10 Ways GDPR Will Shape Digital Marketing

GDPR—These are four letters that are striking fear and uncertainty into the hearts of marketers this year.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation is certainly a top item on Europe’s news agenda, with full compliance being a high and expensive bar for businesses to clear. I believe GDPR will encourage marketers to be more innovative in their approach.

With the implementation of GDPR, we should start to see interesting changes in marketing practice moving forward. Not only will GDPR mean businesses are more careful about how they handle personal data, but it will also force marketers to take a more data-driven, modern and personalized approach.

As with all regulations, GDPR can be seen as either a threat or an opportunity. But those who see it as an opportunity to be innovative with their marketing strategies will be the ones who reap the rewards.

In a new GDPR era of marketing, supported by technology and data analytics, below are ten ways digital marketing techniques that will change:

1. Instead of the classical mass email campaigns, digital marketers will prefer social channels where customer consent is explicit.
2. Periodic newsletters will start using social channels such as Twitter or Business Apps that spread news directly in a timelier way.
3. A higher preference for interactive digital magazines with embedded YouTube videos over glossy customer magazines.
4. One-size-fits-all static B2B websites will start offering personalization based on customer personas and segments.
5.  Greater use of social listening tools for anticipating trends or listening to customer comments and complaints.
6. Increased reliance on multi-attribution measurement tools to measure the impact of marketing on the business across a variety of customer touch points.
7. A shift from leads and click-through measurement to followers, re-tweets, employee and customer advocacy for determining success.
8. Intelligent chatbots and virtual sales agents that help guide customers through the sales cycle will replace telemarketing.
9. Personalized offers that target the right persona, at the right time and the right location will eliminate the act of spamming people with generic emails.
10. Programmatic advertising that puts relevant products in front of prospects will overtake simple banner advertising.

Under the scope of GDPR, consent will become an even more significant concern for digital marketers as they collect, store and use personal data in future practice. With prospects now being more aware of their ability to manage the data that firms hold about them, businesses may start to see the number of marketing leads they have declining.

While traditional digital marketers might find this hard to stomach, they must seize the day and shake up the marketing mix – focusing on delivering campaigns that are more personalized to the needs of customers and prospects. For customers that choose to engage with your business, personalized interactions will be vital in securing their continued advocacy.

The article is contributed by Finastra.