Dear Entrepreneur,
I took a call from a client recently… he was exasperated!
“Stefan… Please can you tell me…
What the F**K is GDPR?!”
I obviously laughed at his direct question but I could also feel the exasperation in his voice!
If you are not aware of exactly what GDPR well perhaps you are not alone as reportedly 94% of businesses are yet to prepare for it’s introduction in May 2018!!
But when I talked through the issues and the new rules with my client, as I see them, I quickly realised that I was speculating about the impact of GDPR as much as anyone!
As per any regulation, it is covered in generic terminology…
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) is a regulation by which the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission intend to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union (EU)
But despite this lack of clarity… the costs of getting GDPR wrong is potentially very high….
Under GDPR, if a violation occurs, organizations can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover for breaching regulation, or a fine of €20 Million - whichever is higher.
Kind of scary right?!
In simple terms, GDPR means companies will now be required to build in privacy settings into their digital products and websites – and have them switched on by default. Companies also need to regularly conduct privacy impact assessments, strengthen the way they seek permission to use the data, document the ways they use personal data and improve the way they communicate data breaches.
So what does GDPR mean in terms of B2B lead generation and specifically cold email?
Well… first of all… there is a tonne of detail I could go into here about this, but right now, I want to talk about specifically sales prospecting…
If cold emailing is at the core of your lead generation strategy, you can obtain consent by sending a consent form as your first outreach email.
Make sure that email with a request for consent does not directly promote your commercial content and that it is targeted at the person you are sending it to.
Of course… there is another way of contacting people that goes back to my early days in business….
Direct Mail!!!
In my printing business we literally sent 10’s of millions of direct mail pieces.
And the good news….
Direct Mail is not affected in it’s essence by GDPR
But please note… I am not getting into detail about data here… this will come at a later stage….
So what works best…
Cold email… asking for consent… Or A direct mail piece?
We can all speculate indefinitely right?
So…
What my team at Marketing Republic did was to decide to prove it either way..
They brainstormed an idea of carrying out a live test to initiate a B2B sales prospecting campaign… in full compliance with GDPR… and publish the results for other Sales and Marketers to see for themselves!
Here’s the plan….
If you enter your details on this page… you will get the full A to Z of what we did on this campaign…
AND…
What results we have achieved.
When you add your details above (yes… full GDPR compliancy here too)…
You will get our campaign plan.
Then as we get results in… we will email you a full report of the specific results…
What works best…
Direct Mail versus Cold Email!!
The SHOWDOWN!!
And you will have a clear and simple strategy of what to use and test for yourself, once GDPR regulations kick in next May!
For clarity…
We will of course offer the chance to speak to us if you are looking to ensure you are GDPR compliant way ahead of the transition deadline and to see if we can help you by running a GDPR compliant B2B Sales Prospecting Campaign too!!
But right now…
We just want to clear the fog…
Stop speculating…
And..
To PROVE what works in a live… No holds barred, open book test!
So…
Add your details…
And we look forward to letting you know how we got on!!
We will be in touch!
Stefan
