by Dorottya Dvorak 
With January now over, we only have 16 weeks to go until the General Data Protection Regulation kicks in, enforcing changes to how we communicate with our prospects and customers. Following a more strict policy that focuses on customer rights, businesses that have data on EU citizens will have to target prospects who have explicitly given them consent – either via an online form or an event.
Although many marketer see this regulation as a problem, I believe it’s actually a great opportunity to segment our own database and market to those prospects who are actually interested in our news and insights. This will hopefully result in higher open and click rates, and ideally lead to an opt out rate of near zero. Who doesn’t want that?
You now have more than 3 months to run an opt-in campaign on your existing database, convince them why they need to stay on your mailing lists and what they might miss if they don’t give you explicit consent.
In case you need more reasons why GDPR will actually be good for your marketing communications, take a look at the article below from Joe Stanganelli.
The marketers I know tend to fall into one of four categories when it comes to preparedness for the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):
1. The fretful. (“I’m going to screw things up under GDPR. Oh, no!”)
2. The resigned. (“I’m going to screw things up under GDPR. Oh, well!”)
3. The ignorant. (“What’s GDPR?”)
4. The apathetic. (“Boring!”)I’m here to urge you be a fifth type: The eager. (“GDPR is coming! Oh, boy!”)