25th May 2018 – The end of email marketing or a new beginning (again!)?
1st May 2018
The mad rush to GDPR
The desperate run up to get people to re-opt in. Campaigns, opt-ins, opt-outs. Give us your contact data in exchange for a prize. Some companies you remember, some you don’t. There’s some you’re happy to keep receiving emails from but not that interested enough in to actually click a link, and there are some whose emails you just can’t live without!
May is here, and with May come the new EU GDPR regulations. In the desperate run up to the 24th May companies are planning what to do with their email marketing data. Re-opt in, ‘repermissioning’ – whatever phrase you choose – is the goal.
The morning after the day before…
Will your Inbox suddenly go quiet on 25th May? Will we hear the sounds of email lists being crushed, deleted and thrown out? How will we feel the first time we receive a ‘cold’ email after this date? Is that company a maverick or do they simply not know? Do we report it, or not…? And who to? Do we actually care?
Now what? Many businesses may be asking how they are going to continue with their lead-gen? And what impact is this going to have?
If businesses are no longer doing email marketing for lead generation, do they move the budget for email lead-gen over to Google Ads and other Pay-Per-Click (PPC) practices? Are Cost-Per-Clicks (CPCs) going to increase? Is Direct Marketing going to make a resurgence? And will we get fed up with that again, like we were in the days before email marketing became mainstream?
One of the biggest questions is whether companies are actually going to find themselves getting stiff fines for cold email marketing? If crossing the ‘red line’ goes unpunished, there may be a resurgence.
What should your SaaS business do post GDPR?
If cold email is part of your strategy it needs to change (and it should have already). If it’s not you don’t need to worry so much, however, as mentioned above, the channels you are marketing in may become a lot more competitive!
As discussed in a recent blog post, marketing needs to go back to ‘digital marketing basics’.
This may be defined as:
- Creating high quality content
- Having real reasons for people to opt-in and want to receive your emails
- Working extra hard to keep your emails relevant and keeping people not just opted in, but actually engaged (not just one of those emails that sits there unread or gets deleted)
- Highly targeted PPC on relevant search engines, social networks, and SaaS directories
- Having a great website that generates conversions and is continually updated with tweaks designed to increase the conversion rate
- Combining all these things together to get high rankings on search engines and build awareness outside of your website
In the long-term GDPR is an opportunity
In the past marketing was organised around a long-term strategy. Back in the 50s it is unlikely you would have bought something the first time you saw a TV ad, but after a few views and ads in other places you might be persuaded to buy it.
A first time visit to your website is unlikely to yield a conversion. Quick win digital marketing tactics like cold email marketing or conversion focused landing pages may have worked (and still work). But if you haven’t done it already, you now need to start taking a longer-term view of marketing (again!).
- Writing a few blogs and a white paper in one month isn’t going to see leads increase 1,000%. Do it over a year though, and it might!
- Sending out a few tweets and making some connections won’t turboboost your business. But do it for 3 years and help people and it may!
- You won’t rank #1 in Google for your target keywords in 3 months. If you practice what’s required for effective SEO consistently, you’ll enjoy high rankings for years!
- In the past, that quick email offer may have worked for 0.1% of a database of 100,000 people you have. But now, if people have chosen to make the effort to opt in to receive your emails, you’d better make sure you are delivering value!
However marketing changes, Xander Marketing is your partner
From our inception in 2009 to now marketing has constantly changed and evolved. As a marketing agency we’ve had to keep up and keep ahead. GDPR and the change in marketing is just one of the trends explored in our recent white paper: 7 Smart Ideas to Market your SaaS Business in 2018.
Xander Marketing works in partnership with SaaS businesses around the world to support growth through new customer acquisition, increasing leads, generating more website traffic and raising industry awareness. If you lack the time, resource or know how to undertake marketing then get in touch and book your free 30 minute consultation.
