Email marketing: Permission-based lists, newsletters, automation, and deliverability

Email marketing is a method of communicating regularly and directly with customers by sending newsletters, campaign announcements, and behavior-triggered automated emails to subscribers who have given permission. On social media, the platform decides who sees a post; an email list, however, is the business’s own asset, and the message goes directly to the inbox. This channel, called email marketing in English-language sources, is a powerful tool for repeat purchases, appointment reminders, and customer loyalty when set up correctly; when set up incorrectly, messages end up in spam and the business faces legal risks.

This page explains, in order, consent and İYS (Turkey’s commercial message registry) rules for commercial electronic messages in Turkey, domain authentication, Gmail and Yahoo bulk sender requirements, list management, segmentation, automation, and measurement. Sections concerning legislation are written for information and do not constitute legal advice. Onur Freelance handles setup and management from Gülsuyu, Maltepe, working face to face in Istanbul and remotely in other areas; no numerical promises are made for opens, clicks, or sales.

Which businesses is email marketing suitable for?

Email is a suitable channel for any business with recurring purchases or service relationships. E-commerce stores, subscription and membership systems, appointment-based clinics and salons, educational institutions, and B2B companies with long proposal processes lead this group; the channel’s contribution may be limited in businesses where a sale happens once and the customer does not return for years.

The channel’s value lies in reaching the customer a second and third time. The first purchase often comes from advertising or search; email carries subsequent orders, maintenance reminders, and new product announcements without requiring a new advertising budget each time.

The scope of email marketing services includes selecting and configuring the sending platform, domain authentication, subscription forms, template design, automation workflows, regular newsletters, and measurement. Projects requiring integration with store infrastructure are planned together with e-commerce website development.

Consent and İYS rules for sending commercial email in Turkey

In Turkey, emails, SMS messages, and calls sent for promotional or marketing purposes are considered ‘commercial electronic messages’ under Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce and, as a rule, cannot be sent without the recipient’s prior consent. Details are governed by the Regulation on Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages; consent and refusal records are managed through the Message Management System (İYS).

The regulation’s main provisions relevant to email sending are:

• Individuals and legal entities wishing to send commercial messages register with İYS; commercial messages cannot be sent to recipients without consent recorded in İYS.
• Consent can be obtained in writing, electronically, or through İYS; the consent text must contain the recipient’s affirmative declaration of intent, which cannot be preselected.
• Consent obtained outside İYS must be recorded in İYS within three business days; consent that is not recorded is considered invalid.
• A commercial message cannot be sent to request consent; emailing a list without permission to ask for permission also falls under this rule.
• Consent to messages cannot be imposed as a precondition for the goods or services offered.
• Every message must offer an opt-out; refusal must be easy and free through the same channel as the message, and sending must stop within three business days after receipt of the request.
• Messages must include the MERSİS number (Turkey’s central trade registry system number) and trade name for merchants, or the full name and Turkish national identification or tax identification number for tradespeople.
• Consent records must be retained for three years after the consent ceases to be valid.

Messages not requiring consent and recipients who are merchants or tradespeople

Prior consent is not required for messages such as order confirmations, delivery notifications, payment reminders, and information about an ongoing subscription; however, under the regulation, these notifications cannot promote any goods or services. Messages may also be sent to recipients who are merchants or tradespeople without prior consent; in this case, addresses are registered in İYS before sending, and whether the recipient has exercised the right to refuse is checked.

This section is a general summary of the legislation and does not constitute legal advice. Consulting a lawyer is appropriate for consent texts, the KVKK (Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Law) privacy notice, and industry-specific situations.

What are SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and why are they necessary?

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are three DNS records that prove to receiving servers that the email genuinely comes from the domain owner. If these records are missing, messages may end up in spam or never be delivered, however well the email marketing campaign has been prepared.

If a newsletter platform is used, sending is configured to authenticate with the business’s domain rather than the platform’s own domain. If the same domain handles daily correspondence and bulk sending, using a separate subdomain for marketing messages helps protect the reputation of corporate email.