An in-depth look at what marketers should consider when approaching GDPR, specifically for lead generation activities

1. Literacy can increase job
opportunities and access to higher
education. In 2009, the National Adult
Literacy Agency (NALA) concluded
that there were economic gains for
the individuals, as well as the
economy and the country as a whole.
iterate people can be more
easily trained than illiterate
people, and generally have a
higher socioeconomic status;
thus they enjoy better health
and employment prospects.
GDPR should not be seen as a compliance activity – it’s
digital disruption and should be seen as a major change to
how organisations, not just marketing departments, operate.
The most important thing in the immediate
term is to map and understand your data flows
– where data is and how it flows around your
organisation.
What's the most positive aspect of GDPR? It shines a light on
how organisations use data across the board, putting marketers
in a highly strategic place. There’s no denying that GDPR
compliance will be hard work, but at the end of the process, you’ll
be in a more transparent and empowered place.
You should aim to take a risk-based
approach to GDPR; it’s unlikely that 100%
of an organisation will be compliant by
May 2020, let alone May 2018, so prioritise
the most sensitive company data. For help,
the most effective stakeholder in the
organisation will be a management
accountant
Effective GDPR compliance will take approximately six to nine
months to complete – and the first phase of discovering where
data sits and how it moves, can easily take four to six weeks.
GDPR: Global Transformer
LITERACY AROUND THE WORLD
Talking to
the Board
GDPR seems more intimidating than PECR because
the fines are, frankly, apocalyptic. But don’t worry –
whilst they are there to motivate you into action, they
also allow you to have a better conversation with your
CFO!
This conversation is a good starting point, because
you’ll need to talk to the board and management a lot
in the next nine months. It’s vital to start now,
because even if GDPR means you do less marketing
today, if you don’t comply, you won’t be able to do
any marketing tomorrow.
GDPR will help organisations to become fairer, more
transparent, up-to-date places – and it may result in fewer
complaints because of poorly targeted marketing.
You shouldn’t be alone on this journey – consider forming
an internal working group, or if you work in a small
organisation, join an external working group or industry
forum, like the PRCA or CIPR if you work in public
relations or communications.
The most interesting thing about GDPR is that it provides
a foundation. Once you’ve transformed the organisation
and have granular consent and an awareness of how data
flows around the organisation, you’ll be a in tremendously
powerful position to create fair, effective and engaging
marketing campaigns in 2018.
Consent and Data
Protection
One of the most interesting things about
GDPR is the start of granular consent – so
many marketers work on the basis of all or
nothing, opt in vs. opt out.
Marketers may be worried that asking for consent will
cause their list sizes to drop, but in the long term, you’ll
see greater engagement because you’re giving people
more choice and control to receive the content that
they really want.
There are no hard and fast rules about how often
you reconsent; if you market to people every ten
years, reconsenting every fifteen years is very
reasonable.
You should also look at taking a rigorous approach to
protecting data; GDPR promotes pseudonymised
data, where the personal identifiers like names have
been removed. You should also encrypt data – both
at rest and in transit – to safeguard even
pseudonymised data.
Finally, we’re not sure how Brexit will affect GDPR
yet, but given that we’re outside ‘the club’, we may
be treated differently. In particular, UK surveillance
legislation may have implications for data transfer
between the UK and Europe – we may need a
version of Safe Harbour.
Growing
Dread or
Plodding
Routine?
About Firefly Communications Group
We are a PR agency offering public relations services for firms that thrive on technology. Born in 1988 and still going strong. No PR
fuzziness – just blinding clarity
Tel: +44 (0)203 861 3600
Email: hello@fireflycomms.com
Preparing
for GDPR
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