The purpose of an email marketing policy is to create a clear understanding of what your client expects from you as a marketer and how you will achieve those results. It is important to establish measurable objectives, guidelines on how to conduct yourself, and what you will and won’t provide.
An email marketing policy should be reviewed at least once a year and updated as needed. It is a living document that will guide your client’s expectations of your firm. Your client will likely have questions about what is and isn’t acceptable, so it’s a good idea to have them answered clearly in writing.
Make Sure You Have Everything
In order to properly create an email marketing policy, you will need to have all necessary information beforehand. This includes having a solid understanding of what you will and won’t provide (spamming is not allowed and will result in you being disqualified from future campaigns), as well as the means to track the results of your email marketing efforts. It is a good idea to ask your client for some metrics so you can measure the success of your program.
Consult With A Legal Expert
One of the best things about having an established relationship with a legal expert is that you can take advantage of their knowledge and experience on your behalf. When you work with a lawyer, you have the option of having an attorney review and edit your policy before you finalize it. This will give you the best of both worlds: the benefits of having an attorney’s input without the need to retain outside counsel for every single policy update. If you do not have an inhouse legal team, then it is essential that you retain the services of an outside lawyer to review and edit your policy before you finalize it. This way, you can be sure that you have all the necessary paperwork to back you up should you need it.
Establishing Email Marketing Metrics
Creating a strong and consistent email marketing policy starts with clearly established metrics. Without clear and measurable objectives, it is difficult to determine if you are actually progressing as expected towards your goals. A/B testing is a popular tool among digital marketers, allowing you to compare two different approaches, and establish which one produced the desired results. For example, you might want to compare the performance of two different email campaigns: one that uses an H1 tagline and the other that uses a summary of the most important points from the email.
Create One Policy For All Your Email Campaigns
The chances are, you will end up creating one policy document to serve as the foundation for your entire email marketing activity. It is a good idea to create a general template that will serve as the starting point for every new policy you draft. The process of creating a policy can vary from a few hours to a couple of days, depending on how much content you already have and how involved you want to be in the process. Once you have your general template approved, you can start drafting individual policies for different email campaigns. These documents can then be consolidated into a single document and sent to your client for review and signature.
Drafting an email policy is not as complicated as it may seem. With a little planning and some diligence, you will be able to establish measurable results from your efforts. The general template you create will serve as a solid basis for your entire campaign, and you can quickly update the document as needed to serve as a clear guide to your client’s expectations. Finally, be sure to review and test your policy from time to time to ensure that you are staying true to the original terms and that no one is abusing the system.