Would you like to use the e-mail addresses of your bookers or attendees to send them invitations to future events or regularly send them your general newsletters outside doo? doo offers you the technical possibility of obtaining these necessary authorizations in accordance with the law, so that you can legally use the collected contact data for the respective purposes. 

1. E-mail types at doo
2. Where can I see the  e-mail subscriptions of my contacts?
3. E-mail subscriptions characteristics and settings
4. Export/imports of e-mail subscription settings 

1. E-mail types at doo

The legal conditions for sending advertising e-mails in Germany are regulated by the Data Protection Basic Regulation (DSGVO) and the Unfair Competition Act (UWG). As a general rule, you need the consent of the relevant contact for every e-mail with advertising content so that you can send him this e-mail.

At doo we differentiate between three different e-mail types:  

Transaction e-mails: Transaction e-mails are e-mails whose dispatch is necessary for the fullfilment of a contract. When registering for an event via doo, these e-mails are, for example, booking confirmations, payment requests or release e-mails. Since these are not marketing mails, no separate consent must be obtained. To be on the safe side, you can regulate the dispatch of transaction e-mails in your general terms and conditions.

The situation is different for additional information and marketing e-mails that you would like to send to your contacts after their registration. A promotional e-mail is any e-mail whose content is directly or indirectly aimed at selling goods or services.

Event communication: This setting specifies whether you are authorized to send e-mail messages to a contact that are directly related to your events, such as event reminders, program announcements, or invitations to subsequent events. This permission is necessary to send contacts with the doo e-mail manager or to send them the automatic event reminder.

Newsletter: This authorization targets general promotional emails, for example if you have a general company newsletter or send promotions by e-mail. You can use your events at doo to collect this general consent in the course of registration, e.g. to pass it on to your marketing department. This e-mail subscription refers accordingly to e-mail communication that takes place outside of doo, e.g. via a newsletter tool.

For the last two e-mail types, you can use the doo booking process to obtain the respective authorizations for future e-mail delivery to your attendees and bookers.  

2. Where can I see the  e-mail subscriptions of my contacts?

The e-mail permissions are stored for each individual contact created in doo. You can see the e-mail subscriptions in the contact details. If you click on "Edit contact", you can adjust the settings.

If the checkbox "No marketing emails" is activated, the contact has actively unsubscribed from every advertising communication via the unsubscribe link. He only receives the e-mails that are necessary for the booking process, i.e. booking confirmation e-mails, payment processing e-mails and release e-mails.

3. E-Mail subscription characteristics and settings 

Since the legal requirements for the two types of e-mail subscription are different, there are separate processes and settings for event communication and newsletters.

3.1 Event communication

3.1.1. Settings and activation 

Event-specific e-mails such as event reminders or invitations to subsequent events can generally be legitimized with the "legitimate interest" according to §7 Para. 3 UWG. The legitimate interest facilitates marketing communication by e-mail in the case of an existing customer relationship under certain conditions. This includes the fact that e-mails may only contain advertising for similar products and services. This applies both to advertising content relating to the event booked and to invitations to subsequent events. For this reason, all bookers and attendees who register for your events are automatically classified by doo as recipients of these e-mails. In order for the legitimate interest to take effect, you must indicate in the booking process that you are sending corresponding advertising e-mails and that you give the opportunity to object. 

This note can be integrated into the booking process as an opt-out option. At doo, there are two ways to display it. You will find the corresponding setting in the 3rd step of event editing under "Advanced settings".

a) Checked checkbox at every e-mail address: For each attendee and the booker, an already checked checkbox is displayed with a text note, which you can define individually. If the box is deactivated when booking, the corresponding contact does not receive any further event communication that is not directly related to the booking process. 

b) General note in the second step of the booking process: A text note is displayed in which you can inform your bookers that they agree to the sending of subsequent event communication with the booking. There is no checkbox that he can use to object to this e-mail subscription directly at this point, but the text should contain a reference to other possible objections, such as an e-mail address.

3.1.2 Sample texts

You can enter any text. The following examples are non-binding suggestions, which should be individually checked by you and adapted to your application*.

Proposal 1: ABC GmbH will send you e-mails within the scope of event communication, e.g. supplementary information and notes on the booked event and invitations to similar events. You can object to the sending of these e-mails at any time, without incurring any costs other than the transmission costs according to the basic rates, by using the unsubscribe link contained in each e-mail or by sending an e-mail to unsubscribe@abc-gmbh.de.

 Proposal 2: In the context of event communication, ABC GmbH sends e-mails, e.g. with information and references to the booked event and invitations to similar events, to the e-mail addresses given. This consent can be revoked at any time by sending an e-mail to email@abc-gmbh.de or via the unsubscribe link contained in the e-mails.

3.1.3 Process for your booker

By default, every new attendee and booker who registers for your event and does not directly actively object by deactivating the corresponding checkbox will be saved in doo as an e-mail subscriber for your event communication.

When you send the event reminder, which is automatically sent by default 4 days before the event starts, and when you actively send messages via the doo e-mail manager, the system automatically checks whether you are authorized to write to the corresponding contacts with event communication. If this is not available, the contact will be skipped during sending.

If a subscriber receives an e-mail message or an automatic event reminder, they have the option of unsubscribing from future event communication via a unsubscribe link in the message. If he or she contacts you in another way, e.g. at the e-mail address you entered in the opt-out text field, you can also adjust the authorizations manually. To do this, call up the contact details page in doo and remove the e-mail subscription via "Edit contact". 

3.2. Newsletter

3.2.1 Settings and activation

For general marketing communication, such as newsletters, it is advisable to obtain authorization to send e-mails in advance using the so-called double opt-in procedure. For the activation a tick of the checkbox is not sufficient, but it must be confirmed afterwards still by e-mail.

In order to obtain the consent of your bookers for future newsletter sending, activate the option "Offer the option to subscribe to your newsletter via double opt-in on attendee and booking level" in the 3rd step of event editing in the Advanced Settings. Enter the text for the checkbox that the booker must actively tick in order to subscribe to your newsletter. Also select whether you want to activate the double opt-in procedure at booker, attendee or both levels. To be able to perform the double opt-in at attendee level, the name and e-mail address must be queried at attendee level.

3.2.2. Sample texts 

The following sample text can be used as a basis, but should be individually adapted to your application and checked by a lawyer*.

I would like to receive the newsletter of ABC GmbH with information and offers on its products by e-mail. My data will not be passed on to third parties. I can revoke my consent at any time by e-mail to email@abc-gmbh.de or via the unsubscribe link contained in the e-mails. 

3.2.3 Double-opt-in process for your booker

After a contact has indicated his interest in your newsletters by ticking the appropriate checkbox during registration and the booking has been completed, he will receive a further e-mail with a link in addition to the booking confirmation, by means of which he must confirm his consent to the newsletter sending. You can adjust the e-mail text individually in your e-mail content. After the attendee or booker has clicked on the link, the corresponding contact is noted in doo as the recipient of the e-mail subscription newsletter.

Even though doo offers the possibility to request e-mail permissions for newsletters, our platform does not offer the possibility to send newsletters via our platform. This function is therefore intended for doo users who maintain a newsletter distribution list outside of doo and write to it via an external tool.  

3.2.4 Important information for existing customers wishing to use the double opt-in procedure

If you have already used doo before 15.07.2019 and now want to start generating e-mail subscriptions for your newsletter using the double opt-in procedure, you should first remove the old newsletter e-mail subscriptions from the contact centre that have not yet been created using the double opt-in procedure.

Export all your contacts from the contact center once, change all entries in the column "Newsletter" to "0" and save the changed list as CSV. Afterwards you can import the list into doo again, where you should use the doo contact ID as identifier. This will remove all existing newsletter email subscriptions and from now on only those contacts will be marked as subscribers who have passed the double-opt-in procedure completely.

4. Export/import of e-mail-subscription permissions

4.1. Import

 If you import new contacts into doo for which you already have the permission for event communication in order to address them with the doo e-mail manager, make sure that you import the permissions directly with the contact upload. Add a new column "Event communication" to your list for the e-mail subscription, in which you enter a "1" for all contacts that can be contacted. When uploading, check that the column is assigned to the corresponding data field "Event communication". The corresponding checkbox will then automatically be checked for these contacts and you can then use the e-mail manager to write to them.

4.2 Export 

You can download the current e-mail subscription permissions at any time by exporting selected or all contacts from your contact center. The corresponding list contains separate columns for each subscription. Active subscriptions are marked with "1" in the corresponding column. For example, to get an up-to-date list of all newsletter recipients, export all your contacts, filter them by newsletter subscribers and import them into your external newsletter tool.

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* Please note that the information in this article does not constitute legal advice and that you should have your settings, formulations and permissions legally checked for your application. doo does not assume any liability for the information. When sending e-mails via doo, it is the responsibility of the organizer to ensure that the appropriate authorization or consent for a contact is present. The doo e-mail policy applies.