Everything you need to know about Postal Mailing and the GDPR

There was a time when marketers, salespeople, and businesses in general could send direct mail to virtually anyone they wanted. But those days are long gone, thanks to the introduction of the GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation. Adopted in April 2016, the GDPR changed the landscape completely. Anyone or any organization that handles customer data is familiar with GDPR compliance, since a fine of €20 million seemed far too large to simply ignore.

It’s no surprise that every business, from large enterprises to small and medium-sized companies, has made sure to comply with the GDPR ever since it was introduced in 2016. Although the GDPR is a data protection law primarily aimed at digital marketing efforts, it also applies to a business’s direct mail efforts. That’s because most, if not all, direct mail services are web-to-print, and naturally, customer data is processed and stored online.

The volume of customer data and its sensitive nature make it essential to secure that data and keep it safe from any misuse by companies or marketers. The GDPR prevents businesses or marketers from using personal data for marketing purposes unless the target audience has a legitimate interest in it. In essence, the GDPR protects the public’s personal information and stops it from being used for anything they don’t want.

While the GDPR may seem like a setback for businesses and marketers around the world, especially those who focus their marketing efforts on a target audience in the EU (European Union), this article walks you through the finer points of the regulation. We explain what the GDPR is and exactly what it means for businesses to comply with it, and how it affects direct mail (spoiler: not much :))

**What Is GDPR Compliance?**The GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, is a law enacted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union that governs the use of personal data belonging to EU and EEA citizens for marketing purposes. Although the regulation was adopted as early as April 2016, it didn’t take effect until May 2018. The GDPR aims to give EU and EEA citizens better control over their personal data and over who can access it.

What’s more, the GDPR is a law that finally unifies data privacy legislation within the European Union. It’s also worth noting that before the GDPR was enacted, data privacy legislation varied across EU member states. The GDPR applies to any entity that holds the personal data of EU and EEA citizens. Another important thing to know about the GDPR, especially if you hold a significant amount of personal data on EU and EEA citizens, is that the law applies regardless of where the sender is located. This means that even if you or your company are based outside the EU, the GDPR still applies to you, along with the hefty fine that comes with it.

Terms Related to GDPR Compliance

If you look up information about the GDPR, you’ll notice that certain terms come up again and again in GDPR-related blogs and articles. It’s important to familiarize yourself with some of these terms closely associated with the GDPR so you can better understand it and how it works.

• Personal Information (Data): Personal information or data refers to any information related to an identifiable person. This ranges from someone’s name to their mailing address.
• Processing: Processing under the GDPR refers to any operation that a person, entity, or organization performs on the personal data of EU or EEA citizens.
• Data Controller: Under the GDPR, a data controller is a person, entity, organization, or public authority that decides how personal data is processed and for what purpose it should be processed.
• Data Processor: Similar to the data controller, a data processor under the GDPR is a person, entity, organization, or public authority that processes personal data.
• Data Protection Officer: The DPO, or Data Protection Officer, can be an individual or an entity responsible for ensuring that GDPR compliance is followed.

Making Your Marketing Efforts GDPR CompliantWe all know that modern marketing is closely tied to, or even built on, personal information. Companies around the world use personal data for a variety of marketing purposes. Personal data is the key to effectively targeting your audience, personalizing content to suit their tastes, and better promoting offers based on the target’s unique needs and requirements. Even after the introduction of the GDPR, these key aspects of marketing remain unchanged. It doesn’t change the fact that personalization and targeting are still at the heart of an effective marketing strategy.

But that doesn’t mean the GDPR hasn’t brought significant changes to the marketing world. The GDPR introduced a far more advanced level of transparency and significantly increased customers’ power over how their personal information is used. How? The GDPR introduced explicit user consent in marketing, and on top of that, the relevance of marketing campaigns to customers is also required to comply with the regulation. As a result, it’s essential to make sure you have the user’s consent and relevant marketing material that the user is genuinely interested in, in order to comply with the GDPR.

Below, we discuss the plan you should follow if you’re not yet familiar with GDPR compliance or if you’ve just started working on a new marketing campaign.

Determine Who Owns the Data You’re Processing

The most basic thing you need to do to ensure GDPR compliance is determine who owns the data you’re processing. The goal is to figure out whether the personal data you’re processing belongs to an EU or EEA citizen. This applies to companies operating outside the EU that handle data belonging to, or related to, EU citizens. If such data exists, its processing must be governed by the GDPR.

Clearly Define Your Privacy Policy

The GDPR is all about being transparent with your consumers, and the best way to ensure that is by clearly defining your privacy policy for your customers or target audience. When defining your privacy policy, lay out the criteria for data processing and introduce a clear consent mechanism if you don’t already have one.

Review All Third Parties

The next thing you need to do is review all the third-party software you’re sharing your customers’ data with. So, if your mailing campaigns are carried out through a third-party automated system, it’s best to make sure they’re GDPR compliant as well. Make sure such third parties actually need to use the information, and ensure they handle it properly too.

Educate Yourself and Your Staff

Make sure you educate yourself and your staff on the main provisions of the GDPR. For example, everyone who handles your customers’ sensitive personal data should be aware that national supervisory authorities must be notified of any data breach within 72 hours. You should educate them on the consequences of failing to comply with GDPR guidelines, so your employees understand the implications of their actions.

The GDPR and Direct MailThe best thing about direct mail from a GDPR perspective is that, unlike digital marketing emails, direct mail doesn’t necessarily require explicit permission to send. That said, it’s still recommended that you focus your attention on GDPR-compliant mailing lists. Direct mail gives you more freedom to reach your target audience, and this enhanced marketing freedom can be a game changer when it comes to lead generation.

That said, it doesn’t mean the GDPR has no effect at all on direct mail marketing. Legitimate interest is the GDPR term you should always keep in mind if you’re thinking about running a direct mail campaign aimed at EU citizens. Legitimate interest for direct mail campaigns simply means that the printed mail you send to customers must be relevant to them.

In other words, the recipient, upon receiving your direct mail, should expect it, or at the very least, not be surprised to receive it. So how do you make sure that the GDPR-compliant postal marketing you’re running meets all the necessary provisions related to legitimate interest? We discuss that below so you can get a clear understanding of how to make your direct mail GDPR compliant.

Spell Out the Benefits

Make sure you list the benefits of the mailing for the end recipients on your GDPR-compliant mailing lists. This can include the benefits received by both the recipient and even your own business to some extent.

Analyze the Response

Analyzing the response to your GDPR postal marketing is essential to understanding whether your direct mail is of legitimate interest to the recipient or not. If there’s no response from the recipient even after more than one piece of direct mail has reached them, then it’s safe to assume that the recipient doesn’t find your product or service worthwhile, or simply isn’t interested in it at that time.

Provide an Opt-Out Mechanism

For your GDPR mailing lists to be truly GDPR compliant, you need to introduce an easy and convenient opt-out mechanism. By providing an opt-out mechanism, you’re effectively ensuring that the recipient, if they find your direct mail a nuisance in any way, can choose to stop receiving it. In addition, you should also make sure that those who opt out are effectively excluded from future campaigns.

Analyze the Customer’s Reaction

Keep in mind that customers’ legitimate interest is the key to an effective, GDPR-compliant direct mail campaign. The best way to identify these interests is to analyze the customer’s reaction to each previous marketing campaign. Analyzing the previous campaign will help you understand the customer’s legitimate interest and help you present the right ideas with the maximum potential to convert.

Use Automated Direct Mail

Using advanced direct mail automation solutions like Posthero can help you optimize your direct mail campaign. What’s more, reliable service providers like Posthero partner with GDPR-compliant printers, which means you can rest assured that your marketing efforts are GDPR compliant.

Benefits of the GDPR for Direct Mail MarketingWhile the GDPR may seem to have taken away many advantages from marketers, at the end of the day it actually helped solve many of the problems marketers face. The GDPR is particularly beneficial for direct mail, or postal, marketing.

Direct mail marketing benefited greatly from the GDPR simply because it doesn’t require consent from recipients. This means you can use direct mail to reach the part of your target audience that prefers not to receive digital marketing materials, such as newsletters in their email inbox. However, as mentioned earlier, there’s still a catch, and your content must be of legitimate interest to the recipient.

Regardless of the legitimate interest part, you’re still presented with an opportunity to access an additional touchpoint that can be used effectively to drive more conversions. What’s more, the GDPR makes advanced segmentation of your direct mail marketing campaigns easier. This is good for your business because such advanced segmentation often leads to a better conversion rate, since it’s already a given that the recipient is genuinely interested in what you’re selling.

In addition, advanced segmentation also leads to an increase in mail quality and security. And now that you’ve focused on the target audience, it also allows you to save money by significantly reducing your printing and mailing costs. The direct mail campaign can be further optimized to perform at its best using advanced direct mail tools like Posthero. Advanced tools like Posthero fully automate the direct mail process and guarantee maximum deliverability through advanced EU address verification.

ConclusionGDPR compliance is extremely important for companies, businesses, and marketers with a significant audience in the EU. Although the GDPR primarily affects digital marketing efforts, it also plays an important role in direct mail marketing. With a hefty fine looming over GDPR violations, marketers and entities that handle customers’ personal data can’t afford to ignore GDPR compliance. While the GDPR disrupted marketers’ efforts in many ways, direct mail marketing, by contrast, has actually benefited from it.

The main reason direct mail enjoys benefits under the GDPR is that it doesn’t require consent from recipients. In addition, the GDPR requires direct mail to be of legitimate interest to recipients, which actually works in favor of direct mail campaigns. It enables more targeted efforts that deliver better campaign results. On top of that, you can use advanced direct mail tools like Posthero to automate and optimize the entire process and drive more efficient conversions.