Neil, by member-get-member do you mean "tell-a-friend" functionality? That is pretty standard in most enterprise level email marketing solutions such as www.spinnakerpro.com Also have a look at how we implemented a "refer a friend" function combined with a competition on www.sensorpro.net email me If anyone wants a free copy of this to use as their own.

I don't know much about best practices for marketing, but I do know that I wouldn't implement what you're suggesting. We're building a new site that will include the same functionality so I’m familiar with the process. What's to stop people from spamming from your site?

I wouldn’t like to think that visitors are hitting our site just so they can spam.

So, even if this doesn’t go against best practices and I haven’t missed the point, I personally wouldn’t implement your suggested functionality :)

Paul
Segala

On 10:59:00 14 February 2006 NeilRobbins wrote:

By Member-Get-Member, I mean that my client's website will include the facility for an existing Member to refer a friend by email which will be sent from my clients servers. 

When the email is sent, I'd like it to be delivered within the recipients inbox to look like its "From" the referring Member so that the email gains immediate recognition in the recipients inbox and should drive greater response.

It has been suggested to me that this could be naughty, and I'd be interested to learn whether there are any best practice guidelines with regards to this. 

DMA guidelines on email marketing includes a small section on Viral Marketing but its not really the same thing at all (page 14) - http://www.dma.org.uk/DocFrame/DocView.asp?id=230&sec=-1

I don't understand how what Neil describes is different from "Tell a Friend". If the email is sent at the request of the referrer, and referrers are clear what message will be sent on their behalf, then this seems to be "Tell a Friend" and is neither illegal or even bad practice.

Neil, if your site is sending the email as-if from the referrer, and only at the referrer's request, there is nothing illegal about it (I am not a lawyer but no-one has sued us for doing it in the past 9 years and many millions of emails), but you should read up on the Sender Policy Framework (SPF). Many receiving email systems will now check to see whether the domain sending the email is the same as the one in the From address. In order to allow for tell-a-friend functionality, they have provision for additional "on behalf of" headers that you should add to the emails when you send them. Full instructions on SPF for web-generated email are here [openspf.org].

Neil,  Sorry if I sounded harsh in my earlier response.  I know there are referral systems where an email can be sent 'tell a friend' or forward to a friend and the email says '(person name)' has forward this to you.  This is standard practice and the likelihood is that it would be noticed and read.  As long as the necessary permissions are in place or the sender knows that their name will be used as a header, then there's no problem.  It'c clarity and transparency that's the issue here.

Janey p  : )

Only existing customers with validated email accounts accounts will have opportunity to refer friends.

The number of emails that any one customer can send on a daily basis will also be restricted.

We have other measures in place to reduce spamming as well, but I don't want to go into detail on those. I'm comfortable that we've got spamming covered off.

With regards to my initial post, I have found the following information:

Electronic Communications Guidance 33 Version 3
Viral Marketing 

How do the rules apply to “viral marketing”?
So-called “viral marketing” is where 

a) a marketer asks a person to send the original marketing message to a friend or friends, or 

b) the marketer asks a person to hand over their friend(s) contact details. 

Where b) applies, you will be sending a message to someone who you assume has consented via a third party (the third party being the friend who passed their details on to you) to receiving messages from you. It is quite clear that under the legislation you are liable for any messages sent to email addresses or mobile numbers obtained using b). 

As with all Third_Party_Electronic_Mailing_Lists, you cannot use this list unless you are satisfied that the recipient has notified you that they consent to receiving such messages from you. You should therefore ask your customer to confirm that they have the consent of the individuals whose details they are passing on. You also should check that the recipient hasn’t already asked you to suppress their details. If those contact details appear on your suppression list you may have cause to question whether consent has been obtained at all. 

Finally, you should also tell your customer that you propose to let those individuals know how you got their details. For the avoidance of doubt, DPA would not prevent you from doing this. This is particularly important if you propose to incentivise your customer in any way. 

With this in mind, I'll be ensuring we execute the following:

> Ask referring customer to confirm that they have the consent of the individuals whose details they are passing on.

> Tell referring customers that we propose to let email recipients know how you got their details. Whilst emails will appear to be "From" the referring member, we will make it clear within emails that the email was sent on behalf of the "referrer".

> Maintain a supression list to ensure individuals that wish to be surpressed don't recieve referral emails.

There are a large number of sites I have come accross whilst investigating this who are masking "from" to appear as from the referrer. 

With the introduction of some good practices, a level of clarity and transparency; I'm confident that we can carry this out ourselves without endangering the brand.