The single, most important requirement is that you only send to recipients who have given you their prior, explicit and verifiable permission to send that specific type of material (i.e. opted in).

The only exception to this rule (applicable in a very small number of countries or regions) is if there is a pre-existing business relationship between sender and recipient, for example a previous purchase, in which case an opt-in is not required for very specific content types. In this case, content or promotions can be sent as long as the content is similar to the previous purchase. However, not all countries or regions accept these kinds of relationships as valid reasons not to have an opt-in, which can translate to risks to your brand and reputation.

Important: ‘Similar’ is open to interpretation, which can cause unintended issues, so so our recommendation is that the term is treated as ‘virtually identical, used in the same way and for the same purpose’. We strongly recommend that you only send to contacts who have opted in, even if there is a pre-existing business relationship. Sending content that is not related to similar products purchased is not compliant with our sending policy, and in many cases is a breach of local legislation. This may result in your messages being blocked due to recipient complaints, and may even result in litigation by the recipient.

The Emarsys basic requirement is the ‘confirmed opt-in’, where a confirmation email is sent to the registering contact with a highly visible and easy-to-use unsubscribe option. For optimal list hygiene, we strongly recommend adopting our gold standard of using a Double opt-in (DOI), where the recipient is sent an email with an opt-in confirmation link to make sure they are serious about receiving your content.

Opt-in Types

In order for your contacts to opt in they generally use a registration form, and it is important to capture the appropriate information to prevent any erroneous registrations. To do this, the form needs to:

• Set the right expectations at the point of contact registration.
• Give full disclosure on what types of content will be sent, and at what frequency.
• Clearly state if registration data will be shared with partner companies.

When creating the registration form keep in mind there are two types of forms that can be used: simple registration form and combined registration form. The difference between the two form types is:

• The number of mandatory fields required.
• The number of marketing channels that can be signed up to using the form.

There is no limit to the number of optional fields that can be included on either type of form, as long as the mandatory requirements have been met.

As outlined in our own Anti-Spam Policy, to comply with current legal requirements your website must have a privacy policy. The privacy policy also relates closely to the opt-in, as it gives the recipients information as to who the organization is that sends the mail, and what they will do with the data that is entered (i.e. the personal information).

The privacy policy must:

• Be clearly visible and displayed to the registering person, usually via a link. You can optionally include a checkbox in combined registration forms that the user must check to confirm that they have read and accepted before granting permission to send (opt-in).

Note: This checkbox must be separate from the opt-in checkbox and must not be pre-checked.

• Contain information on the services provided and types of emails to be sent following the registration.

Important: Emarsys does not allow the sending of 3rd-party emails.

• Provide clear information on how you collect and use data, as well as how you disclose, transfer and store subscriber information.
• Clearly outline the unsubscribe process i.e. an easy-to-use unsubscribe link must be available in every email, and explain the steps that will be taken as part of an unsubscribe request.
• Include a physical and summonable company address for your business.
• Include your company’s telephone number and a contact email address.

The privacy policy can be included in the Terms of Service or Terms  Conditions, as long as it is clearly titled as the Privacy Policy. Every page on your website should have a link to this information, ideally in the footer of your email template and website as a global link.

All of the following must be available for each recipient in case of complaints or legal issues arising, as they help prove the legality of the permission to send (i.e. when recipients complain and you need to prove they really did request the content):

• The IP from which the client registration originated.
• The date and time of registration.
• A copy of the Privacy Policy as shown at the point of registration.
• A copy of the registration page as shown at the point of registration.
• In the case of pre-existing customer relationships, the following is also required:
  • The date and time of the last purchase.
  • What items were purchased.
  • All shipping information (e.g. database logs, confirmation of receipt, etc.).
• And any additional registration data (e.g. personal data) that can help prove the legality of registration.

There are some important factors to keep in mind when looking at how well your recipient engagement is performing:

• Only organically grown data can guarantee stable delivery. Data sharing or acquisition is not allowed, and has serious implications for your sender reputation, performance, etc.!
• Your sending strategy should focus on the activity of recipients (this doesn’t necessarily mean less volume).
• Reactivation emails should not comprise more than 5% of total volume at any time.
• Do not send to contacts that have not received a message in the past 12 months, as the addresses may have been turned into spam-traps in the meantime.

A passive expression of lack of interest should be honored in the same way as an active opt-out. So if a recipient has ignored you for six months, or their address keeps causing soft-bounces, take the hint and unsubscribe them.

With regards to the content of an email, there are a number of legal and policy requirements outlined and implemented by most major ISPs, which we have combined in our own anti-spam policy.

Any email sent by an Emarsys client must contain the following:

• An easy (‘one-click’) unsubscribe link, i.e. after clicking the link, recipients are redirected to an unsubscribe page or form where they can unsubscribe with a single click. The unsubscribe form must comply with the following five requirements:
  • No login is required to unsubscribe, i.e. it should be readily accessible by anyone.
  • No extra steps are required to unsubscribe, i.e. it does not lead to additional forms, pages or links to complete.
  • No persuasive language is used to entice a person to remain subscribed.
  • No costs to unsubscribe, i.e. it has to be free.
  • No advertising is used in the form.
• A link to the privacy policy on the client’s website.
• The full physical, summonable address of the client’s company.

Note: Offering the unsubscribe functionality via email (‘mailto: unsubscribe@example.com’) or telephone is not a substitute for the one-click process. We do recommend that you provide these channels as additional unsubscribe options, but they are not a valid substitute.

The following tips and tricks might seem obvious, but can significantly improve your deliverability rates and customer engagement.

• Include a request to add the sender to the address book or safe sender list. This enables the image content of your email to be displayed automatically the next time they receive an email from you. This easily and drastically increases your open rates, reputation, and subsequently your deliverability performance. We have provided instructions on how to do this in the most common email clients so please feel free to include this link in your request.
• Place the unsubscribe link at the top of the email. Avoid low contrast combinations, (e.g. light grey text on dark grey background) so that the link is visible and accessible to all recipients. The more accessible the unsubscribe link is, the more your recipients will trust you (knowing they can opt out at any time) and the fewer complaints and unsubscribes you will receive.
• Use Personalization. This is an easy and effective way to engage with your recipients, increasing their trust, response rates, and as a consequence your reputation and deliverability.
• Balance your text and HTML/image content ratio. Aim for your email to be comprised of 50% text and 50% HTML/images, but the more text content you have the better.
• Do not send HTML versions with images only. It is important that recipients are able to read the content without opening or displaying the images.
• Use an Emarsys template rather than custom HTML, as the code standards in our templates are designed and tested to render well on most email clients.
• Avoid using HTML design for web pages. If you do use custom HTML, please make sure that meta-tags (charset) are not present.
• Check that none of your links can be mistaken for phishing links. These are links in the text that point to a different domain, and are usually blocked by Gmail and other major ISPs because those are the typical characteristics of phishing links.