Keeping a do-not-contact list for marketing
Why a South African business must record who refused or objected to its marketing, how it proves consent, and how to stop contact for good.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa
"Please take me off your list." Most businesses that market by e-mail, SMS or phone hear it regularly, and most honour it at the time. The trouble comes later: the same person turns up again in an imported spreadsheet, a new salesperson calls them from an old lead list, or an automated follow-up carries on as though nothing was said.
South African law expects more than good intentions. The business must be able to show who said no, and must have a way of making sure no means no. It must also be able to show who said yes. This article explains the record the Information Regulator expects, who carries the burden of proof, the separate right to stop marketing under the Consumer Protection Act, and how Achekam's sequences and lead records help keep a refusal from being forgotten.
A database of refusals and objections
The Information Regulator's guidance note on direct marketing says a business must keep a database of people who have withheld consent or objected to direct marketing.
That covers two different groups:
- People who withheld consent. A non-customer you asked once, who said no or never agreed.
- People who objected. Someone who was being marketed to, perhaps as an existing customer, and asked for it to stop.
Both belong on the same list, and the list needs to be checked before anyone in the business sends marketing or makes a sales call. A list that sits in one salesperson's inbox does not do that job. The Regulator's guidance notes include its note on using personal information for direct marketing by e-mail, SMS or phone, and that note is where the database requirement comes from.
The onus of proving consent
The same guidance note says the business bears the onus of proving that a person consented. Put simply: if a recipient says "I never agreed to this", the business has to produce the evidence that they did.
That turns consent records from a nice-to-have into the business's defence. For each person you market to on the basis of consent, you should be able to show what they agreed to, when and how. For existing customers, the guidance note sets its own conditions, including that the customer was given a free and simple chance to object when their details were collected and in every message; the record should show that too. Those conditions are explained in marketing to existing customers under POPIA.
Stop requests under the Consumer Protection Act
The Consumer Protection Act adds its own right. The CPA text published on the government's page, as originally published, gives anyone approached for direct marketing the right to demand that it stop, and requires the marketer to have procedures to receive such demands.
"Procedures" means more than an inbox. Someone must be responsible for receiving stop requests, whichever channel they arrive through, and for making sure they reach the list.
The Regulator's guidance note adds the other side of the same coin: every direct marketing message must identify the sender and give an address or contact details where the recipient can ask for the messages to stop. A message that does not say who it is from, or gives no way to opt out, falls short of the guidance note whatever the consent position.
A stop-request procedure in five steps
- Name the person responsible for the do-not-contact list.
- List every channel a stop request can arrive through: reply e-mails, unsubscribe links, phone calls, WhatsApp, social media messages.
- Make sure each request reaches the list the same day.
- Check the list before every campaign, call list or import.
- Keep the request itself, with its date, as evidence.
Sequences that stop when a lead says it is not interested
Automated follow-ups are where objections are most often ignored, because nobody is reading each message as it goes. In Achekam, a business can build follow-up sequences of tasks and e-mails that, once switched on, enrol leads and stop when the lead replies, books a meeting, is won or lost, or says it is not interested.
A few details matter for compliance. A new sequence starts paused, so nothing goes out until someone switches it on. Once it is on, sequence e-mails are sent without anyone reading each one, which is a reason to review every step carefully before switching it on, and to make sure each e-mail identifies the business and gives a way to ask for messages to stop. At most one automatic e-mail goes to an address in any 12 hours.
Newsletters work the same way. Achekam lets a business keep a mailing list, design newsletters and send or schedule campaigns, with an unsubscribe link in every letter. The unsubscribe link is one of the channels in step two above, and it should feed the same do-not-contact list as everything else. Telephone contact has its own rules, set out in sales calls and POPIA consent.
Why leads are closed, not deleted
When someone objects, the instinct can be to delete them from the system altogether. That is usually the wrong move, because deleting the record deletes the evidence of the objection, and the next import can bring the person straight back.
In Achekam, a lead that someone has worked cannot be deleted; leads are closed as lost instead. The record of the contact, and of how it ended, stays in the system. An administrator can delete a lead only while it is still New, has not become a client and has no proposal, and the CRM screens have no single-lead delete button.
That design suits the do-not-contact obligation. A closed lead that ended with "not interested" is part of the history you may need to show. Make sure the reason for closing is clear to anyone who opens the record later, so that whoever finds the person again can see at once why they should not be contacted.
One list, checked every time
Whatever tools you use, the obligation reduces to one list of people who said no, fed from every channel and checked before every campaign, call or import. Name its owner this week, and make checking it a standing step in every marketing task.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
