#1. Is Your Privacy Policy Compliant?
However, this week, my goal is for you to click over to your own site's privacy policy.
Why? Because California's Online Privacy Protection Act kicked in July 1st, and if
anyone from California visits your site and sees you're not compliant... say hello to potential law suits.
You have to be involved (not just your legal department) because the Act affects marketing directly in two ways:
#1. You'll have to make the link to your privacy policy FAR more visible than it probably is now.
Tiny type hidden at the bottom of a page won't do the job.
A smart marketer can make this work to his or her advantage, by developing a graphical
icon or text-link copy that's reassuring to visitors without diverting from your intended conversion path.
In fact, I've seen cases in which a properly placed privacy link increased conversions by as much as 10%.
#2. You'll have to make sure whatever you're doing with the data collected actually matches the privacy policy.
It's scary how quickly privacy policies become outdated. Most marketers don't have a regular schedule to
check that the policy still matches reality.
Three semi-grey areas I spotted in the Act:
Grey #1. Email programs
Check with your own legal advisors if the term "online service" equals your emails to house lists.
We suspect it does. So, you may have to make your privacy link much more conspicuous there.
Grey #2. Landing pages
Also, check with legal to see if you should assume the Act extends to campaign microsites and landing pages
which may not be obviously part of your main site. We suspect it may, and this means you'll need to change
your privacy policies there, too.
Grey #3. Third-party-hosted registration forms
If you collect any consumer data using third-party services such as a co-registration deal,
an online lead generation service, or a co-branded marketing presence, check with legal to
see if you need to fret about your partner's privacy links and statements. We suspect you do.
Why worry?
If a consumer visits your site and alerts you that you are non-compliant (time to ask customer
service to look for emails on that topic) you have 30 days to become compliant. If you ignore
things, then law suits can be brought against your organization.
Who is not affected?
The Act says it's about "commercial" Web sites and online services so if you're not selling
anything, you may be OK. Also ISPs, email broadcast firms, database firms, and Web
hosting firms can't be sued for carrying someone else's non-compliant site or email.
Please note, I'm not a lawyer nor have I had a lawyer review this column. It's not intended to
serve as legal advice you should follow without checking with your own legal counsel first.
Here's a link to a PDF of the actual Act itself. It's only four pages and a pretty easy read compared
to most legislation I've seen in my time.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ ab_0051-0100/ab_68_bill_20031012_chaptered.pdf
Thanks for your support,
Anne
Anne Holland - Publisher
MarketingSherpa
P.S. As always, our Case Studies and articles are open access for
about 10 days. Then they go into SherpaLibrary where you can
research for a small fee. The links always remain the same.
http://www.SherpaStore.com
CASE STUDIES
#2. Personalized, Permission-based Banners Get 4-11% Click Rates for Only $20 CPM
Are you fed up with trying to reach customers and best prospects through permission-based email?
Now there's a new game in town -- permission-based banners.
That's right. You ask folks for permission to promote to them via personalized
banners they'll see as they surf the Web on sites such as NYTimes.com. The
cost is only $20cpm (cost per thousand) to run the personalized banners, and
they can be as targeted as you like - with personal name, even by zip code.
This month Audio Book Club and Orbitz are among the first US marketers to test the new tech.
However, tests have already been going on in Israel for the past year. So, we bugged Israeli
marketers for creative samples and results data for you...
Here's our exclusive Case Study:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2754
(Open access until July 9th)
#3. How to Gain Thousands of Small Business Clients Without Overspending on Acquisition Costs
Marketing to the small and mid-sized business world can be incredibly difficult
because you combine the hardest challenges of b-to-b and b-to-c marketing.
You have to reach a broad mass market with a tiny per prospect budget.
And, small business owners are usually far too busy to pay any attention to your message.
Find out how a local telecom company mixed clever billboards, intensive database marketing,
multiple sales channels, and a "spokesdog" to gain hundreds of thousands of customers...
(Note: This Case Study doesn't have a lot of specific data, but we think you'll love the creative samples and telemarketing tips):
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2756
(Open access until July 17th)
#4. How to Stem Email List Shrinkage: BLR Grows Circulation by 6% in 8 Weeks
If you have a house list, you know the pain of churn. Names come and names go...
sometimes your intake doesn't come close to matching the losses.
When BLR's house list size declined by 10%, despite promotions and value-laden
editorial newsletter issues, the team had to act quickly.
In this quick Case Study, you'll hear the six steps BLR used to reverse the trend.
Includes vendor names and creative samples:
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2753
(Open access until July 18th)
PRACTICAL KNOW-HOW
#5. CAN-SPAM Study Results: Brand Marketers Change Tactics as Junk Emailers Scoff at the Law
Here are the results of a secret study EmailSherpa's been conducting to measure the effect of the law. Turns out:
31% of junk email still has brand names, even though brand marketers are obeying the law
Junk mailers aren't honoring opt-out (well, OK, one guy is)
Messages sent to accounts proven to be active do differ from junk sent to mailboxes nobody checks
Includes two interesting comparison charts:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2755
(Open access until July 11th)
#6. How to Track (and Influence) Consumer Buzz Online About Your Brand - 6 Steps
As many as 70% of consumers who contact your company with a complaint will also
post their complaint in a public online forum. This year, consumers will post almost a
billion comments and reviews of brands online.
In our interview with expert Pete Blackshaw, you'll learn:
How to track consumers writing about you online
6 steps you can take to influence results
Please note: you should assign a staffer in marketing communications to handle this on an ongoing basis:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2752
(Open access until July 9th)
#7. PR Interview: How to Land a Guest Spot on Bloomberg Small Business
Bloomberg Television reaches 200 million households worldwide, and Small Business' Producer
Sandi Kalman tells us she's looking for a wide array of experts -- from legal to marketing -- to
guest on the show. Key: Bloomberg defines anything that's not public as small... so small may be bigger than you think:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2751
(Open access until July 13th)
#8. Fame Briefs: Global PR Blog Week
We love this idea -- 28 PR and marketing pros got together virtually to invent the world's
first blog-based professional conference. Learn more here, plus see our updated list of
marketing and ad awards nominations:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2632
#9. Help Wanteds: 29 New Jobs and 6 New Seekers Available
The past two week's new posts include mid-upper level openings Symantec,
Forrester Research, Mass Transit Interactive, Motley Fool, North American Airlines,
Audible.com, Digital Impact, and Monster. Plus, learn how to post your own opening (complimentary service.)
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2522
(Open access = permanent)
#10. Book Contest: 'Don't Think Pink'
If you market to women, there's a new book out to help you avoid the most common
mistakes...'Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes
Women Buy - and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market.'
We've met authors Lisa Johnson & Andrea Learned in person, and trust us,
they know what they're talking about. So should you.
Five copies are up for grabs, here's where you enter your name to try to get one of them:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=93070279812
(Contest ends July 7/14/04, midnight ET)
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