Let me first start by clearing out the obvious – we are not lawyers. But we do love to abide by all the laws and regulations.
Speaking of laws, there’s been a lot of buzz around the term – GDPR.
Hence, we, in this blog will help you understand the importance and necessity of being GDPR compliant.
Worried about losing your subscribers count?
Make sure to read the complete blog as it shares the best insights on how to retain subscribers while being GDPR compliant
What is GDPR?
GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It is the new set of guidelines that dictate how individuals and companies may handle the details of their clientele.
In simpler words, it gives certain abilities to the customers/subscribers to control what companies do with their personal information.
Who does GDPR affect?
If you have customers/subscribers residing in the European Union, you should be following the guidelines of GDPR even if you operate outside the E.U.
Why do we need to be GDPR compliant?
The ultimate goal of GDPR is to improve the trust in the digital arena. Clearly, the guidelines are laid and developed with the sole purpose to strengthen individual’s rights and privacy.
There are few of the important rights GDPR provides for the user:
- Right to access – Through this right, a user can access his personal data stored in the system without paying any fees.
- Right to be forgotten – Users can request to delete all the personal data from the system and it has to be honored.
- Right to object – If you find that your data is being used for any other activity then you can raise an objection.
- Breach notification – You, as a GDPR compliant system must inform your customers/subscribers within 72 hours in case of the data breach.
Basic Guidelines To Be GDPR ready
- Go through your email list to check if you have any subscribers from E.U.
- Request for their re-consent before 25th May 2018 and notify them that you are GDPR ready. Remove users who do not give their consent.
- Your users should know what information you are storing and how you are using it.
- You must ensure to continue using these measures for all new users getting into the system.
We, at MailGet, makes it easy for you to revalidate with our new GDPR template. All you have to do is clone the template, customize it and send it to your email list.
How To Retain Your Subscribers?
One breather that GDPR provides is – you need to send emails to the customers residing in the E.U. only.
But with the increasing number of customers, you often fail to keep a track on their geographic location. So, the logical step would be to get the help of an email enricher tool.
What’s an Email Enricher tool?
It is an online service which fetches certain basic information like first name, last name, geographic location, etc. of an email address. And, lucky for you, we have just the perfect tool for your needs – MailGet Email Enricher.
Note – MailGet Email enricher can fetch up to 50-60% of the enriched data in the typical tests that we have conducted. It is surely better than having no data at all.
How Would MailGet Email Enricher Help You Retain Your Subscribers?
Suppose, you have an email list of 10,000 subscribers. Since you are unaware of your subscribers’ location, you would send an email to each and every subscriber asking them for their consent.
But, if you use MailGet Email Enricher, you’d get the enriched data of your subscribers.
For instance, you happen to extract the geographic location of your subscribers. Out of 10,000, only 4000 reside in E.U. So, now you have to send the email to those (4000) subscribers only.
Clearly, you manage to retain your 6000 subscribers as you don’t have to battle for their consent. But you still have to get the consent of the remaining 4000 E.U. residing subscribers.
In this example, you can see that you have managed to secure a retention rate of 60% which is only going to increase after the approval from the remaining 4000 subscribers.
Saving email credits and other manual efforts are other secondary advantages.
Let’s Sum It Up
That’s it..!!
By following the above-mentioned guidelines, you are taking the initiative for being GDPR compliant.
And yes, MailGet/MailGet Bolt is adhering to the guidelines of GDPR in every possible way.
Here are the few major points to remember –
- GDPR applies to each and every individual/business who are sending emails to the E.U. based subscribers or handling their data.
- In case you have contacts without the optin records then it’s up to you and your legal team to keep them on the emailing list.
- The subscribers without the optin records can be sent emails (billing information, support articles, etc.) if they have purchased products from you – Art. 6 of the GDPR: “Lawfulness Of Processing”
