Never a sexy subject but one that has ramifications that go beyond email marketing. Always something that should be monitored frequently, at the very least, your privacy policy and email marketing content is an essential part of an email audit.

Isaac Scarborough, Manager of Market Intelligence for Chapell & Associates, provides these guidelines to consider:

For email marketers today, privacy is as much about understanding your customer as it is about protecting their data. In fact, you really can't have one without the other: consumers see the two as part of a bigger issue -- what marketers are doing with the information they provide.

Addressing privacy issues often requires that you ask yourself some pointed questions.

• What customer or prospect information are you collecting
• Why is this data valuable, and have you clearly set expectations for how you will use that information?
• Who is the information shared with?
• Have you run any tests to determine if customers are more willing to provide you with data if they know it won't be shared?

Recent studies conducted by TRUSTe and others suggest that when consumers are reassured about an email marketer's use of their data, opt-ins and consumer engagement can increase significantly.

Your organization may or may not have the same experience -- but in this industry, its worth considering. It has become essential to test different copy, different creative, and different list segments -- and testing different data collection strategies could prove to have the same benefits.

For more information on privacy policies, please see my previous article in iMedia Connection