Email Marketing for Trades: Permission Before the Message
First decide what message you are sending
A requested quote, a booked-job update and a message promoting more work have different purposes. Look at the actual content: adding a promotion to an administrative email can make marketing rules relevant. A person enquiring or downloading a form is not automatically agreeing to unrelated marketing.
For unsolicited electronic-mail marketing to individual subscribers, PECR generally requires consent or an applicable soft opt-in. Individual subscribers include householders, sole traders and ordinary partnerships. Calling the message “B2B” does not change a sole trader into a corporate subscriber.
The products/services soft opt-in has several conditions
The products/services soft opt-in concerns your own similar products/services where you obtained the contact details directly during a sale or negotiations for a sale. You must have offered an opt-out when collecting the details and give an opt-out in each later message. Keep evidence of all those conditions rather than relying only on “past customer”.
A bought-in list does not meet that direct-collection condition. A publicly visible email address is not consent. If using consent, keep the actual permission and the channel it covers. The separate charitable soft opt-in is not a route for ordinary trade-business promotions.
Three fictional cases to work through
- Past householder: You quoted for a repair and collected the address for that work. Before a later promotional message, check consent or every relevant soft-opt-in condition, including the opportunity to opt out at collection. An old invoice alone is not that evidence.
- New sole-trader contact: You found another electrician’s email on a website. The public address and business occupation do not supply permission for unsolicited marketing. The individual-subscriber rule remains relevant.
- Limited-company customer: Corporate-subscriber electronic-mail rules differ; PECR does not require consent on the same basis. Identify the sender, provide an opt-out, respect objections and apply data-protection duties where the contact details are personal data.
These fictional cases concern electronic-mail marketing. Check the guidance for the channel you intend to use.
Sources: ICO: electronic-mail marketing rules, ICO: marketing and data protection
Copy the permission and source record
- Purpose: requested quote/job administration or marketing: ___.
- Subscriber: individual/sole trader/partnership/corporate; evidence for the classification: ___.
- Source: where and when details were obtained directly: ___.
- Permission: actual consent wording/channel/date or each soft-opt-in condition and supporting record: ___.
- Scope: products/services covered; why this message fits: ___.
- Opt-out: opportunity at collection; route in this message; any objection already received: ___.
- Decision: authorised sender; send/do not send/unresolved; checked on: ___.
Keep the minimum necessary private record and respect an objection. Do not republish customer details in a case study or copy them into analytics. If a required fact is unresolved, resolve it before sending a promotion.
Keep the job message connected to the actual work
For requested work, the quote workflow and first-job pack help keep scope and customer agreement together. A record tool does not grant marketing permission or justify guessing a certificate renewal date.
For voluntary feedback after real work, use the honest-review guide. Ask without incentives or rating pressure and assess the communication purpose/permissions. Retain the customer’s communication choices with the relevant work.
Sources and references
Blake Folgado
Blake is a co-founder of Tradehand, a UK trades marketplace More from Blake
