Make Compliance Cool Again

In our last two blogs, Ben and then our good friend Roland Pajares, approached discussions around data in different ways – first its importance as a foundation for strategic decision making and then how one can go about collecting such data and testing ideas and messages to achieve the most impact.

Given today is Data Privacy Day (January 28), we determined it prudent to also talk about the ever-important topic of data privacy and management, with a specific focus on that sometimes headache-inducing Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Despite the fact it’s been in place for many years, I frequently still receive communications I did not sign up for  and, with COVID and a heavier reliance on digital technologies, this should be top of mind for organizations doing email marketing.

I had a colleague, in the not too distant past, who argued tooth and nail against the procedures I was enforcing to ensure we complied with CASL. Their thought was that forcing customers to opt in to email marketing would mean less reach among potential customers, less marketing wins for their portfolio and, ultimately less revenue for the organization.

They were right on one point. We’d be reaching a much narrower audience. And my response was, “good.” By recording express consent (hint: pre-checked boxes are not express consent), we were in a position to learn what our contacts were truly interested in, be able to really segment our audiences and impact consumer behaviour. Having multiple areas of interest stated on the form that opt-inners can check or not may also help identify new marketing opportunities and refine even further how you target specific content to specific groups. 

By only sending tailored content to groups who have signed up to receive it, you’re going to improve your click-through and conversion rates. That actually translates to more marketing wins through very precise and targeted email marketing. It also translates to higher quality data and collecting more reliable information on different audiences’ interests in topics.

Of course, critical to having this improve your data quality is the data management aspect. It’s important to invest resources in omitting duplicates in your CRM system and in keeping contact information up to date. Duplicates and outdated data often lead to compliance issues as well as headaches for end-users. And that could mean huge repercussions as fines for CASL violations for organizations can be up to $10 million per infraction. While these fines are complaint-driven, that’s not a risk as a business owner I’d be willing to gamble on.

Focus on complete, accurate, single records, and it will support making your CRM work for you and help to strengthen your business outcomes.

Not sure where to begin? Reach out to us with your email marketing or CASL questions. We can help!