Marketing vs. GDPR. Is the opportunity to gain new contacts over?

Email marketing

Marketing vs. GDPR. Is the opportunity to gain new contacts over?

I have heard similar questions in the last few months quite often. Can I continue gaining new contacts from the web? How does the consent work? What should I change to be in accordance with GDPR? We now know the new United Nations Regulation about protecting personal data under the shortcut GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). This regulation modifies the operation with personal data and touches on all subjects that personal data works with.

  • Jan Spáčil
  • Author

  • Jan Spáčil

This regulation is crucial for company marketing because it affects the most valuable thing we have – contacts to our current and potential customers. I have heard quite a few interpretations and speculations about how this regulation works and how it will affect gaining of new contacts in the online world.

Gaining of new contacts doesn´t end with GDPR

We can still gain new contacts. We only have to change the way we get them, so we act in accordance with GDPR. GDPR defines so called legal titles, meaning it says when processing (recording, saving, using, spreading, accessing, viewing and so on) of personal data is legal or in accordance with the regulation. There are 6 legal titles in total. We have to use the "Consent to process personal data" legal title to gain new contacts. To save the contacts we must have the person’s consent.

How to get the consent

The easiest way get consent is to send a form where your potential client can tick a box with the consent. In Quanda we insert a checkbox into the form where we write, for example, "I want to get tips and occasional offers and so I give my consent to process my personal data for this purpose". It is important to insert exact terms on your web pages and link it to the checkbox in a shortened form. The person that wants to give you their contact can then get to know the full terms of the consent they are giving.

What should the consent include?

The consent should have its own essentials and should include information about who the consent is given to – your identification, what personal data you collect, what purpose it is going to serve, for how long, how to take the consent back and you should also attach a guidance on rights that the person has in accordance with GDPR. Active forms in Quanda take care of all this for you. They will allow you to save the contact with the given consent, legal title, the purpose of GDPR and its validity – so everything that the regulation needs to file. It will also help you verify the owner of the given information so you can be sure about who gave you the consent. More information about how to verify an owner of the given contact can be found here: "Double opt-in. What is it and how does it work?".

3 key factors that affect how many new contacts you gain

The good news is, there are only 3 key factors that affect how many contacts you can gain.

Visit rate

The first factor is the visit rate of your pages. Nothing affects the number of newly gained contacts as much as the number of people that visit your page where the form to gain new contacts is does.

Exchange

The second factor is what you offer as an exchange for the contact. The more valuable the "thing" that you are offering is the more contacts you can get. From an interesting content to sales or other benefits, there are many options. It always has to be something unique, valuable and interesting.

The form

The third factor is the content and the way of viewing the form that collects new contacts. This is more of a technical problem but by correctly displaying the form, the number of new contacts can be tripled. More information about how to properly display forms can be found here: "Animated forms. The vending machine for new contacts". On the contrary, wrongly timed form can discourage people from giving you their contact.

 

Do you have any more questions concerning GDPR and Quanda? If so, please email us at: support@onquanda.com or call us at: +420 605 163 892.

Wish you great luck without any GDPRoblems!

Jan Spáčil