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Good practices question: can I use past customer's emails?

by altar22
8 replies
Hi all,

I have about 7000 email addresses from past customers.
Can I send them a promotional email for the launch of my new shop or something?
Or would that be considered bad practice?

How should I go about this?

Thanks for your advice
S
#customer #emails #good #past #practices #question
  • Profile picture of the author TheContentAuthority
    Altar22,

    You have to think about this from both a moral angle as well as a legal one.

    On the moral side, did these people have some inclination that down the road they would be receiving correspondence from you in the form of marketing messages? Are the messages you are sending of any real value to them? If so, then I don’t see anything wrong with that.
    On the legal side, you may want to be sure you are following spam acts. If you gathered these emails without notifying these people that they could potentially receive other communications from you, you could find yourself in hot water if someone complains loud enough.

    Hope that points you in the right direction,

    Shawn
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    • Profile picture of the author CyberAlien
      Originally Posted by TheContentAuthority View Post

      On the legal side, you may want to be sure you are following spam acts. If you gathered these emails without notifying these people that they could potentially receive other communications from you, you could find yourself in hot water if someone complains loud enough.
      As long as you're following the spam laws that shouldn't be a problem. For example, the CAN-SPAM Act doesn't require that people optin to your list - but if they don't optin, it does require that you do certain things when emailing them.
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  • Profile picture of the author turnkeybiz
    It depends on how old is the list, as a rule of thumb you should always keep the list warmed up, even if you don't send them promotions, sending them free info and stuff would keep the list somewhat warm.

    If your going to do it, send a email out just thanking them for the past business and you wish them all well, if you can give them a freebie that would help. Be real and friendly NON selling tone.

    Then at lease when you do send out the promo email it wont be just a quickie. Good luck
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  • Profile picture of the author Rits
    Did they opt-in for future promotional emails from you? If not, then bad practice.
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  • Profile picture of the author altar22
    Thanks for your advice.

    None of these customers have opted in for anything.
    They are just all the customers I've had since Feb 2012 on an open market website I had a shop on.
    Now I am going to open another shop on my own site and I was wondering if I could just send out an announcement, that's all.
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  • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
    If they're past customers it should be legal.

    What you really need to think through if you're going to
    do it, is sending them an email that they'll actually WANT
    to receive.

    You'd need to tell them who you are, that they've bought
    from you before and give them some kind of special gift or
    something along those lines.

    That said you're still likely to get a lot of spam complaints
    so it may not be the best strategy.

    If you have their phone numbers you could call them on
    the phone and offer them some kind of gift for coming into
    your new store (or something along those lines).

    Kindest regards,
    Andrew Cavanagh
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    A lot of people have this big misconception that you can't email anybody without their permission.

    It's NOT true at all.

    The Can Spam Act allows you to email anyone out the blue. That's why it is called the CAN Spam Act not the CANNOT Spam Act. It was designed to outline the requirements you must follow when emailing people you do not know.

    So long as you follow the guidelines then sure, you can do that.

    CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    If you're in a country that is not covered by the Can Spam Act then you will need to look into your local laws.
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  • Profile picture of the author MaddieQ
    Banned
    You can try and send them a promotional email to begin with; that email should have unsubscribing instructions or a link to unsubscribe from your list. Most people who don't want promotional email unsubscribe faster. So you can have a new email addresses list from people who are ok with receiving offers from your new business
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