What’s great about GDPR? I\’m willing to bet the majority of you find it an annoying distraction. Something which you\’ll do grudgingly because you must but you’ll grumble that you have much more important things to do. Sorta like when you were made tidy your room as a child instead of playing outside. There is no denying that becoming compliant with the GDPR Regulations is something which requires resources and the adoption of a new way of thinking. It requires investment in secure storage, staff training, structures and a complete overhaul of existing databases. And this is the main bugbear of most people. The contact lists we\’ve collected over time are now being mercilessly culled down to a fraction of their original size. How many emails have you received asking you to sign up to the new communications? Dozens? Hundreds? Certainly a lot. Its probable that only a fraction, say maybe 10%, of those on the existing lists will resubscribe. There is a tendency to view this as a disaster and viewed in terms of reach its certainly not ideal to lose 90% of your audience. However GDPR is forcing companies to reassess their communications. If only 10% of your existing list find your communications interesting and relevant enough to continue to subscribe you have to consider a number of things
- The nature of the content you are sending. More than likely it requires urgent review. Listening exercises may be necessary to understand what customers would really like to receive information on. Offers, New Products, \”How To\” advice, do you actually know? Monitoring Open and Engagement rates will also provide valuable feedback.
- Are 90% of the current list(s) irrelevant? Should they be on the data set? It\’s possible that a large portion of these recipients have emigrated onto the mailing list through clumsy merging over time and were never intended to receive much of the information sent. If your accountant is a 50 year old woman and your company retail mens workwear it\’s no wonder she may not be delighted to see your latest newsletter appear in her inbox. The remaining 10% of your list are your core customers that are responding to your current communications.
- By identifying this 10% and the messages which resonate with them you can also see what audiences you are not reaching and begin crafting messaging which reaches these groups. For example if your workwear company also sells hard wearing adventure clothing for both sexes are you crafting messages that cut through and impact these segments. Do you have separate specific contact groups?
Like a scowling child being forced to clean its bedroom GDPR is forcing us to clean up or lists. OK so we lose significant contacts however in many cases they may not have been our target audience(s) anyways. So in the medium to long terms GDPR will help get our house in order and make drive efficiencies by helping to target our communications. Hey, it\’s here to stay so embrace it and it will be good for you.
