As the GDPR deadline of May 25th, 2018 approached, one of the biggest mistakes many European senders made was to leave everything to the last moment. By that stage, many email subscribers were completely overwhelmed by inbox overload, and their simplest response was “ignore everything!” As a result, lists were decimated – research from Yieldify showed one-third of marketers lost over 30 percent of their email lists, with Travel (37 percent), IT/Telecoms (32 percent) and Finance (28 percent) being the most impacted. We also saw individual programs that lost over 90 percent of their lists!
In the first two posts of this series we considered the legal bases for email marketing, and the importance of having robust deliverability to ensure your subscribers receive their LGPD emails. In this post, we’ll talk about strategies for making sure those messages get a response!
1. Start Early
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) introduced its new sign-up form a full year before the GDPR deadline. Note how their approach is explicit, granular, and requires positive action to opt-in.
By the time GDPR became law, a large part of RSPB’s list was already organically compliant, meaning far less last-minute re-permissioning. They also saw much higher engagement levels from new subscribers, with open rates increasing by 1.15X and click rates by 1.9X!
2. Spread the Load
We’ve already explained the importance of avoiding sudden changes in volume. Mailbox Providers (MBPs) don’t like this behavior, because it indicates potential spam activity, or even that a program may have been compromised. In the UK one sender who tried to mail their entire base 1 day before the May 25th deadline saw over 80 percent of their emails sent to junk folders as a result.
Tesco understood this importance and took a more pragmatic approach, mailing approximately three percent of its database each day across a four-week period. In this way, volume impact was blended into Tesco’s daily activity. It also meant more conservative connection and throughput settings could be applied, which is good practice when mailing to less engaged audiences.
3. Don’t Rely on Just One Shot!
Successful re-engagement/win-back programs take a multi-email approach. If you only fire a single shot, you’re more likely to miss, as our previous research shows! Waitrose recognized this, and they ran a structured program of communications over the weeks leading up to GDPR, maximizing their opportunity to secure re-permission.
The first two emails focused on creating awareness of the new legislation, then explaining the benefits of remaining a member of the program (offers and discounts, recipe ideas, events, and tastings, etc.)
As the May 25th deadline grew closer, Waitrose increased the urgency of the language that used to persuade subscribers to continue with their program membership:
4. Maximize Your Marketing Real Estate
You don’t want to send LGPD messages to your email audience every day (although some UK and European senders did just this, generating serious program fatigue in the process!). But there are other ways of reinforcing the message while remaining reasonably subtle!
Clarks made use of the emails’ pre-header text, which read “We’ve updated our privacy policy and need to confirm you want to keep hearing from us.” This was a smart approach because most email clients now show 70-80 characters of pre-header text, meaning a good chance of the message being seen even without opening the emails.
Selfridges took a more visual approach, and for a 30-day period included the grey “Don’t lose touch” box in the top third of every marketing email they sent. As a result, they achieved exceptional subscriber retention rates, although engagement rates suffered because less promotional content was immediately visible to openers during this time.
5. Think Multichannel
Remember email doesn’t operate in a vacuum! It is part of a complex multi-channel ecosystem and your retention efforts should recognize this. Make sure you provide LGPD reminders when your customers login to their accounts. Also make them part of your postal, social and push messaging strategies if you use these channels.
If your marketing program operates above the line, also consider broader approaches to your LGPD messaging. We saw this memorable example from Manchester United football club, with re-permissioning messages shown on the digital advertising boards at Old Trafford stadium!
Another important element is Point of Sale (POS). Direct Marketing Association (DMA) research shows around 40 percent of new program sign-ups now take place in-store (almost 60 percent in the 18-34 segment). The Yieldify research also showed the single most effective tactic for post-GDPR list rebuilding was encouraging account registration and opt-in at checkout.
Senders with a physical presence should therefore think carefully about how they provide in-store LGPD education, providing advertising in the POS area, and equipping checkout staff with scripts and training to assist with these conversations.
Also, be aware LGPD will probably have impact on the way e-receipts are issued. In the UK, guidance was clear that: 1) e-receipts can not contain any marketing content (the consent to receive the e-receipt is not consent to receive marketing); and 2) customers must be provided with an opt-out from receiving email marketing at POS (meaning POS staff must be trained to ensure this happens. Read my DMA blog for more on this topic.
In summary, key points from this post are: start your LGPD preparations as soon as possible; spread out your broadcast schedule; don’t rely on a “one shot only” approach; and cover as many of your multi-channel bases as possible to communicate your LGPD messaging to your customers.
In the next—and final—installment of this series, we’ll provide guidance around effective use of language and creative to maximize the impact of your emails during the inbox overload period we are expecting as next August approaches.