Yes you can, however you need to comply with legal requirements, otherwise you will be classified as spam.
You are required to:
- Ask for consent from the recipient before including them in your mailing list
- Clearly identify your business and how you can be contacted,
- Give recipients the option to unsubscribe at no cost. This can be as simple as including the text “To unsubscribe reply with unsubscribe in the subject.”
- Adhere to the Privacy Act 1993
What if I don’t comply with the legal requirements?
Failing to meet these requirements can result in court imposed penalties of up to $500,000.
How can I gain consent?
You cannot send commercial electronic messages if you do not have consent, Consent falls into 3 categories:
- Express consent - a person has explicitly given you approval to send them messages. Such ways include:
- filling in a paper form,
- ticking a box on a website,
- approval by phone or in a meeting.
Note: it is up to the sender to prove they had permission, so make sure you keep records of the approval.
- Inferred consent - the person has not directly give you consent to send a message, but there is a clear indication that they may receive a message. Inferred consent is limited to messages related to the business that consent was given for. Such ways include:
- follow up after a sale,
- the exchange of a business card.
Note: If someone is in your existing address book, and they just have not asked to be removed, consent may not be implied. In these cases it is better to gain express consent.
- Deemed consent - a person publishes their contact details knowing that they may receive relevant business information.
Note: if they express that they do not wish to receive unsolicited messages, consent is not given.
(abridged from www.dia.govt.nz - “Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007”)