What Privacy Laws Apply to Digital Marketing for My Business in England and Wales?

Marketing your goods and services is an essential part of your company and can provide many benefits. In recent years, digital marketing has become an increasingly popular way for business to broaden their target audience. However, some businesses tend to overdo it and abuse the contact details of consumers. However, if your business follows the relevant data protection and privacy rules, you will likely ensure that e-marketing only reaches individuals who wish to receive it. This article will explain the relevant privacy laws relating to digital marketing to ensure your company makes a good impression on potential customers and avoids any breaches of the law.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing (or e-marketing) involves electronic advertising. For your company, this may involve sending offers and products through: 

• email; 
• text message; or 
• social media.

In England and Wales, digital marketing comes under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR mainly ensures that your business practices lawful data collection and only provides advertising to those who consent.

In general, your business should only send e-marketing messages to individuals when:

• they provide you with prior explicit consent (usually by clicking a tick box on your website to opt in to marketing messages);
• they directly provide you with their email address and contact details (rather than through a third party); and
• your messages include a clear option to ‘opt-out’ of future emails (usually through an ‘unsubscribe’ button).

When Does an Email From My Company Not Count as Marketing?

Your business is permitted to contact potential and ongoing customers for non-marketing purposes without them needing to complete a ‘tick box’ process.

Some examples of email messages to clients which will not count as e-marketing include:

• sending an update to an existing client on the progress of their order;
• providing details as to price (or a quote) in response to a potential customer’s initial email; and
• updating a past customer on their previous purchase (for example, any security updates for an electronic product).

Example

Let us look at a quick example. Your hypothetical company’s website attracts orders from 10,000 users a month. You wish to store their customer data (including their name and email address) for future marketing activities. How can you do so without breaching relevant privacy laws?

Why Should Are Data Protection Rules Regarding E-Marketing Important?

In most cases, breaching data protection rules can result in financial consequences for your business. Furthermore, there are various ways you can breach privacy laws, and therefore, there can be several consequences. For example:

1. email users marking your digital messages as ‘spam’ and therefore not having sight of them in the future;
2. the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) imposing hefty fines on your business due to breach of the GDPR; and
3. potential (and current) customers becoming irritated by the emails and thus causing damage to your reputation and customer retention.

Providing an ‘unsubscribe’ button within your digital marketing messages is an effective way to avoid rule breaches. This means that an individual who mistakenly receives a message from your organisation can easily unsubscribe. Moreover, making unsubscribing an easy process will likely result in fewer complaints to the ICO.

Key Takeaways

In short, digital marketing can provide a wide range of benefits for your company. Additionally, some view it as a better alternative to print marketing as it is better for the environment. However, the GDPR aims to prevent individuals from receiving unwarranted digital marketing messages. Ultimately, ensuring that your company’s digital marketing schemes align with the privacy laws in the UK will help keep your potential customers happy. Additionally, doing so will help you avoid any nasty surprises from the ICO.

If you need help with digital marketing messages and avoiding data protection breaches, our experienced Data, Privacy and IT lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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