3+1 steps to align your email contact database with GDPR

The EU Data Protection Regulation regulates, among other things, email communication with customers. If you have a database of contacts in your company that you send newsletters to, you will need to bring it into line with the new rules by 25 May


Do you also use email to communicate with customers? Then your contact database will also be subject to the new rules

from the end of May as the GDPR comes into force.

When it comes to emailing, the new GDPR focuses in particular on customer consent to receive newsletters and commercial offers. In this regard, you will probably have no choice but to sort and purge your contacts. We've put together a guide to make your job as easy as possible.

1. Segment your customers by their activity
In order to keep your customers' personal data, including email addresses, in your database, you need a legal reason to do so. To do this, sort your contacts by their activity. You can use this to categorize them into active, inactive and others.

Active customers have purchased from you at least once and agreed to send you offers (or entered into a contract). You can continue to send newsletters to contacts in this group without having to get consent from them again. However, you will need consent if you want to use these contacts for other purposes. However, these customers must still be informed of the option to unsubscribe from the emails each time they contact you.

Inactive customers are those customers to whom you keep sending emails, but their response is zero - they don't buy, they don't open the emails. Think about whether it would be better to delete such contacts straight away. An option would be to include them in the database to get their consent again.

Other customers are visitors to your website who have requested to be included in the email database, for example by filling in a form, without ever entering into a contract or making a purchase from your e-shop. You will definitely need to obtain consent from them again on 25 May.

2. Devise a campaign to regain consent
Once you've divided up your customers, prepare a campaign to reach out to the group of contacts from whom you lack consent. For example, devise a campaign in which you reward customers in some way for renewing consent, such as a discount on a purchase, bonus points or a free course

.

Also, in this email you should briefly introduce yourself and describe the benefits subscribers will receive. It will be absolutely essential to add a reference to your "Privacy Policy" in the message. Remember that this email must also include an option to unsubscribe from the newsletter.

3. Please delete any dissenting customers
You will have to delete the contacts of customers who do not give you consent again by 25 May from your database after that date. This will be painful but necessary for your marketing communications to work in line with the principles of the Data Protection Regulation. This will ensure that you only contact customers who are interested in communicating with you and maintaining a relationship.

4. Say thank you
Be sure to thank all customers who have given you permission to re-subscribe. Deliver what you promised - send a discount coupon, add points, invite to a class.

If you run into any snags while cleaning up your database, don't hesitate to contact us. We specialize in GDPR-related changes, so we'll be happy to advise you as well.