Lost consumer data with GDPR? It's time to get it back!

GDPR came and went. Well it didn’t actually go, it is still around and the fall out is still causing problems for brands who thrived on having consumer engagement.

Whereas some brands bent the rules and kept consumer data following the GDPR deadline, others played it safe and if they didn’t have consent by deadline day, deleted all their consumer data.

Correct thing to do or not, this has left many brands with newsletters and other time consuming and expensive communications going out to a lot fewer customers, offering a very poor ROI.

Don’t get me wrong, GDPR has had its benefits and it is great to see the tightening of laws around spamming and data privacy, but for many genuine relationships between brands trying to engage with their existing client base, it has been a killer!

Research shows that up to 90% of consumers who were and are happy to follow a brand, simply didn’t ‘opt-in’ when asked to do so meaning the brand had no choice but to delete them from their records. After all, that is the whole point of GDPR. 

It cleansed databases according to GDPR rules, however in reality, it also stopped genuine communications between brands and eager customers who didn’t take action.

What to do!

Build the database up again! One of our first questions at Vanilla Active is to ask a client what their key objectives are for a campaign. Whereas brands with a product to sell mainly focus on sales uplift as the key objective, over recent months since the GDPR deadline, the conversation has been about increasing data capture. 

Just think about all those customers that love your brand that want to engage with you, and yet you had to let go. Think about the newsletters and competitions you ran for your 50,000 database of contacts which is now down to 5000 with the same time and financial investment to reach them. Suddenly focussing on increasing your customer database becomes a higher priority.

Make an impact!

Start off by planning how to win your customers back. Incentivising them again to sign up. Whether an on-pack promotion, a loyalty scheme, experiential activity, or social media engagement, you need to make an impact and show them that there is something in it for them. Get that right and before long you will be building your numbers up again.

We had 1 client recently that had no data. They ran an on-pack promotion and received 24,000 opt-ins within a 3 month campaign. That's 24,000 people that physically took positive action as they wanted to engage more with the brand. How much is your consumer data worth? Get a sign up and what would you do with it? Surveys, competitions, invites to launch parties and promotions on social channels?

In a fast paced world, brands are always evolving. This is a challenge for brands. However what is even more important is to take your brand ambassadors on the journey with you. There is no point evolving if you don’t tell your followers. So engage, reward and regain your customer base.