While you may be sick to death of the mushy messages and commercial content around Valentine’s day, you have to admit there is a lot to love in the world.
As a single lady, it can be tempting to roll my eyes at it all, but instead of rocking backwards and forwards clutching a tub of rocky road while listening to Kelly Clarkson at full blast, I prefer to focus on love in its non-romantic forms. Cupid may be stupid, but love and gratitude can be found in the strangest of places. Oddest of all, I have a lot of love for the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation, which is a source of confusion and fear for many people.
Let me tell you why:
- The existing Data Protection Regulation is horrifically out of date. It was formed in 1998, a year when Google didn’t exist and Smartphones hadn’t been conceived. The amount of data now available on each of us on a daily basis would have boggled the mind in 1998. So, to say it’s time for an update is an understatement.
- Enforced boundaries. Unfortunately, a lot of companies will only respect an individual’s privacy as much as they are legally required to. Worse still, many completely ignore regulations and instead add the cost of a fine into their marketing budget! The fines that will be enforceable under GDPR mean it’s no longer an option to ignore data protection regulations, as the fine could cripple a company.
- Better customer relationships. GDPR is really just enforcing ethical, good quality marketing, which fosters trust in your brand and in the long run, increased sales. Aspects like asking for consent before contacting, and being specific about the information that will be sent to a prospect should be customer relationship management 101, and not doing so will only damage your relationship with potential and existing customers.
- Better quality lists. Most email marketing services charge higher rates according to the number of people on your list. But often these lists are compiled from a range of sources, leading to poor quality, bloated and expensive lists that just won’t deliver ROI. An emphasis is often put on the size of, rather than the quality of an email list, but once lists are cleansed to remove those where there is no evidence of consent, you should see increased open and click-through rates. After all, these are the people who have actually said they would like to be contacted by you.
- It enforces existing regulations. In reality, companies who are already following the DPA (Data Protection Act) and PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations) won’t have much work to do in preparation for May 25th. However, others are sitting up and taking notice, with the lower level of fine under GDPR being up to €10 million or 2% of the company’s global annual turnover of the previous financial year; whichever is higher.
- Email marketing will improve. We are all consumers at the end of the day, and most of us are fed up with the rubbish in our inboxes. However, email marketing has the potential to be a great quality medium for communication. Away from the algorithm updates of social media platforms, email marketing allows you to maintain your relationships with your clients. Tidier inboxes means those that do email marketing well will benefit.
So, in summary, however difficult GDPR may be to adopt in your company it is a good thing – in fact, an excellent thing – for consumers and marketers alike. It forces marketers to do better quality marketing, use the tools at their disposal and offer value in their communications to keep people coming back for more and engaging with their brand. If you’re not sure how to use GDPR to your advantage, join us on the 28th of February 2018 for our half-day seminar “GDPR compliant marketing and the ePrivacy update”.
Coming soon: “My love letter to the ePrivacy update.”
I’m joking
(or am I?)
MD & Head of Digital Marketing
Jessica has worked in digital marketing for over 10 years and has watched it evolve from an experimental marketing option to an essential tool for most businesses. She is driven to help businesses achieve their objectives using the best digital marketing resources available and recognises that each business is different. Jessica devours the latest news about digital marketing and is constantly learning in order to stay ahead of the trends for clients.
