All posts by Annabel Youens
AE was recently featured in Music Ally’s Sandbox, a monthly report for music marketers. We shared what we are doing here at AE and why AE is the perfect tool for music marketing.
This September’s issue was all about what to do when your music marketing campaign takes off. The report showcased how AE’s fan insight technology can impact music marketing for the better.
While we can’t give you the full article, you can get a free subscription trial here, and we have included some of our favourite quotes below!
Capture And Campaign
“Acquire, Attribute and Automate are the three A’s that are driving modern music marketing….Enter The Appreciation Engine (AE). This allows marketers to capture fan information from streaming and social platforms and then view insights down to the individual level.”
-Music Ally’s Sandbox Report
Get The Engine Running
“Inside AE’s dashboard, you’re able to view what’s been going on across your fanbase at an artist level, a global level and an individual fan level, so teams for a specific artist or across a wider catalogue can all work together within the same place.”
-Music Ally’s Sandbox Report
Enterprise to Indie
“AE is currently available to any labels and management companies that would like to start working with it and, although its features are currently geared for very large labels, it is prioritizing its updates over the coming years to be every bit as accessible to smaller labels…”
-Music Ally’s Sandbox Report
Sandbox by Music Ally is a subscription-based online publication that releases a fresh report every month. Their in-depth articles share recent digital marketing trends, useful tools and services, the industry’s most successful campaigns and interviews with industry leaders.
We were thrilled to be featured as a tool for music marketers and we hope you get a chance to read the full report! You can learn more about Sandbox and get a free trial subscription here.
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What a real example of AE in action? See how we helped Kesha reach 3.5 million fans here!
A lot of people use the terms “influencer” and “advocate” as synonyms. In some ways it makes sense because at first glance they both promote products on social media channels. But each group possesses very different characteristics and plays specific roles in social web society.
Their Definitions
Influencers are:
- people who are active on social media and have the capacity to affect another person’s behavior simply based on what they post
- often celebrities, politicians, or other individuals with a sizeable and loyal audience
Advocates are:
- individuals who publicly support a product or service based on its incredible quality
- people who vocalize their support for a product over social media and hope their admiration inspires others to buy
At AE, we believe the most important difference between influencers and advocates is:
- influencers agree to promote a product in exchange for free goods or services
- advocates promote a product because they genuinely like it and are impressed with its quality
Basically, advocates develop a long-term loyalty to the product they promote, while influencers create a very temporary and short-term connection to the product.
Their Motivations
An advocate’s motivation is:
- to help his/her friends find high-quality products
- advocates are selfless and want to help others in their community
On the other hand, influencers’ motivation is:
- to increase the size of their own audience
- unlike advocates, influencers are selfish- influencers are only concerned with how promoting a product will help them in the long run (they’re only in it for the freebies and the free press!)
This is backed up by Forrester Research, which states that only 18% of consumers trust influencers and their opinions, while Nielsen says that an astounding 92% of consumers trust brand advocates.
When trying to classify a customer, look for passion behind their posts that promote a product. Advocates always have a genuine passion and admiration for what they promote, where this passion is often missing from influencer posts.
Influencers and Advocates in the Real World
Two Facebook users are talking about Nike, but they speak very differently.
Influencer Post: “Check out Nike’s new sneaker! It’s fashionable, form-fitting, and definitely my new favorite shoe.”
Advocate Post: “Just bought Nike’s new sneaker. These shoes are the most durable pair I own! Went on a 5 mile hike and the sneakers didn’t have a mark on them. The soles are excellent at gripping dirt too. A must-have for all hikers and runners!”
Marketers Need To Know These Distinctions
Understanding these two groups is a vital distinction for marketing teams so that they know which customers they should connect with and focus on. So use this ammo to develop genuine and meaningful relationships with your brand advocates.
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To learn more smart marketing tips check out our blog post:
SMART MARKETING: 6 WAYS BRANDS CAN BETTER CONNECT WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS IN 2018
A major record label wanted to use a killer Spotify release strategy to get people talking about their artist, Sam Hunt. They decided on a unique and interactive experience to build buzz and enthusiasm…Little did they know that it would take his debut album to the top of the charts! Keep reading to learn how they did it.
Spotify Release Strategy, Maximized
Sam Hunt’s fans were invited to sign in through a custom Spotify login, then create a playlist inspired by the new album, Montevallo. The custom login allowed the label to track fan activity on Spotify.
Fans had several incentives to participate in the campaign. For one, their playlist submission gave them a chance to win a prize pack including a CD and t-shirt.
Every week, Sam Hunt would also choose his favorite playlist, giving eager fans the opportunity to receive recognition from the artist. The hottest playlists would be featured on the website for all participants to see.
The Campaign Results
To say this music release strategy was a success would be an understatement.
The campaign encouraged fans to be creative and offered them clear value, so they were eager to spread the word through social media. The result? Sam Hunt’s Montevallo quickly and organically generated online buzz!
Superpowered Social Login
More importantly, this Spotify release campaign gave the record label invaluable information about Sam Hunt’s fans.
When they logged in with Spotify, each fan agreed to let the record label see their Spotify activities — the tracks they had on Heavy Rotation, the tracks they had saved, the artists they followed, and so on.
These insights made the Sam Hunt campaign invaluable. The record label was able to precisely segment his fans, uncovering who exactly made up his super fan base. The record label could then use these insights to guide their next amazing digital campaign! Or use the data to dramatically increase the open rates of their newsletters and promotional emails…
AE Takes Album Releases to the Next Level
Ready to start seeing customer insights of your own? It’s AE’s specialty — in the music business and beyond!
Get started with a free account or chat with us by clicking the blue balloon in the bottom-right corner of this page!
Read more examples of successful music marketing:
Introducing…the new AE Connect WordPress plugin!
Our team is pretty excited to launch this new feature. It’s going to make it so much easier for marketers like you to get social login up and running for real-time customer insights. You won’t need to hire a development shop or bribe a techie-friend to show you how to get your WordPress social login set up. Our AE Connect plugin is simple to use. Plus we’ve got loads of help docs and videos to walk you through the setup.
We like to think of our WordPress plugin as a social login cake mix: we provide the delicious and essential components. All you have to do is add your website, stir, and bake!
Ready to give it a try? You can download the plugin here.
Social login is a big deal for music marketers
It’s all over artist websites — fans can pre-save albums on Spotify, sign up to a newsletter, or log in through their social account. Marketers use this explicit opt-in to see ongoing insights about their fans and send personalized offers at the perfect moment.
Implementing social login, however, can seem a daunting task to independent record labels and independent marketers.
Wondering how to add social login to WordPress?
We also have a super handy guide to help you install and setup the plugin on your WordPress site!
New to AE? Start your free account.
Reach out if you need a hand. We’re here.
Learn more about the benefits of social login:
GDPR. GDPR. GDPR.
Anyone else still recovering from the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) inbox flood?
If you’re based in North America, you’ve probably also wondered to yourself if you’re even affected by GDPR. (Spoiler: you are!)
The GDPR’s Global Impact
While centered on the European Union (EU), the GDPR has a global impact. Here’s why.
Even if you’re based in the US, Canada, or Mexico, if you handle any data from EU customers (there are 28 countries in the EU), you’ll be affected.
There are certain caveats to these rules:
- If the EU visitor/customer is not in the EU when you collect their data, the GDPR does not apply.
- Your visitor or customer does not need to purchase from your site for the GDPR to apply to your business.
- If you’re hosting a generic survey without directly targeting EU consumers, but a prospect from Britain fills it out, they are not covered under GDPR. However, if your study even mentions the EU, then the law kicks in.
But what about California?
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 is another hot ticket item that could bring GDPR-like privacy rules to California– the heart of tech.
This could spell out a major change for businesses that collect and sell customer data. Customers will have to ask how their data is being used, and request to be removed (opt out). The GDPR focuses more on opt-in requirements, making the California regulations much more friendly to data collectors.
Customers who choose to opt out, cannot be punished or charged higher fees for services. And here’s the clincher: it allows public prosecutors and citizens to sue for data breaches or for the sale of personal data after someone has opted out. There’s no requirement that specific harm be proven before damages can be awarded.
Citizens can sue for data breaches and there’s no requirement that specific harm must be proven before damages can be awarded under California’s proposed Consumer Privacy Act.
This will make effective tracking and following through on opt-outs a top priority for companies that collect data in California.
What does this all mean for marketers in North America?
In a time where people are being asked for their data on a daily basis, and that data is being traded with other businesses, it’s about time customers gained some power. Historically, customers have had their data traded and sold without their knowledge, and with the rise in cybersecurity leaks, it’s well past time every internet user had rights.
As a marketer, it means you need to be prepared for a new age of data collection and transparency.
With these regulations moving from a possibility to a reality, we need to become proactive. Even if California’s privacy act does not pass, it’s inevitable that marketers will see a shift in data collection regulations.
Marketing strategies must shift from a cold transactional approach, to a warm, transparent and relationship-focused strategy.
So, How Do You Build Trust as a Marketer?
It starts with upfront communication before you ask for any customer data.
When you collect data from customers, you need to clearly tell them how you plan on using that data. The context will matter when working within regulations like GDPR, because your stated context for collecting/using data is the only way you are legally allowed to use this data.
You can earn big points with consumers for providing the transparency they deserve.
From there, you need to give them explicit details on how you will use their data, and if you want to send them different information, you need to get permission.
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Additional Resources
- General Data Protection Regulation full text
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- Straight to the source: if you’re feeling brave and erudite, consult the Regulation itself.
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- GDPR Official Site FAQ
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- If you’ve got some questions about the nuts and bolts, the official GDPR FAQ is a great place to start.
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- Gartner’s Five Point Guide to GDPR, (including a description of individuals’ rights)
- This guide identifies “five high-priority changes” organizations should make to prepare for GDPR requirements.
- IDC Five Steps to GDPR
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- This white paper is basically a more in-depth version of the five-step guide above, so if you want more details, here’s the next stop.
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- SAS Institute ebook – Working Toward GDPR Compliance
- If you’re looking for a full instruction manual on GDPR compliance, you can download an ebook on just that topic right here.
This post is part of our series: Find Out Fast If Your Business is GDPR Ready. Our goal is to help businesses make sense of privacy and data. AE is your Babel Fish for Legalese 🐠
In the age of social login, every company seems to ask for permission to access your personal information through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Spotify, Instagram…and so on.
Social login has become a way to generate opt-ins without forms, giving you higher conversion rates and, for some businesses, doing deep data-mining.
But, are these companies crossing a line by not asking for permission? Should they be made to ask permission before using your personal data?
According to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the answer is “Yes.” Or even, “Heck, YES!”
Think of it like a digital handshake between your business and your customer. If your customers allow you to use their data, the expectation is that your business promises, “We’ll keep your data safe and use it to make your life better.”
Context is the New King in Data Collection and Use
Asking for permission to access and use personal data must be more transparent because of the GDPR. Explicit consent and user deletion are the cornerstones of the GDPR.
Pre-Checked Boxes
Using pre-checked boxes may have once been an easy way for brands to encourage newsletter signup, but with GDPR in effect, all option boxes must be unchecked, and the action of opt-in requires a positive action by the visitor. Visitors need to actually check the box themselves to opt in to anything you offer.
Preconditions of Service
GDPR also means no more preconditions of service. What, you ask? It means consent cannot be a precondition. For example, the signup for a service newsletter can’t be bundled together with your terms and conditions. It’s all about keeping everything clear and clean.
Explicit Consent for Specific Uses
When customers consent to providing their personal data, it must specifically relate to what you are using the data for. This means you are required to get separate instances of explicit consent for each type of activity you perform with someone’s personal data.
Along the same lines, you can only use the data you collected for the reason you said. No double-dipping with consent. Customers MUST be provided with the context of use prior to consent and how easy it is to opt out.
The importance of context means you need to re-work your marketing and email collection strategies. Start thinking about how context can make the biggest difference for your conversion signup rate.
Consent in Context
Let’s look at some examples of smart integrations with social login that make sense for the end-customer.
A tool like Canva requests permission to access your Facebook account. Their platform creates graphics for social media and by having access to your Facebook profile, sharing your created works with your Facebook account is streamlined. Context makes sense for a Facebook social login.
The context in a Spotify Pre-Save campaign can also be very successful. With AE, we allow you to access and analyze the personal data of users through a Spotify social login.
When customers consent to a Spotify Pre-Save album, they know the context. They are giving personal information in exchange for an album or playlist being added automatically to their Spotify account. Context-appropriate marketing gives you great conversion rates and makes sense to your customer.
The Data Handshake
The goal of smart marketing has always been to get the right message, to the right person, at the right time. For the past few years, companies around the world have been engaging in a personal data feeding frenzy, grabbing everything they can.
Today, we are seeing a backlash where governments around the world are stepping in to regulate the collection and use of personal data.
So remember, context is a digital handshake you need to be using. You can only use data for the explicit use your customer has agreed to. If you wish to use a piece of customer data in different ways, the customer must agree to each of those uses in advance.
Being clearer with your customers is going to grow trust. And with trust comes a better relationship and better sales. So instead of seeing all the GDPR rules as “compliance”, think about how your relationships will improve, develop, and deepen. After all, having more trust online is a good thing.
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Related Stories:
This post is part of our series: Find Out Fast If Your Business is GDPR Ready. Our goal is to help businesses make sense of privacy and data. AE is your Babel Fish for Legalese 🐠
The flip side of the onerous GDPR regulations is the new opportunity they’ve created for brands to be leaders.
Marketers who adapt to these changes quickly will be able to build a new layer of trust for their brand, and emerge from this transition as industry leaders.
With the added transparency of GDPR, marketers are being called to deliver on their promises, and provide real value in exchange for connecting with customers.
This means, as a marketer, you’re going to have to get more creative with how you capture opt-ins, collect data, and use that data. These new pressures are also an opportunity for your brand to become a leader and actually increase engagement from your customers.
A big reason for these regulations is the increase in unwanted emails we all receive every day. People were being messaged endlessly, through all channels, with content that they unknowingly “opted in” to.
With the removal of some offers, the noise may die down, but there will be a new opportunity to be seen, if you’re prepared to offer something remarkable.
Thoughts on Leveraging Data in the the Age of Transparency
When it comes to collecting customer data, there are a few options at hand. Say you’ve created a curated Spotify Playlist and used a Pre-Save campaign to generate thousands of signups. Because of the opt-in context, you’re only allowed to use your customers’ data for this Spotify campaign. You cannot send them additional information that they did not consent to.
So, how do you leverage the customer data you’ve been given, within the context you’re allotted? This involves digging into your data a little deeper.
Here’s the data you get when you use AE’s Spotify social login:
Use this data and take the opportunity to give value back to your customer. For instance, send them a message about the track they’ve listened to, and ask if they’d like more music from similar artists.
Take the time to create a more personal relationship, acquire more data to segment your customers with, and message with content they actually care about.
This level of communication is vastly different from what marketers have been doing recently. They overlooked building genuine relationships because it takes more time, and opted for a more transactional strategy: sending emails to push a purchase.
In the age of data transparency, pushing a sale must come secondary to building the relationship. You need to use the data at your fingertips and work within the context of your opt-in process. By doing this, you’ll build more meaningful relationships with visitors, and slowly gather the information needed to upsell, cross sell, and offer a sale, when it’s time.
The difference: you’re now focusing on the long game, rather than the short one.
Adapt Early and Customers Will Love You
As this approach becomes more popular and customers understand the various levels of data consent, they’ll become more sensitive to how their information is being used.
Marketers who take a cautious and considerate approach (i.e. asking permission to contact for reason X), will gain more trust for their brand.
This new wave of marketing is all about taking the data you have and using it to form relationships with individuals before sending them sales-driven content — not pushing your message out to as many people as you can.
This will be an adjustment for many marketers. But the payoff may be a better relationship with a more invested audience. Better to make these changes as an early adopter and industry leader, rather than just trying to keep up with the pack.
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We deal in customer data everyday. We know the companies who work with us trust us to keep their data secure and private. This is a huge deal to us and we don’t take the job lightly.
Our thoughts about the GDPR changes in an actionable way
Because let’s face it, a lot of GDPR resources on the web are dry, like sandpaper dry. We’ve taken a different approach and created a flowchart to step you through your customer data and how the GDPR rules might affect your business.
AE is Your Babel Fish for GDPR Legalese 🐠
We have a beautifully designed version of our flowchart. Get your copy by sharing your email with us. Promise, only great tips and no dry white papers 👇
Get Access to our Exclusive, Non-Boring GDPR Webinar
Here’s a little peak at Annabel, our CMO and co-founder chatting about our flowchart in the Webinar:
These are the kind of insights you’ll get:
And we promise it’s the least dry GDPR webinar ever!
Sign up to get access to our webinar and flowchart. Ps. Find out what 13 year-old Annabel saved up all her babysitting money to buy… 👇
Here is a text version of our flowchart: Find Out Fast If Your Business is GDPR Ready
1. Do you have customer data?
Yes → Go To Question 2
No → Well, this won’t be terribly helpful, but thanks for checking it out.👍
2. Do you have customers in the EU?
Yes → 3.
No → 2a.
2a. Is your business based in the EU?
Yes → 3.
No → 2b.
2b. Do you want to prepare for similar changes likely coming to North America and the rest of the world?
Yes → 3.
No → Well, this won’t be terribly helpful, but thanks for checking it out.👍
3. Do you ask customers to sign up for email marketing?
Yes → Nice! Newsletters are amazing! As part of GDPR you are going to have to prove your customer signed up. That means implementing double opt-in. Specific consent is also really important so your customer knows exactly what they’re getting.
No → 4.
4. Do your customers have to create an account on your website?
Yes → 4a.
No → 5.
4a. Do your customers sign in with:
Social login (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) → Good news, you’re piggybacking on social networks who also need to comply with the new rules. There are still a few things you need to prepare for:
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- Privacy policy: we’ve got something that will help.
- Specific consent: you need to make it really clear what you’re going to use their data for.
- Deletion: you must be able to fully delete their user record when asked.
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Your own form → Nice work with your own sign up. There are a few things you’ll need to prepare:
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- Privacy policy: we’ve got something that will help.
- Specific consent: you need to make it really clear what you’re going to use their data for.
- Deletion: you must be able to fully delete their user record when asked.
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As a guest, like on an ecommerce site → Perfect! There are a few things you need to think about:
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- Privacy policy: we’ve got something that will help.
- Specific consent: you need to make it really clear what you’re going to use their data for.
- Deletion: you must be able to fully delete their user record when asked.
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5. Do you have web beacons or cookies on your site?
Yes → You’ll need to make sure you notify any site visitors you have this turned on and get them to agree. We have a tip sheet that will help you implement this. → Go to 6
No → 6.
6. Do other team members access your customer data?
Yes → It’s important that your team members know how sensitive this data is and how to handle it. We have some resources to help with training.
No → 7.
7. Do you have software or partners that handle your customer data like a CRM?
Yes → You’ll need to talk to each of your partners to make sure they are GDPR compliant. Things to cover are:
- User deletion
- Who has access to your customer data
- What training they’ve had
- Ask them what changes they’ve had to make for the GDPR
- Consider signing a Data Processing Agreement (DPA), so it’s clear where customer data responsibilities lie
Hey, we’re all done! Boom.
That was easy and hopefully you feel armed to make some smart decisions. Check out our GDPR tools here:
- How to Write a Privacy Policy for Your Website: Examples, Resources and Ideas You Can Use
- Double Opt-In for Easy Email Marketing
- Explicit Consent and Deleting Your Customers, GDPR Cornerstones
- AE’s Quick Guide to Web Beacons and Cookies
Important note: Of course please consult your own lawyer to make sure your business is complying with GDPR rules. We’ve tried to make these as clear as possible but your situation could be different and we’re not lawyers.✍
This post is part of our series: Find Out Fast If Your Business is GDPR Ready. Our goal is to help businesses make sense of privacy and data. AE is your Babel Fish for Legalese 🐠
What Explicit Consent Means
Clearly, telling your customers what you’re going to do with their data makes good business sense. Trust is essential, especially these days.
Email marketing has taken a clear approach to email sign-ups for many years, thanks to changes like Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL) and other countries that have followed suit. This clear understanding between an email customer and a business follows this simple pattern: You sign up for an email newsletter, and the business tells you how often they’ll email you, what kind of content you’ll receive and how to unsubscribe. Excellent!
This concept of clearly spelling out how customer data is to be used is now being spread across every part of your customer data thanks to the GDPR. At AE we think this is good thing. Being more transparent and honest is good for everyone.
How To Implement Explicit Consent
You need to be able to tell a customer what you’ll be doing with the data you ask them for. This is especially important during customer registration.
When you implement your policy or terms and conditions you need a check box that isn’t pre-checked. This box must be checked by the user to indicate that they are agreeing. This is the foundation of explicit consent.
Deleting Your Customers, The Right To Be Forgotten
The second cornerstone of the GDPR changes is that every one of your customers has the right to be forgotten. When a customer sends a request asking to have their account deleted, you must do it. Pretty simple and you most likely do this right now. However, you might just be deleting the main customer account, but other information like billing, or an mailing address, or old emails in your support system would be left. With the GDPR it all has to go.
If your business has multiple systems that contain customer data it all needs to go. There are a few instances where some customer data will remain, for example electronic invoices that contain customer data can be kept on file for taxes and accounting, but in most cases you’ll need to remove everything and then notify the customer when it’s been completed.
GDPR Cornerstones
Good luck setting up explicit consent and reviewing how you delete your customers. These two cornerstones for being GDPR ready can seem difficult to implement and understand but hopefully this helps you get started.
Get more information on anti-spam legislation in the countries where you have customers:
United States of America: CAN-SPAM Act
Argentina: Personal Data Protection Act
Australia: Spam Act 2003
Austria: Austrian Telecommunications Act
Belgium: Belgium Law March 11, 2003
Brazil: Movimento Brasileiro de Combate ao Spam
Canada: CASL
Cyprus: Regulation of Electronic Communications and Postal Services Law 2004
Czech Republic: Act No. 480/2004 Coll. on Certain Information Society Services
European Union: Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications
Finland: Act on Data Protection in Electronic Communication
France: Law of June 21 2004 for Confidence in the Digital Economy
Germany: Federal Data Protection Act
Hong Kong: Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance
Indonesia: Law Concerning Electronic Information and Transactions
Israel: 2008 Amendment to the Communication Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law of 1982
Italy: Italian Personal Data Protection Code
Japan: Act on Regulation of the Transmission of Specified Electronic Mail
Malaysia: Communications and Multimedia Act of 1998
Malta: Data Protection Act
Netherlands: Dutch Telecommunications Act
New Zealand: Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007
Singapore: Spam Control Act 2007
South Africa: Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 2002
South Korea: Act on Promotion of Information and Communication Network Utilization and Information Protection
Spain: Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce Act
Sweden: Swedish Marketing Act
United Kingdom: Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003
This post is part of our series: Find Out Fast If Your Business is GDPR Ready. Our goal is to help businesses make sense of privacy and data. AE is your Babel Fish for Legalese 🐠
Why should you use Double Opt-In?
Double opt-in is an important way to get your customer to explicitly agree to joining your newsletter. If you’re focusing on being GDPR compliant, you’ll need to get your customers to say yes not once, but twice. Yep, they really want your newsletter and that is a great thing for you.
What is Double Opt-In?
“Double opt-in” is when a user:
- Signs up to receive your emails
- Receives a confirmation email from you
- Clicks a link to verify their email and reaffirm that they wish to receive your e-newsletter.
Double opt-in is great because it ensures that everyone receiving your emails is actually interested in reading them!
How to Set Up Double-Opt-In
You can set up double opt-in using any email newsletter provider. We really like MailChimp. Here’s what they have to say about double opt-in and how to set it up using their service.
If you’d rather explore other options, here’s a list of some more providers you can try out: