In May this year, the EU’s implementation of GDPR laws gave the digital world a rude awakening and forced businesses to think about the way they used people’s data. One of its direct implications was on email marketing and now marketers are having to rethink the way they use email for their brand.
If you're in the midst of tackling email as part of your marketing strategy then today's your lucky day! Ahead of his talk at Digital Gaggle next week, we caught up with Stafford Sumner (founder and CEO of Jarrang, the UK’s leading independent email marketing agency) to find out how to do email marketing successfully in a post-GDPR world.
Hi Stafford! You'll be talking about 'riding the GDPR wave' at your talk next month. When GDPR was enforced back in May, businesses got scared. What is the main positive outcome you’ve seen since then?
Stafford: Organisations are finally coming around to realising that it’s better to use email marketing to have deeper conversations with their customers by sending to fewer people more frequently, and using the data they hold to tailor content based on buyer and browser behaviour. This leads to increased conversation rates and puts an end to the inefficient ‘one size fits all’ approach. Digital marketing automation and dynamic content are the future.
For those who have just started exploring this avenue, what are the top three musts for a successful email marketing campaign?
Stafford: Email marketing is best used to retain and grow existing customers, or to nurture new customers after data capture - and there are three key musts:
- Businesses must create and share content that is relevant to the individual based on where they are in the sales process.
- The email must be designed and built to be easily accessible on multiple devices.
- The campaign must have a clear goal of what you want it to achieve. For example, a brand building email will be designed and built in a very different way to an email that is intended to shift product. If you have a plan, and make the customer the centre of your attention, it makes the email marketing easy, fun and profitable!
Finally, for those who haven't yet bagged their ticket to Digital Gaggle, can you sum up in one sentence why they shouldn't miss out on hearing your talk?
Stafford: Want to send better emails? Then come to my talk!
If you want to learn how to ride the GDPR wave, you can see Stafford’s special session at the upcoming Digital Gaggle conference on Wednesday 7th November. He’ll be joined by an array of other amazing speakers - just click below to find out more and book your space!
