As of May 25, 2018, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) establishes new rules regarding prospecting:
It is forbidden to cold call a B2C customer by email: your recipient must have given his consent before receiving one of your emails.
In B2B, it is recommended (but not mandatory!) to have the consent of your target. But you still have to respect some rules:
- Your activity must be related to the activity of your prospect. For example, if you sell software, you can address a target that uses a computer for business purposes.
- The purchase of contact databases is prohibited, you do not respect the RGPD with this practice and risk being sanctioned by the CNIL. The RGPD stipulates that the storage of data is prohibited. Moreover, after 3 years of inactivity, the contact must be permanently deleted from your database.
- It is mandatory to include an unsubscribe link in your email (at least in all those you send without opt-in).
Little tip: you can change its title to make it more fun instead of just saying "unsubscribe" 😉
Before purchasing or renting an email database, seek advice from your DPO or legal department 😉
