GDPR Is Here. Are Your Subscriber Lists Ready?

Email marketers have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of GDPR, the European Union’s new privacy law that went into effect on May 25, 2018. The law raised the bar of consent in email marketing, and marketers should have prepared for changes in how they can collect and store this consent to meet the new requirements.

So why have even the best email marketers gotten headaches over these changes? GDPR not only applies to new consents collected after the law was implemented, but to all EU contacts currently in databases. As the new regulations become mandates, email marketers must prepare for enforcement. The best solution to ensure current subscribers are protected: re-permission campaigns.

The purpose of a re-permission campaign is to refresh your subscribers’ email consent. As you fret over additional work, consider that issuing a re-permission campaign kills two birds with a single stone. On one hand, you are ensuring your subscribers’ consents are compliant with GDPR. At the same time, you are doing standard list maintenance.

So, are you ready to dive into a re-permission campaign? Here are some tips on getting the consent you want – and need – to conform with the new law:

• Define the potential business impact of GDPR on your campaign. Campaigns are the most successful when thoroughly planned. Determine how many subscribers will need to be re-permissioned and how many of them are active before pulling the trigger on a consent campaign. This data should help inform the scope of your project and set target goals for re-permission.

• Re-permission campaigns don’t have to consist of a single email. If GDPR could affect a large portion of your business, consider a multi-touch approach to increase the likelihood of responses. It’s okay to send multiple emails with increasing urgency to subscribers who have not engaged with your messages. If you’re having trouble getting people to open your consent-specific emails, consider incorporating re-permission language in your normal promotional emails.

• Match your message to your audience. Does your audience know about GDPR? If not, you might think about explaining the law and your efforts to become compliant to subscribers. However, if reaching consumers, it might be better to spare them the details of GDPR. Look at a re-permission campaign as an opportunity to have fun and get creative with your messaging. Encourage subscribers to take part in your spring cleaning or list overhaul and make them feel empowered by giving them all the options to optimize their experience with your emails.

GDPR should allow you to evaluate your subscriber list to determine what type of re-permission campaign you will need to deploy to help your business overcome the new mandated changes.

Looking for more information on GDPR? Check this out.