General Data Protection Regulation covers countries of the European Union and its citizens’ data, wherever in the world it might be processed. If you’d rather not hear from me, just let me know and I’ll delete your information.”. GDPR holds that security measures must be taken to ensure that personal data is protected against unauthorised or unlawful processing of the data, destruction or damage. To what extent GDPR will impact email marketing in B2B businesses depends on what you read. GDPR applies to any organization or entity which processes data of EU citizens, regardless of where in the world that data is actually processed. First, let’s get this out of the way: GDPR rules target individuals, not businesses. Find out what you can do about it. Contact list building should be precisely targeted and accurate. Check out the infographic below for some GDPR email marketing consent form examples: This might be starting to sound repetitive, but collect only the data that you need. The corporate email points at an individual at a business. Each B2B cold email including a commercial offer should provide a way for the addressee to sign out of further correspondence. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The GDPR is an EU regulation. How can the data owners delete all their data from your database? Disclaimer: we are not lawyers, this is not legal advice. For us at Market Republic, GDPR meant a lot of talking about it with our (potential) clients. Data owners have to give you explicit consent, either email consent or through opt-in forms, as long as it is active consent, which they can withdraw at any time. It is in light of these doubts that we are sharing this overview of GDPR and why it is important, especially when it comes to sending emails. Under GDPR, you have to be to explain to them why you have collected their data, how it has been processed, and where it is being stored. Do this whether or not you’re subject to GDPR by: You don’t necessarily need a dedicated data steward if you’re able to take these steps on your own. If your average Joe cannot understand your documents, then they are not GDPR compliant. Personal data collected must be deleted when it is no longer needed. Read on to find out how B2B email communication is affected by GDPR. Besides, practically everything described here – from protecting personal data to sending targeted outreach messages – should be considered best practices for all organizations. Do you want to hear about how we can significantly contribute to your sales growth? Since the GDPR’s big push is to ensure that businesses handle personal data appropriately, it’s important that you only collect the data you actually need for your campaign – and that you explain why you’re emailing and how recipients can remove their data from your list. Moreover, your privacy policy and terms of conditions have to be written in simple language that anyone can understand. There is not one appropriate form for this. In both cases, the users have to have the option to withdraw consent. This certainly pays off in the long run, although it is time consuming. They are merely following the instructions for data processing given to them by the data controller. If sending cold emails is the purpose for data collecting, then there is no need for you to collect a prospect’s phone number. At least one of these must apply whenever you process personal data. As far as opt-in lists go, you have to tell people exactly what they are signing up for. As was already said, be sure to include a way for the recipient to edit or delete their data in your cold email. For example, take a look at Woodpecker’s GDPR compliant Mailchimp email footer which includes this information: In contrast to cold emailing, since the person gave consent to what you were offering, it is okay to process their data until they withdraw said consent. But this will come to … Not only do these laws apply to organizations based in the EU, but they also applyto anyone who stores or processes data on an EU citizen. Spamming every address you can find with your CRM, You have to be clear about how you found their information (no lawyer-speak here), You have to actually delete their data immediately if they ask you to, Have a legal basis (aka, a specific, targeted reason) for sending the message, Clearly specify what personal information you’re using, why you’re using it and how you’re storing it, Not hold personal information longer than necessary, Only giving data access to people who need it, Making sure any data you’ve stored is secure while you process it, Only holding on to data for as long as you need it, Not sharing data with anyone else, without informing the prospect you’re doing so. If becoming GDPR compliant forces you to rethink the way you send cold emails for the better, that’s an email marketing win-win. For starters, identify whether you are a data controller or a data processor. By collecting data that you do not have a plan for, you are only heightening the risks in case of a data breach and making your database more difficult to access and manage. But it introduces a new framework that impacts how people send emails in a professional context. The question posed here is how long after the expiration of the agreement is the data owner still considered a customer. As for B2C marketing, you would have to have them explicitly opt-in at the time of purchase with the checkbox unchecked by default. Depending on the state of your lists, the dirty data could actually be costing you sales. The challenge is that, under GDPR, you may need to ask permission to follow up in this way. Having said all that, there’s one last thing we need to clear up. It’s a big risk for any sales organization to go blindly into GDPR… Be clear and honest when you tell them how you did this – legally, fairly and transparently. How to Do Cold B2B Email Marketing Post-GDPR The EU working parties that introduced the new regulation noted that the words are still quite loose when it comes to cold email. As much of the press coverage has centred around consent and the individual’s right to privacy, there have been many misconceptions about what GDPR actually means for B2B email outreach. Your organisation has to be clear when justifying the collection of certain data, and may only use said data for the original purpose. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Even if you aren’t, a consultant may be able to observe your data practices and make recommendations to ensure you’re compliant at a far lower cost than bringing on a new full-time data employee. Have you heard about these rumours that GDPR may kill the success of newsletters and email campaigns? For accounting obligations, as businesses are obligated to produce taxation reports and financial records, you are able to keep contact details and contact history. For example, reaching out to a company you’ve discovered is using your competitors’ SaaS product because they left a review of it on Product Hunt in order to pitch your solution as a replacement is related to their business activity. Now that we have gone over these principles, let’s review emailing under GDPR and principles directly affecting these practices. So, for example, if you have the name and number of a business contact on file, or their email address identifies them (eg initials.lastname@company.com), the GDPR … Find out how does GDPR affects our prospecting, SDR outsourcing and other email marketing services so you can avoid legal problems when using them. In short – How to send GDPR compliant B2B cold emails, prospect list building or SDR outsourcing, 12 Strategic Mistakes Startups Make in Sales [How to Avoid Them], Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy. Great question. Whether you are making you contact list yourself or having someone make it for you, the manner in which you obtain this data has to be legal, fair and transparent. Many recipients always claim that the B2B email marketers must not send them cold emails because that action is unsolicited. Finally, justify what you need the certain data for on the form. You have to be able to explain why the company you emailed is a legitimate interest, and include the explanation in your email. That makes your cold email reader want to gag. To get to this level of specificity, you’re going to need to segment your lists and closely personalize your cold emails based on your prospects’ business needs. You don’t need a data process administrator to do this (quite frankly, most companies don’t have the money to do this anyways). You have to target someone who could actually benefit from what you are offering, someone who is logically a potential customer. The short answer is, yes it is personal data. The good news is, if you’re already following cold email best practices – that is, you aren’t “spraying and praying” or spamming people with irrelevant messages – you’re half way there already. However, the time frame necessary is not specified by GDPR. That is the precisely what the principle of data minimisation entails. As soon as they read the cold email, they should be able to make a logical connection between what you do and what they do under what is known as legitimate interest, a lawful reason for data processing. They do not have the data, and they do not control the data. It is argued that companies should keep the data for as long as the data owner is considered a customer. Enable and clearly describe to your contacts the process of editing their data or having it removed altogether. If you are ‘cold emailing’ you are probably promoting a product or service to a bulk but targeted list. Inaccurate or incomplete data has to be edited, updated or erased. It is the email address of one specific person. There is no established time period for deleting the data, but some norm is that you should delete it after 30 days with no response. However, note that some countries demands opt-ins prior to sending cold emails. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Any customer relationship management (CRM) storage option that you use must be GDPR compliant. Get new posts and best from the web once a week. If it is an email subscription, it’s more than likely that you won’t need the person’s phone number. Is it legal? As you can see, you don’t have to use a cold unsubscribe link. This is the cold email format that I used to attract a $20,000 client for my business, and get another client a 33% uplift in replies on their recent cold email campaign. Cold emailing is a way of generating interest and alerting people about a product or service. It is therefore suggested that your initial email asks for consent before resuming marketing or sales activities. The organization is also required to possess documentation to be able to prove this. To make sure your email doesn’t violate GDPR, download our free Checklist for GDPR Compliant Emails. You can still send them. The good news is, you can still use cold email for sales outreach – as long as you send messages that comply with CAN-SPAM regulations. Most marketers like to throw cold email contacts into a nurture sequence after the initial engagement. What this actually means is that if someone asks you about where and how you obtained their personal data, you have to be able to clearly answer this question. It is about personal data protection. So does that mean that if you’re U.S.-based, you don’t need to worry? They aren’t ideal from a marketing standpoint, but may be an option if you aren’t able to meet the specificity of purpose guidelines described above. Plunking every email you encounter into a generic nurture sequence may not (unless you’re able to incentivize recipients to clearly and explicitly opt into receiving marketing messages). Let’s say this once again – GDPR is not here to kill email marketing. But improving the … And one question being asked frequently is about the ways in which email communication is regulated under GDPR. The lists are up to date (data is 2-3 days old at max), the data is 98% accurate and really strict ICP and buyer persona profiles are defined according to legitimate interest. Collect only the data you need. Another option would be to call the company phone and get consent that way. [email protected] does count as personal data. 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