GDPR, the new superhero of marketing and sales

GDPR won’t crush your marketing & sales dreams

The most important thing we’ve done at ACA IT-Solutions concerning the GPDR was finding that much needed clarity. We have been fortunate enough to work with an amazing external GDPR consultant (if you are reading this Jean-Pierre, thank you for all the help!), who made it all very clear to us and which made me realize this:

GDPR will not crush your entire marketing and sales dreams if your company is customer-centric and focuses on delivering value.

I am not saying that it wasn’t difficult for us. Being compliant meant a lot of work and will still mean hard work in the future. But we needed to make changes, which actually make a lot of sense. Here’s why I think GDPR is actually a superhero to marketing and sales.

Why the GDPR is a good thing for marketing & sales

The new rules focus on a few key aspects that will improve and evolve marketing and sales to a higher level.

1. Customer Centricity

Customer Centricity and GDPR go hand in hand. GDPR isn’t here to sabotage all marketing initiatives or to just make our lives a little bit harder.

It makes us focus on values such as transparency, data quality and respect for the people we contact. The contacts in our databases will genuinely be interested in what an enterprise has to say. CTR rates of your next emailing will probably go through the roof!

You might have to process the sting of losing a large chunk of your database in the initial phase, but after a while you’ll be more than happy with the results. And the opportunity to be the superhero of actually useful and interesting content. 😉

2. Privacy

GDPR-compliant companies are able to guarantee a feeling of trust to people when it comes to their privacy. It’s a huge plus for them if you are not only involved in their privacy, but are also able to convey how exactly you deal with the matter and which measures you take.

Think of all the heated privacy scandals of the last few months, such as the Facebook Data Scandal. It’s the perfect example to show that privacy leaves no one untroubled. A new era has begun when it comes to making personal data publicly available!

3. Build and maintain trust

The honesty and transparency that is required in GDPR-compliant communication allows marketers to once again build and maintain a relationship of trust with prospects and customers.

Companies will need to respect the wishes of individuals and need to think about when, why and how people can be contacted. Instead of consumers being suspicious of marketing and sales efforts, we can now guarantee and actually show people our true intentions.

4. Data Quality

The dialogue marketing stemming from this new legislation provides individuals more than ever with a voice and makes it easier for them to contact a company.

The GDPR also increases the quality of your data. Companies will not only look whether data is correct, but also at the way they gather and process it. This is unmistakably a big benefit for the quality of the CRM you’ve built up. After all, qualitative and GDPR-compliant data take you to the next level when it comes to the use and maintenance of data within the different departments of company.

In short, it makes us consider ‘doing business responsibly’ in a whole other light.

5. Security

The new legislation and its data security requirements have established worldwide awareness concerning the importance of investments in security and privacy. Businesses all over the world are:

• integrating IT-governances,
• examining the security of their data,
• thinking about Privacy by Design,
• preventing data breaches,
• making data risk assessments,
• ...

Instead of being the violator, organizations now have the opportunity to be the protector of personal data and privacy. An important step that was long overdue.

The GDPR has the potential to make us better in every way

In my honest opinion, the only real conclusion I can make is that the GDPR has made companies not only think about their responsibility in data privacy and security, but has also led to companies taking real action.

GDPR is simply an evolution that can make any organization stronger, smarter and more self-aware.

ACA’s commitment to the GDPR

I already mentioned we first looked for clarity concerning the GDPR at ACA. After understanding the legislation, we needed to fully commit ourselves to it. Of course, marketing and sales aren’t the only domains within ACA that commit to the new legislation and our view on privacy and security.

That is why we created an internal GDPR mission statement, which we hold in high regard throughout our company’s activities.