The General Data Protection Regulation privacy rules are changing on the 25th of May 2018. It’s going to change the way we use email marketing, so here’s what you need to know as a small business…
CONSENT
The most important change is that as a business you can no longer assume consent when you acquire customer data. In a nutshell: when a customer makes a purchase, you can’t then plonk their details into your email marketing list. You must have proof of consent when you capture consumer data and it must be clear to them what it is they are signing up to.
The one-off ‘opt-in’ style agreements just won’t cut it.
Once they have opted in you must make it easy for your customers to update their preferences as well as the option to not only opt-out at any time but for their data to be ‘forgotten’.
CONTENT
As well as the changes to sign-up rules, the content you share with your users will have some restrictions. You can only market to your customer on the specific topic or activity that they opted-in to. This means you might need sub-category opt-in options if your business offers a range of products or services.
For us these changes bring a silver lining… it means our list of subscribers will become more targeted and we expect engagement to grow. We can share and educate customers on products and services that they are genuinely interested in, and we won’t have to worry about spam build ups in our own inboxes. It also means data and analytics gathered from reports will be much more useful and useable.
In a world where we are constantly being inundated with information, an important part of our email marketing strategy is to focus on quality information and content over quantity of emails. We believe in standing out through being creative, engaging and building loyal relationships, meaning these changes will be beneficial to our marketing rather than a hindrance.
If you’re an AM client we’ve got this in the bag for you and will be letting you know if there are any specific changes you need to make.
Queue the big sigh of relief…
If you are worried about how these changes will affect you or your business, contact the #ateam for advice.