10 steps for transparency and compliance in email marketing 📨
#1. Increasing subscriber trust through ethical email marketing
— Weekly impact
Hey 👋
Great to see you here! After wrapping up a recent consulting project on email marketing, I found myself thinking about how important it is to educate not just the marketing teams but everyone involved in building our email databases.
We’ve all been hearing about the shift to a “post-cookie world” for a while now, and I’m sure many of you have already started exploring different approaches. However, in our rush to track users, we can’t lose sight of ethics and compliance.
In this edition, I’ll share a few practical tactics you can easily implement in your day-to-day email activities. But first, let’s revisit a couple of key terms to make sure we’re all on the same page:
— Did you know?
In the post-cookie era, we need to shift our focus towards first-party data, customer insights, and transactional data to better understand our audiences. One challenge in making this shift is the need to integrate and unify these data sources to gain actionable insights that will drive our marketing strategies.
That said, transparency, trust, and compliance are key for those strategies to be successful. In fact:
37% of consumers say their top priority is getting clear information on how their data is being used.
24% prioritize ensuring their information isn’t sold for ads or marketing.
21% emphasize the importance of complying with privacy laws.
— Why this should matter to you
Adopting ethical data practices isn’t just about avoiding penalties; it’s about aligning your email marketing efforts with your OKRs. Integrating ethical practices into your strategy builds trust, drives higher engagement, and fosters customer loyalty, ultimately helping you achieve your business goals. By being transparent and respecting your subscribers’ privacy, you can differentiate your brand, strengthen connections with your audience, and more effectively hit your key results.
— Take action
Ethical data collection
Prioritize first-party data collection:
Focus on gathering data directly from your subscribers through forms, surveys, and preference centers.Template to support your work
Use double opt-in:
Ensure that subscribers genuinely want to receive your emails by confirming their subscription via a second email.
👉 To activate double opt-in, adjust the settings in your email service provider under sign-up form settings or email list preferences.Implement transparency in data usage:
Be upfront with subscribers about how their data will be used and stored. Include this information during the sign-up process.Checklist to support your work
Data management and security
Anonymize and encrypt data:
Protect your subscribers' personal information by anonymizing data and using encryption methods.
👩💻 Marketers often need to collaborate with data specialists or IT teams for data anonymization.Who to involve:
Data privacy officers: Ensure compliance with privacy laws and ethical standards.
IT/data security teams: Implement anonymization techniques and ensure secure data handling.
Data analysts: Verify that anonymized data remains useful for analysis while protecting identities.
What to ask for:
Data masking: Request the IT team to apply techniques that replace sensitive information with anonymized data.
Pseudonymization: Implement processes where identifiers are replaced with pseudonyms.
Data aggregation: Combine data into broader categories to prevent re-identification of individuals.
Regular audits: Ensure that anonymization processes are regularly audited for effectiveness.
Regularly update privacy policies:
Keep your privacy policy current with the latest data protection laws and inform your subscribers of any changes.Template to support your work
Educate your team on data privacy:
Provide ongoing training to your team about best practices in data privacy to ensure everyone is aligned with ethical standards.Checklist to support your work
Subscriber trust and engagement
Use preference centers:
Allow subscribers to control the frequency and type of emails they receive, increasing their engagement and trust.Example to support your work
Allow easy unsubscribe options:
Make it simple for subscribers to opt out of your emails, respecting their preferences and privacy. Consider proactively reaching out to those who show low engagement levels, offering them the option to adjust their subscription preferences or opt out entirely. This approach demonstrates transparency and respects your subscribers’ choices.Template to support your work
Secure your data with encryption:
Use encryption to protect data both in transit and at rest, minimizing the risk of breaches.
Who to involve:IT/data security teams: Implement encryption protocols for data in transit and at rest.
Email service providers (ESPs): Ensure your ESP supports and applies encryption to your email communications.
⭐ Tip: Work with your IT team to conduct regular encryption audits to ensure ongoing data security.
Create an inclusivity checklist in your brand book:
Ensure that your brand's email marketing strategy includes a checklist for inclusivity and ethical data practices.Checklist to support your work
— Your toolbox
Using third-party data? Use this checklist to make sure you’re compliant.
Aligning your email marketing strategies with OKRs while maintaining ethical standards is key to building trust and achieving long-term success.
Have you started implementing any of these strategies? What challenges have you faced? I’d love to hear your thoughts—feel free to share them in the comments below or reach out directly. 😊
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