DMA Guidelines for Email Appending

Dating back to 1917, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is the leading trade association for companies interested in interactive and database marketing, with nearly 4,700 member companies from the United States.

In 2004, the DMA adopted new guidelines for email appending to consumer records:

A marketer should append a consumer’s e-mail address to its database only when the consumer gives a marketer permission to add his or her e-mail address to the marketer’s database; or

1. There is an established business relationship with that consumer either online or offline; and


2. The data used in the append process are from sources that provided notice and choice regarding the acceptance of receiving third-party e-mail offers and where the consumer did not opt out; and


3. Reasonable efforts are taken to ensure the appending of accurate e-mail addresses to the corresponding consumer records.

A marketer should not sell, rent, transfer or exchange an appended e-mail address of a consumer unless it first offers notice and choice to the consumer.

All messages to an e-mail appended address should include a notice and choice to continue to communicate via e-mail.

Email appending can have enormous benefits for scaling your businesses, but always make sure you are in compliance with the latest guidelines issued by the DMA in this ever-changing environment.