Are you one of the businesses that has made the huge mistake of getting all of your valuable email list to opt in again to your emails? If you are then you are probably now looking at an email list of around 5-10% the size that is was before.
DID YOU KNOW – The majority of businesses simply don’t have to re-permission their email lists. For various reasons they have a legitimate interest in marketing to them and the rules for opt in opt out email marketing are actually covered by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Act, NOT GDPR.
We have been educating our clients on GDPR for months and trying to counter some of the scaremongering pedaled by the so called GDPR experts, consultants and trainers. See this article about GDPR safe tactics.
This article in The Guardian strikes a chord with me
Most GDPR emails unnecessary and some illegal, say experts – The Guardian
It really annoys me that the poor guidance and scaremongering in the industry will essentially damage businesses. This is not something that the regulation intended to do.
The misinformation around GDPR has been huge and in my view the Information Commissioners Office have to take some of the blame. They do provide some links on legitimate interest bases for keeping data (see below), but they are still running headline grabbing adverts telling all types of businesses to get consent etc.
Only just recently have they started to say that people don’t actually need to re permission their current databases if they already have either legitimate bases or consent for doing so.
You have a legitimate interest basis to email your customers, because they are your customers, as long as the email is related to what they bought from you. They can always opt out.
Another myth…
“You must have a cookie opt in to get consent on your site before you can do re marketing or track visits with Google Analytics.”
Simply not true. Such data generated in these circumstances is non intrusive and non sensitive and unambiguous consent can be considered granted in this case by somebody simply deciding to browse a Website.
If you have made the mistake of asking all of your email database to opt in again, please talk to us about working with you to get your digital marketing back on track. Contact us here
The good news is that with all of the mistakes companies are making by destroying their email lists, our clients’ emails are much more likely to be seen!