
made to avoid any infringement on the said network which would result in the
theft of the said information.
>> Provide contact details for
people who would be able to answer any queries and concerns about their
submittal of their personal information. This is a must, first, because it will
assure them that they are not dealing with a dummy entity, and second, because
they will know the identity of the other party to the contract.
>> Provide an exit point. Perpetual contracts are generally
disallowed. Giving your subscribers the option to unsubscribe to the service,
and the promise that their personal information would be discarded when such a
choice is made, would go a long, long way in assuring them of the safety of
your methods.
As we have discussed above, privacy is a very sensitive
issue for many people. Reassuring them that you have their best interests in
mind, through a Privacy Policy that would respect their rights, would be a key
component to your email marketing campaign's success.
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This
article is written to provide accurate and authoritative information with
regard to the subject matter covered in it. It is provided with the
understanding that the author and publisher is not engaged in rendering legal,
or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is
required, the services of a competent professional person should be
sought.
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