GDPR and its Affect on Aerospace Marketing

The deadline for the implementation of GDPR is fast approaching. Is your company prepared? There are many questions surrounding GDPR. As marketers, it's important to educate yourself to ensure your company is accurately prepared for GDPR. We've put together some tips and resources to help you get there.

Do I need to be concerned with GDPR?

Does your company:

Use digital marketing tactics that include options to opt-in and opt-out of communications?
Use lead generation tactics such as data capture fields and forms?
Use a third party system for marketing automation and CRM?
Send out email communications?
Build events lists based on attendees?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, then you need to be aware of GDPR and make sure that you are prepared.

What is GDPR?

GDPR is the General Data Protection Regulation. A law designed to protect European citizens and their data. The law was signed in 2016 but will go into effect this May.

Under GDPR data subject rights include:

Does this affect my company?

It affects any organization that controls or processes data on European citizens. This includes data such as email addresses and computer IP addresses - data often captured for digital marketing purposes. Aerospace marketers (working in a global industry) need to be compliant with GDPR as you may have unknowingly captured this data via website form submissions or other digital data capture means.

What constitutes personal data?

“Any information related to a natural person or ‘Data Subject’, that can be used to directly or indirectly identify the person. It can be anything from a name, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, or a computer IP address.”

How do I prepare for GDPR?

There are various resources available to help you make sure you are GDPR compliant. Links to some resources are available below:

Using GDPR to Boost your Digital Marketing:

While GDPR may seem daunting, I see it as an opportunity. An opportunity to draw attention to your marketing needs, clean-up your processes and re-evaluate your digital marketing practices.

Below are some areas you may want to consider:

Communication Lists - Email marketing continues to be the go-to communication method for the aerospace industry, but time and time again we see poor execution due to poorly constructed lists. Email marketing is only as effective as the list the message is distributed to. If you send email communications to an unsolicited list, you will receive a poor response (and may be violating various regulations). Take time to organically build an audience that has interest in your communications - develop a strong value-added communications strategy and provide various opportunities for people to subscribe.

Tip 1: Establish a double opt-in method and make sure you let the user know exactly what they can expect from you. This will lead to a strong audience that has genuine interest in what your company has to share.
Tip 2: Market your email communications to build awareness and provide various paths for a user to subscribe.

Content Quality - In today’s world of digital marketing, content is king. Companies rush to put out content week after week to compete for search engine attention. But one area is often overlooked - the quality of content. If you want leads to willingly give you their information you need to earn their time and attention by delivering content of value - not just another blog because it's Tuesday.

Tip 1: Develop a content strategy. Ask yourself these questions: what is the purpose of my content? What am I trying to achieve? Is my content valuable to my target audience? How will my content reflect my company?
Tip 2: Conduct a content audit. What content is your company currently putting out? Does each content piece meet a need? Are there holes or areas that are lacking content?

Processes & Third Party Compliance - Leads are a marketer's gold. Almost every campaign, tactic, and event is built around a goal of generating leads - yet very few companies have a follow-up process in place. We frequently see poor management of leads resulting in information lost or even forgotten. Having a process in place (and a strong marketing automation and customer relationship management system to keep you organized) is key. Consider re-evaluating your current processes and systems - which ones are propelling you forward and which are holding you back?

Tip 1: Schedule a meeting with your Sales and Marketing team. Map out a transparent process for lead hand-off. Always know what information you are collecting and what you are doing with it post collection.
Tip 2: Check with your third parties to see how you can leverage their systems more efficiently and make sure they are compliant with the latest rules and regulations such as GDPR.