Email marketing to your existing and prospective customers is one of the most popular and effective forms of marketing to generate new business. But how you communicate your digital sales and marketing messages may be about to change.
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was passed in April this year and will formally apply from May 2018, is set to have a massive impact on B2B digital marketing strategies and how you engage existing and prospective customers, particularly via email.
Split in to two parts, the EU (GDPR) legislation is designed to create a harmonised data protection framework across the EU. Firstly, you must have consent to use cookies on your website to track a user’s behaviour (something all our clients’ websites already have in place). Secondly, you must have written consent to send someone an email.
In the UK we have generally adopted a ‘soft’ opt-in approach. For example, we have been able to market to individuals who we’ve exchanged business cards with or who have checked a box giving us permission to send information. And we can also buy email data lists of target customers who have previously agreed (maybe inadvertently) to receive marketing information from third parties, and email them – as long as we provide an option for them to opt-out of receiving future communications. But under the new legislation simply being able to opt-out will not be good enough and you will need someone to doubly confirm that you have their permission to market to them.
From May 2018 a ‘double opt-in’ for marketing communications means customers will need to opt in by ticking a box or submitting their details and email address, but they will have to ‘confirm’ their opt-in by clicking a link in a confirmation email or by responding to the confirmation email.
And, though this is EU legislation, Brexit will have zero impact on the UK’s necessity to comply.
This all sounds quite negative doesn’t it?
Well it’s actually a good thing. Though the legislation was established for data protection purposes, it also recognises that consumers are more informed and have less time than ever before. When your data has been cleansed by the double opt-in, the people you will ultimately be communicating with are the ones who genuinely want to hear from you.
As American entrepreneur and marketer Seth Godin put it: “Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to receive them.”
At Vizulate Digital we’ve always tried to dissuade our clients from buying mailing lists, mainly because the quality of the data can’t be guaranteed (despite their expense), but most importantly we ask them: ‘Why would you want to email people who may not want to be emailed, or have no interest in your products or services?’
Of course, when buying data you can try to narrow down the type of customers you want to target by specifying the geographical area, job titles, sectors or industry etc. But ultimately it’s speculation. You’re hoping that whoever opens the email likes what they see, and ultimately buys your products or services.
However, to achieve that goal you need a lot of things to happen. You need the quality of the data you’ve bought to be reasonably accurate, and up to date. You need your marketing email to be delivered, opened, read, and clicked, and all by somebody who has likely never heard of you or from you before. The odds are against you.
But, let’s assume you beat the odds and from 100 emails sent out you get one sale or solid lead, but a further 20 people unsubscribe after your first email campaign. That’s 20 people who you can never contact again.
At Vizulate Digital we do things differently. We encourage our clients to adopt and embrace permission marketing and build in all the necessary hooks for this when designing and developing their websites.
In short, we bring your customers to you. We do this by ensuring your target customers can find and use your website when they need or want your products or services. Then, we aim to keep them as customers by encouraging them to sign up to receive emails about your latest news, offers, products or services.
The result? You may be sending emails to fewer people, but you’re marketing to people who have specifically requested to receive your information. They may not buy from you on this occasion, but they are unlikely to unsubscribe from future mailings too. They’re interested in your products, your services, your brand, and they are a much higher quality lead that can be nurtured over time.
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