The arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has left some marketers feeling anxious.
A result of database cleansing and re-consent campaigns, many now have smaller email lists to work with. Naturally, teams are keen to contact their revised lists in the right way.
But is there a need to approach future email campaigns with caution? How often frequently should brands look to send emails from now on?
The benefit of having a smaller, re-consented list is that the customers on that list are likely to be more engaged. These are people who have actively chosen to continue hearing from your brand. It is crucial not to miss the opportunity of engaging this captive audience.
In this blog post, we explain why you should be emailing with greater frequency post GDPR.
Getting ahead of the competition
Sending emails more frequently to your post-GDPR email list is a clever way to get ahead of your competition.
Your competitors may be sending fewer emails as a result of post-GDPR nerves. Use their failure to act as a way to win market share through some well-timed email campaigns.
That said, winning at email post-GDPR is not just about sending more emails. Doing so indiscriminately will produce average results. To succeed, you need to get smarter about what you’re sending.
Six ways to be smarter about sending more emails
Here are six ways your brand can get smarter about sending emails with greater frequency now GDPR is in force:
1. Segmenting
First up, look to segment your email list. Batch and blast won’t cut it anymore. If you want to send more, what you’re sending has to be relevant.
Your segmentation should be informed by the real-time behavioural data you have. This may include buying behaviour, time of purchase, or recent browsing history.
Intelligent segmentation ensures your message is contextually relevant, increasing engagement and driving sales.
2. Personalising
Personalising your subject lines helps you to stand out in your customer’s inbox. But smart brands don’t stop there.
Personalised email content ensures your recipients experience value upon opening your emails. This does more than put a smile on your customer’s face. According to an Experian study email personalisation can boost transaction rates by up to six times.
3. Automating
Email automations are an important way to improve results. If you don’t already have these in place, try setting up behavioural triggered emails.
Set these up to send when a customer reaches a lifecycle stage or takes a specific action online. This ensures your marketing messages are both timely and contextually relevant.
Certain email automations (such as cart abandonment emails) may not require marketing consent.
Cart abandonment emails help customers who have already entered the sales process to complete their purchase. For this reason, they can be sent on a basis of legitimate interest.
4. Resending
To boost results, try resending campaigns to customers who did not open your email the first time.
This is a quick and easy tactic to drive more sales from a single campaign. Research shows that resending email campaigns to non-opens can improve open rates by 50 percent.
What’s more, resending campaigns offers a great opportunity to try out a different subject line. This is smart way to refine and improve your email campaign.
5. Using legitimate interest
Great emphasis has been placed on the importance of consent under the new legislation. Less attention has been given to the other options GDPR gives marketers.
Consent is not the only basis marketers can make contact under. As already explored, brands can rely on legitimate interest when sending cart abandonment emails.
To maximise the potential of your email marketing, make sure your team is clued up about when they can rely on legitimate interest.
6. Using soft opt-in
Legitimate interest is not the only alternative basis for sending marketing contact. So long as a customer has not explicitly withdrawn consent, you may also rely on ‘soft opt-in’.
An example of this is to send existing customers emails that promote related products and services that may be of interest.
Many brands will miss out on contact opportunities believing consent is the only option. Make sure your brand is not one of them.
To fully understand when consent is and is not needed, read the ICO’s advice for GDPR lawful basis for processing which includes consent and legitimate interest, and the ICO’s advice for the PeCR soft opt-in guidance.
Takeaway
Many brands remain unsure about the best way to contact customers post GDRR. Or how often they should do it.
Getting smarter about the way you contact your post-GDPR email list — and ensuring you do so with sufficient frequency — is an effective way to get ahead of the competition.
Remember that the customers who weren’t happy with your campaigns before GDPR, have already left. What remains is a smaller, switched-on audience who are eager to hear from you. Don’t be shy to contact them.
The arrival of GDPR offers brands a valuable opportunity to capitalize on smaller, more engaged lists. Be the brand that takes advantage of this as a way to increase engagement and drive sales.
