What subject appears to be at the heart of every sale, marketing, or creative conversation: data.
In the world of marketing, data is a critical component, and it is also available in abundance. Marketers use increasingly more data, as well as more personalised information to gather leads, increase sales, and improve customer experience.
This is where GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, comes in. The GDPR is a lengthy law passed by the European Commission to protect the data of European residents from misuse, disclosure, and sale by data processors and controllers.
GDPR offers protection and clarification. It improves the protection of European data, subjects’ rights and clarifies what companies that process personal data must do to safeguard these rights. If companies don’t abide by these laws, then they may receive a hefty fine.
So, it is so important to take GDPR seriously and review your own processes regularly. If you are yet to do so, and you process EU personally identifiable data, you should implement the regulations immediately to ensure a secured environment for your customers.
9 Step GDPR Compliance Checklist
We understand if you’re feeling frazzled about this task; being GDPR compliant is not easy. Thorough planning is required, and several factors need to be considered.
Here is a basic GDPR compliance checklist that will help you assess your current GDPR compliant status and reform poor data handling practices to become more compliant.
- Know all the data you are collecting
You need to know how personal data moves through your internal systems to control it.
- Create a GDPR diary
A GDPR diary, or a Data Register, is a comprehensive record of how an organisation is practicing GDPR compliance. This is great proof in the event of an audit.
It also shows your dedication to protect customer data.
- Evaluate your data collection requirements
You should only collect data you absolutely need. Accumulating sensitive data without a compelling reason will look suspicious to the supervisory authority monitoring your compliance.
- Report data breaches IMMEDIATELY
Instant data breach notification is a mandatory GDPR requirement.
- Be transparent about your motives
Why are you collecting the data you need? Your customers need to be aware of all the data you’re collecting about them.
You need to display a data collection acknowledgement at every data collection point before any data is collected.
- Verify the age of all users consenting to data processing
The GDPR only permits personal data processing for persons at least 16 years of age. To lawfully collect personal data from individuals younger than that, consent must be given by the holder of parental responsibility for the child.
Of course, your website may engage users under the age of 16. In this case, you must incorporate an age verification process to verify the age of users before collecting any data.
- Try a double opt-in for new email list sign-ups
By including a double opt-in process for new sign-ups, you can be confident that all your subscribers have consented to sign up to your email list.
Normally, the second consent occurs when a user clicks the confirmation link in the email that’s automatically sent to them after filling out the sign-up form.
This isn’t mandatory but it’s highly recommended. It demonstrates your dedication to the data protection standards set by the GDPR.
- Update your Privacy Policy regularly
Your Privacy Policy must be readily accessible on your website and always up to date. Whenever an update is made, all your customers need to be notified of any changes in an email.
The policy should clearly outline all the data that is collected and how it will be used.
- Assess all third-party risks
As part of GDPR compliance, you must be continuously aware of all security risks and to have contingencies in place for each of them.
The benefits of complying with GDPR
Although it is a mandatory, rigorous, and complex task, there are benefits to following the rules set by GDPR.
- Enhance your cybersecurity
By taking data privacy seriously, the GDPR can help you establish a security-conscious workflow. There is no company in the world that can afford to be cybersecurity ignorant, given the costs of data breaches and business downtime caused by theft or loss of critical data.
The GDPR requires organisations to identify their security strategy and adopt adequate administrative and technical measures to protect the data they collect. This encourages you to re-evaluate and improve your overall cybersecurity strategy, including building healthier data protection workflows and streamline security monitoring.
These activities will decrease the likelihood of having to pay a “cyber tax”, caused by attacks and system outbreaks.
- Improve data management
To be compliant, you should know precisely what sensitive information you hold on people. So, the first task, is to audit all the data you have. This will enable you to minimise the data you collect and hold, better organise storages and refine your data management processes.
- Increase your ROI
By implementing an opt-in policy (required by the GDPR), and gaining the data subject’s consent, you will receive a fine-tuned database of highly relevant leads and customers that genuinely want to hear from you.
This works especially well when you combine this with purging irrelevant information, which may be stalling your marketing. Such items could be lost leads or unengaged addresses.
This information is marketing gold. You can experiment with niche marketing by tailoring your message to the specific needs and habits of a clearly defined audience that has a genuine interest in your brand.
A granular marketing approach will result in higher click-through, conversion rates and social sharing. It will increase your marketing ROI as budgets and efforts will be spent wisely.
- Boost audience loyalty and trust
Being GDPR compliant can support your business by helping you build trusting relationships with your customers. When gathering consent for data, you must explain clearly how it will be used.
The transparency and responsibility you demonstrate will encourage trust in your brand. The GDPR helps you prove that you do care about the privacy of your customers – it may make you stand out from your competitors.
- Establish a new business culture
By promoting GDPR compliance, you can create a new business culture that becomes the norm across your organisation. By adhering to the GDPR, you cultivate the values of data security in your employees and nurture social responsibility in business.
Get GDPR Compliant
There’s no denying it, complying with GDPR is hard. It is a wise choice to step up to the challenge and do more than the bare minimum. The legislation will bring plenty of benefits to your organisation.
For more advice on data and how to use it effectively in your marketing strategies, contact Future Marketing today at info@future-marketing.co.uk
