After May 25, the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which we have been talking about for the last few months in this blog, is now mandatory. Remember that if we do not have the consent of our customers, we will only be able to send them commercial communications that are related to the products or services contracted. However, we may send you, without the need for your consent, direct marketing mailings about other types of products and services other than those contracted based on the legitimate interest allowed by recital 47 of the GDPR.
First of all, we must comment that if the last few months of adaptation by companies to the new regulation have been characterized by anything, it has been to pay more attention to the digital channel than to the physical one. For what reason? It can be said that by many. Among the main ones, we can highlight that it is easier to obtain consent digitally than by other means, such as paper or telephone; it also involves a lower cost for the company and, above all, digital channels are faster to use and allow the result to be known immediately. However, there is an important limitation. The digital or electronic channel requires the customer’s consent for communications of products and services other than those contracted.
Having commented on this aspect, it would be our turn to answer the question. In this case, what communications could we send without consent? In general, we are talking about “mailing” or sending postal communications indiscriminately. Of course, these communications, as they do not use personal data, are not regulated by the GDPR.
Another case could be transactional communications. First of all, it should be noted that by obligation the company has to send the paper invoice to its customer due to its contractual relationship. In the latter case, the company could invoke legitimate interest and send advertising information directly linked to the products it has sold.
However, no advertising offer for products not linked to the contracted product or service may be inserted or attached. To do so, prior consent is required. Remember, therefore, that it is very important to have obtained prior consent to send advertising communications for products or services other than the one contracted at the time of contracting the product or service purchased from your company.
Printed communication by post does not require prior consent. This type of communication is considered a legitimate interest according to recital 47 of the GDPR. Companies are starting to realize that the mailbox is a good option for postal marketing campaigns when our email inbox is so saturated with
email marketing campaigns
. Moreover, these are the only communications that do not require consent.
This opportunity in the postal channel can give rise to great ideas and innovate in the way of communicating, connecting paper with the network, that is, the physical world with the digital world. For example, we can use a QR to take us to dynamic web spaces to interact with. If we go further, we could include even more creative and innovative elements, such as augmented reality.
In short, it is all about postal communications with which to continue to impact the customer, and which are connected to digital channels to: monitor the user’s contact with our brand on the network and make the conversion (product or service purchase) faster when using a digital channel.
We can conclude that postal advertising communications do not require prior consent and can be the best option to impact the customer, initiating the communication in print and personalized, and moving the customer to digital channels where to interact with him and get his response or conversion. In this way, we will be able to create a Transmedia Marketing strategy, with which we can tell a great story around our product or service.