How to wish your prospects, clients and customers a lovely holiday the GDPR way.

How to wish your prospects, clients and customers a lovely holiday the GDPR way.

Marketers worldwide know how important it is to make a first impression, and what better way to do this than through an email?
In the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) makes a clear distinction between electronic communication and other forms of marketing.

Email is firmly in the former category, as its purpose is to convey information from one party directly to another. However, because GDPR applies to all businesses that process or hold data on EU citizens, each company will have different considerations for emailing contacts about their products and services.

Here’s why:

  • The GDPR sets out several rules for protecting individuals’ privacy, including restrictions on collecting and using data.
  • This law states that any organization that wants to send marketing emails or texts must have prior consent from its subscribers.
  • And not just a pre-ticked opt-in box.
  • Instead, they must obtain a positive opt-out response from their contacts before sending them promotional material.

Every EU country must follow the regulations outlined by the GDPR, but it’s up to each nation to decide how these regulations are enforced. How do you make this work for your business? First of all, make sure you understand the rules for your specific country. Some countries have more vigorous laws protecting privacy, while others take a softer approach. The practices may differ slightly from those outlined by GDPR, although they are likely based on the same rules. If you are already compliant with GDPR, you will most likely not need to do much else to remain compliant in your own country.

One of the challenges GDPR has introduced is to find a balance between data protection and the desire to have access to information. From one side, this means an increase in regulation surrounding consent, but on the other hand, it’s also about ensuring that online businesses are not disincentivised from working with people outside of their own country. The fact that there are different rules within Europe can be confusing for businesses, but for now it’s just something you have to be aware of.

A problem: A list of 100 prospects is useless if you don’t know how to reach them.

Solves the GDPR issue by providing an example that shows you know where your list came from.
List your source. in this case, it would be in the form of a blog item, and you left your credentials to keep informed — in this case.

First and foremost, do not buy lists of targets.


The old spray and pray is useless and a waste of money. Plus, you will ruin your domain reputation from all the bounce backs.
Head here today if you are looking for the most affordable way to find qualified B2B leads with permission to contact. 

Here are some takeaways from a successful campaign.

  1. If you need to contact a prospect or client, ensure that the content of that contact is directly related to why you are making contact.
  2. Avoid being spammy, and do not send them information that they have not expressly requested from you.
  3. Instead, if you have an existing relationship with someone, be clear about why you are contacting them.
  4. This will help show that your relationship is valid and avoid causing alarm bells to go off in their head due to your email.
  5. If you do need to send the same message to a large number of people, consider using a drip campaign instead of a single email blast.
  6. This will ensure that your message is only sent when requested and stop it from looking like spam as a result.
  7. Be careful as well as to how you track who has opened the email and taken specific actions on it.
  8. The use of cookies can often be traced back to individual users, even if they’re logged out of the site when it’s opened.

About the author

I’m Marco van den Akker, a strategist and marketer who uses data and creativity to grow Plusgrowth clients’ businesses. I’m always happy to work with towards measurable results.

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