Cold emailing and RGPD: everything you need to know

It is on May 25, 2018 that the RGPD (or General Data Protection Regulation) is voted. Its objective is to protect the personal data of the citizens of the European Union by setting a regulatory framework more successful than previous legislation.

What about professionals and cold emailing? Discover in our article all you need to know on the subject.

What is the RGPD?

The RGPD regulates the processing of personal data of users. This regulation applies to all organizations, whether private or public, as long as their products or services are aimed at the European public, or that they are established in the European Union.

Let's go into the details. What exactly is personal data? In a very broad sense, it concerns any personal information that you will collect from a user via a form for example (name, first name, email address, date of birth, phone number, postal address, company name…)

What about data processing? Once the information has been collected (form, survey, inquiry…), the data processing must have a precise objective/purpose when contacting the lead.

Today, it is possible to collect non-personal data without necessarily obtaining the consent of the Internet user. This is especially the case with scraping tools that allow to collect a lot of data. When is it then? Does the RGPD prevent from sending cold emailing campaigns? Let's see what it is exactly.

RGPD: what does it change for cold emailing?

Cold emailing is a B2B marketing technique, which aims to address cold leads with whom you have had no interaction. Its goal is to initiate a conversation whose objective is to "break the ice" and establish a relationship of trust.

In B2B cold emailing you can prospect leads without obtaining their consent. You must however :

• contact them on a professional address
• the subject of the request must have a direct link with the profession of the targeted person.

This legislation does not apply to generic addresses such as contact@entreprise.com, info@entreprise?com, etc.

In B2C, you must always obtain the consent of the person concerned before contacting them.
In all cases, you must specify the identity of the sender, and propose a simple way to object to the prospecting.

Which methods to adopt to prospect without worries?

Here are the methods to apply for your cold email campaigns:

• Specify your identity: a person who receives one of your messages must be able to identify you.
• Unsubscribe: when programming your cold emailing campaigns, think of putting an unsubscribe link at the bottom of your message. Thus, the recipient will have the choice to unsubscribe from your sequences without any problem.
• Data deletion: any user can request the total deletion of his personal data. You are therefore obliged to delete all their information from your prospecting and CRM tools.
• Collecting data with good tools: the RGPD does not oppose scraping as long as the data collected is not personal data, and is public. For personal data, some precautions must be taken. It is also important to store this data in a secure way and not to resell it to third parties without the consent of the person. To scrape lead data legally, you can use our Derrick tool, which is an application that installs directly on your web browser. It allows you to build up customer files orenrich your databases with LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

By following these best practices, you don't have to worry about your cold email campaigns. If you don't practice mass spamming and opt-out is possible, then cold emailing is legal.