As the General Data Protection Regulation dates approach, more and more businesses are taking aggressive action to ensure they are complying. Of course, many others are doing nothing, and will suffer the consequences once the deadlines hit. Those that are taking action, however, are discovering some interesting results.
One of the biggest things that needs to be done to remain in compliance for most companies is take positive action to ensure their email list subscribers actually want to be there. So, sending out emails (and reminder emails) asking people to ‘re-opt in’ is getting quite common. Some companies are trying to incentivize people to remain on their lists by offering special deals or other perks to those that sign up. The fact is, however, that a large number of people will be dropping off of a lot of lists.
According to Nick McCarthy, svp of Data Solutions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for Dentsu Aegis, said, “Marketers may well find that response rates to email marketing efforts rise, as brands shift over to a customer base which is both engaged and interested in the content being shared.”
This just makes sense. Most people who are going to opt to stay on a list are going to be those who actually want the emails they get. On top of this, many lists will be dropping by hundreds, if not thousands of people. This will naturally push the open rates and buy rates up significantly.
In addition, for companies that are paying their email marketing software based on the number of subscribers, it could save money by dropping them down to a lower tier.
Email marketing is a very effective tool, even if it does tend to get a bad name due to spam issues and things like that. Taking actions that will optimize a list may end up being quite a positive thing, even if many businesses are currently quite worried about how it will impact their bottom line.
