We allow customers to opt-out of sharing for our marketing purposes to offer our products and services to you. However, we are having a bit of discussion about how we define "marketing" in this instance.

I understand that communication about their accounts specifically do not fall into this bucket as they are sharing for everyday business purpose. But what about those communications such as a birthday card or an invite to a branch open house - are those considered marketing in your opinion?

Appreciate feedback of what others are doing. Thanks!

There's no industry standard for what is and is not "marketing." Rather than hammering out a definition, you might want to borrow the concept used in the federal CAN-SPAM law. Exempt messages are called "transaction or relationship messages" and that sounds similar to the type of communications you question.

In our shop if someone wants to opt-out of communication or marketing, they receive nothing from us other than the required regulatory notices or any warnings, alerts or communications they've opted to receive (balance alerts, fraud alerts, etc).