Marketers will know that it’s the quality of their data that will allow them to yield the best results from their email marketing campaigns. Data is a golden commodity.

So it’s not uncommon to see data being purchased, often without the consumer’s opted-in consent.

Cue the EU and their battalion of policy makers!

The EU have recently finalised the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), along with a new Data Protection Directive, that provides a single set of rules for all companies offering services within the EU. This marks the biggest change in data protection law for 20 years and underpins the EU’s strict stance on data protection and privacy. Click here for full details.

While these changes will not come into force until 2018, we advise that you look to get ahead of the storm.

What does this mean for Digital Marketers?

The potential threat of substantial fines and consumers having the right to claim damages for misuse of their information means that digital marketers will need to a) be sure to adopt the correct procedures to grow their database and b) ensure that the data they use in their marketing campaigns are collected with the recipients full consent.

The new opt-in permission rules requires that all data used for marketing is audited against these new standards and if it does not conform then consent will need to be requested again.

Is this for better or for worse?

While these changes may make life a little more difficult for some email marketers and may even result in some data having to be removed from your database, it will improve your campaign results and allow you to get a much better return in the long-run. It will effectively cleanse your database, filtering out old and potentially dangerous data so that only those that are interested in engaging with your brand continue to receive your campaigns – boosting your open and click rates.

Another plus is that it can also improve email deliverability as the chances of receiving spam complaints and hitting spam traps becomes mitigated.

We anticipate that this is only one of many changes in future that will make data protection and privacy laws far more stringent, so begin taking steps today to stay ahead of the game.

If you are a Campaignmaster client and have any questions on how you can become more data compliant then feel free to get in touch with your account manager who can discuss an appropriate strategy with you.