Better data means better marketing

By Elliot Paynter, head of digital, Ignition CBS.

We’ve been running free seminars on GDPR since March. When we started there was little awareness about the topic.

Now most businesses are aware of what’s changing but still one in four marketers believe their businesses are unprepared, according to a Direct Marketing Association survey.

Ready or not GDPR is happening and it will have a massive impact on B2B marketing, particularly email marketing. Contacting people to confirm their marketing communication preferences is a form of marketing in itself.

You can't email people asking for consent if they haven't given it once the new rules are in force. So the process of opting in your email data has to start NOW. And by embracing what’s required you can actually use GDPR to your advantage.

Your online subscription forms can give you insights into the interests of each individual in your database.

Rather than asking for a simple yes or no, give options allowing people to choose the topics, products, services and events they would like to receive more information about. This will help you to further segment your audience and tailor your message and content of your emails based on specific interests.

And this brings me neatly onto my final point, the WIFM (What’s In It For Me) factor! Under GDPR it has to be as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it. So when crafting your email campaigns don’t just think about the action you want your recipients to take, but also what benefit or value there is to reading your content and to engaging with your business on a regular basis.