LinkedIn: No greater email marketing #fail than over-writing your customers preferences

LinkedInWTF2


I just got this  email from LinkedIn  Subject Line “A change to your DMA: Direct Marketing Association (UK) Limited digests” – the 3rd such email I have had this week about a group I belong to.
In it they tell me that they are going to ignore my mailing preferences and unsubscribe me from the group digests of which I get 1 a week a frequency selected by ME!… Read more

EU Data Protection Regulation – Subject Access Request

A lot has changed in the world since the EU Data Protection Directive was first introduced in 1995. The internet was just beginning and much less data was stored and transferred electronically than today. It is no surprise then that the legislation is being updated to meet the challenges of how global business is conducted in the 21st century.

The Data Protection Act of 1998 followed the EU Directive and one of the key rights for individuals was to give them access to their personal data on request.… Read more

A look back at email marketing in 2012

Well. Another year has passed by and sitting here pondering 2012, the first thought that comes to mind is just how much happened last year. It really was a busy year for marketers with so many events happening and email played a big part throughout – from the Olympics emails to the heavy use of email in the US elections.… Read more

EU Draft Data Protection Regulation – Data Portability

The next topic in the blog series on the new proposed EU data legislation looks at the area of ‘Data Portability’. Firstly let me clarify what that phrase means. The DataPortability Working Group defines it as “the option to share or move your personal data between trusted applications and vendors” – it’s really about the ability for people to be able to control their identity, media and other forms of personal data.… Read more

EU Data Protection International Transfer of Data

The development of technology has enabled businesses to act globally and be less limited by geographical boundaries. From our sofas we can shop online from almost any country in the world, companies can achieve a market presence in a country without having a single employee there; and in the world of iCloud and Dropbox we can access our files wherever we are, yet have no idea where they are actually stored.… Read more

The truth behind the buzz: what really made the difference in Obama’s re-election

One of the big stories in digital marketing in recent months has been about a campaign whose results have a major impact on people around the world – the US Presidential Election. Marketing pundits representing all channels have had an opinion on how Obama’s campaign led to his re-election but I would argue none was more significant than the use of email.… Read more

EU Data Protection Regulation – The Right to be Forgotten

Continuing with our series of posts reviewing the potential effects of the proposed EU Data Protection Regulation, one of the areas it addresses is an individual’s “right to be forgotten” by a business.  The specific wording is as follows:

“The data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller the erasure of personal data relating to them and the abstention from further dissemination of such data”

This has clearly been written with Social Media in mind, for example, ensuring that Facebook users are able to completely delete their profiles if they so wish.  However, the effect on email marketers and direct marketers in general could be disastrous.  If somebody unsubscribes, or asks to no longer receive an advertiser’s communications, then clearly that individual’s details need to be held by the organisation in order to suppress them from future comms.  Forgetting them completely, i.e.… Read more