How do you handle exactly different sources of email addresses? Do you have permission to send them email campaigns? In what circumstances do you have the permission to do so?

Permission actually means “the act of giving a formal authorization.”

The problem is, in practice, marketers often define permission pretty loosely at their own convenience.

This blog post tries to illustrate different situations most email marketers should encounter in email acquisition and how to comply with the anti-spam legislation.

Save your brand and practice safely.

1. Purchased third-party email addresses

In this situation, perhaps you have bought a bulk number of emails from a random guy. The issue is not only in the vendor where you purchased the list, but more importantly is the source of the names in the list.

If the vendor doesn’t have a clear information about where they obtain the names, or no direct contact or relationship with the names then it should raise a big warning sign.

This absolutely falls into the do not email category.

2. Casual business contact

You have been contacted by a web site visitor through a form for a question, or perhaps through other ways. The email owner didn’t explicitly grant permission for you to email them for anything commercial but the answer to the question.

This contact has no prior business relationship with you, so although s/he had gone through your site and read about your product or service, s/he is still a complete stranger to you.

Unless specifically filling in the subscription form, you don’t want to contact this prospect via email through mass mailing.

Some marketers choose to send a personal email to offer subscription. A recipient could simply choose to opt-in for future email communications. But, this is considered aggressive for others.

3. Prior business relationship

In this scenario, an email has prior business relationship with you, but not specifically confirm receiving future mailings from you.

Perhaps you obtain the email address through email append or online transaction, but you didn’t make an option to choose to opt-in or otherwise.

This email is quite safe, but expect a high unsubscription rate on the first few emails. The recipients may not want exactly what you have to offer and receive further communication with you.

To be on the safe side, send an email confirmation to the recipient to opt-in or opt-out immediately.

Also, if you were receiving the email addresses from old trade shows — more than six months for instance — make sure you reactivate permissions before sending email.

Although above scenarios are common, they are by no means complete. For the most complete list of scenarios I’ve seen so far, visit MailChimp. The table gives advices on working with MailChimp, but the scenarios apply to other “responsible” email service providers as well.