The Opportunities of GDPR for Publishers

Yesterday we presented to the Myriad User Group on the current hot topic of GDPR. Having polled the attendees at the start of the day where 25% confirmed they were already “bored” with GDPR we knew it was going to be a tough presentation and were glad that we’d decided to focus on the opportunities of GDPR rather than going over the requirements again! 

With GDPR just around the corner, it’s very easy to get lost in the minute detail of ensuring compliance and we often overlook the benefits for those companies that are making the most of the opportunities it presents. 

It’s not all doom and gloom… 

• Smaller Pond, Better Fishing – most customer databases will be shrinking over the next couple of weeks as publishers purge data where they don’t have the right legal basis to either store or process it. While this can feel painful, we shouldn’t forget that good brand engagement will come from the right people (or fish), not from a giant database (or pond!). For example, if you have someone on your database that filled in a competition online five years ago but hasn’t responded to any marketing since, is it really worthwhile keeping them on your database taking up space and using up money every time you try to contact them? 
• Invest in New Technology– there are many technologies that can help to make the most of the remaining data you have, and GDPR is a great excuse to invest in these! We encouraged Myriad users to look at building a single customer view and use powerful selection tools to aid with the targeting of the most relevant people who are most likely to respond. We also suggested they build a preference centre to allow customers to choose how and when they are communicated with. And finally, we suggested they make the most of digital marketing opportunities where a publisher doesn't need to have the customer data themselves (bypassing GDPR!) but can make use of tools on Facebook or Google to target their audience.
• Build Transparency and Trust in Your Brand – there is a lot of research in recent years to show that trust is an important factor in online decision making. In the same way, data security is important in maintaining that trust. We encouraged the audience to make sure that their brand values are demonstrated with every customer touch point (including the way they collect data at the point of registration or purchase), that they keep their promises (including how they use the data in an on-going way), and that they share their processes in a transparent manner with their audience (to demonstrate they can be trusted). Companies that build trust with their audience will be seeing increased revenues. 
• Optimise Your Consent Statements – finally, we encouraged everyone to test different consent statements and gave a practical example about how a change of focus in the wording can increase those providing consent to email by up to 25%. 

We finished the presentation by encouraging everyone to make the most of GDPR. For far too long, data has been left to under-resourced IT teams to manage and publishers haven’t made the most of the opportunities available from their rich data sources. With GDPR publishers have the chance to make sure they are handling data securely, but also make the most of emerging technologies to use data they already have to personalise content or offers to individuals, and communicate with them in a way that they want to be communicated with. 

Despite the restrictions GDPR can place on how publishers use data, there is still plenty of room for those who manage data properly to use their customer data as a gold mine which can really help to drive their business forward. 

At the end of the day, what does GDPR really stand for? 

• Give 
• Data 
• Proper
• Respect

Respect the privacy of your customers, but also respect the power of what data can do for your business. 

Click on the links to find out about our Top Five Areas for Publishers to focus on for GDPR, as well as how ESco has helped our clients in this area.

Want some of the action?

If you want to find out more about how we can help with your single customer view, have a little look on our website and learn about FastStats & our Single Customer View…or just call Al Wood on 01371 851 817 and he’ll fill you in!

Migrating our data into ESco’s FastStats Marketing tool, and creating our Single Customer View gives us the ability to analyse past behaviour in order to better target and personalise future customer interactions. ESco have been a valued partner and have provided great technical and business support through the design and execution stages of this project. I look forward to working with ESco on our future database enhancements.

Richard Pocock, Data Manager at Caspian