Corpdata Premium our first GDPR safe rolling license

At Corpdata we’ve thought long and hard about GDPR and what it means to our clients and growing their business using direct marketing. Absolutes are hard to find, but we assessed the likely impact of the legal changes in a realistic way, prompting us to re-engineer how we telephone verify our business lists and the processes that we will use to ensure compliance with the new legal framework.

We made a big switch some time ago. Our research team has not only been validating the usual company and decision maker details but we’ve also been ascertaining the marketing preferences of those we hold within our database of UK business contacts. We not only accurately record the preferences toward receiving mail, phone and email but our Rolling License gives you twice monthly updates. This means you can be confident your direct marketing respects the most up-to-date information for the prospects, including their preferences. And this is a requirement of GDPR, so Corpdata's Rolling License is the only third party offering currently available that will ensure you stay on the right side of the law.

This results in you being able to market your message when your competition might just find they have hit a legal brick wall.

You know that the more accurate the list you use the better your results, not only will your Corpdata Premium on our Rolling License be super fresh but will also have had contacts who will likely be resistant to direct marketing excluded. Your rolling license also keeps each contact telephone preference screened at all times.

Corpdata GDPR safe Business Premium is offered to you in two ways; You will still be able to use Business Premium on a one off single use basis (£125 per 000), which if that’s all you need is fine. However, like many direct marketing campaigns you may want to use multiple channels on a number of occasions in order to nurture your prospects to the point of buying. Our 'rolling' license lets you do just this, so using your list on an ongoing basis but safely by receiving updates twice monthly. How much is Corpdata GDPR safe data? Business premium Rolling license costs £150 per 000 and thereafter £35 per 000 per month.

If you are unsure about migrating your direct marketing to be GDPR ready, you can still license Business Premium in the usual way until May 2018; £275 per 1000 for up to May 2018, nine months £250 per 1000, six months £225 per 1000 and single campaign £200.

Respect – it’s important ... or else, expensive!

If someone told you they don’t want emails from you; you are taking a big risk if you subsequently ask them if they want to change their mind. If you email someone who has already told you they don’t want to hear from you, the very act of asking is not lawful even though you may think that you are making your future communication strategy legally compliant.

Two companies have just been fined for breaking the rules about how people’s personal information should be treated when sending marketing emails.

In August last year our local Exeter-based airline Flybe sent over three million emails to people who had told them they didn’t want to receive marketing emails from them. The emails had the subject line ‘Are your details correct?’ and invited people to amend information Flybe held on them and in so doing to also update their marketing preferences, the later incentivised by being entered into a prize draw. Flybe copped a £70,000 fine for breaking the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations (PECR).

Honda Motor Europe Ltd was also fined £13,000 for sending nearly three hundred thousand emails which attempted to clarify their customers marketing preferences. They mistakenly considered these emails as not being marketing but customer service communications, and they also thought that this exercise was helping them comply with legislation governing personal information. They received the fine after failing to provide evidence that their customers had ever given consent to receiving communications.

Dept 679 – GDPR Help when you need it

The 679th EU Law, the new General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, requires you to make sure your processes and procedures work in a way that respects the data subject and protects their data. It puts Data Protection on a par with Health & Safety and imposes serious consequences for getting it wrong.

You might just be becoming more aware of how increasingly important it is to have a sound awareness of data protection not only ensuring the safe use of direct marketing data to maintain a steady flow of new business. You probably also realise the need to understand GDPR and its potential impact on every aspect of your organisation’s activity. Potentially crippling fines and reputational damage on an unheard of scale are waiting for the unwise or unwary.

Complying with the new law would be hard enough if everything were already clearly understood and static – but the nature of new legislation is that case-law will emerge over time developing concrete interpretations of the rules. This means the understanding, and the guidance will be changing fast for years to come!

Data protection is already a significant issue, but GDPR takes the need to know and act properly to a much higher level.

We’ve been working with data for over 25 years. Given our experience in managing the collation, cleansing and provision of business information we can now help you manage data protection in a wider sense, and become and stay GDPR compliant.

GDPR requires you to be able to prove you are “in no way responsible” should something go wrong, which is why you really should adopt a formalised approach to data protection, both in planning the collection and usage of data, but also in your documentation. The expertise to do this is rare and very expensive with Data Protection Officers currently commanding salaries of over £150,000.

There are so many questions you need to answer to ensure what you do is legal; for instance you no doubt already hold information on your customers (past and present) and your prospects. Can you lawfully use information you already hold or will doing so mean you fall foul of the new law! Many organisations are questioning how they can continue to use data they already hold to help their commercial success. Dept 679 can help you find your answers.

We offer you a simple solution. Dept679 has been created specifically to address the data protection needs of SME's. Offering you a personalised service which delivers practical guidance on how to comply with legislation whilst insuring you against the consequences of accidental lapses.

Dept679 looks after your data protection worries and offers you peace of mind, freeing you to get on with running your business. Speak to us to find out how we can help you, call 0800 2800 679 or email enquiries@dept679.com