Does the GDPR regulation affect your B2B outreach efforts?

Your inbox is probably getting a flood of GDPR emails.

You might also be wondering, does the GDPR thingy affect your “outbound” cold email efforts, i.e. unsolicited business-to-business emails (emailing businesses and organisations you’ve never met before, to do business with them)?

Does GDPR affect your b2b outreach emails? Click To Tweet

I looked for you. NO, it doesn’t.

There’s a lot of scare-mongering going on, by “inbound” marketers scaring you into thinking you can’t do it anymore and you must buy their services.

GDPR protects individuals, it doesn’t talk about legal entities like businesses. It specifically states,

“Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications will increase the protection of people’s private life and open up new opportunities for business”

The wording states:

“GDPR is intended to protect individual citizens, not businesses.”

“The rules on soft opt-in and the right to opt out do not apply to marketing messages sent to companies and other corporate bodies.”

Also, GDPR is EU wide and the ePrivacy regulation is left up to individual countries to decide about B2B “unsolicited emails”.

Screenshot from the electronic Privacy and Electronic Communications regulations governing UK’s ePrivacy

What this means to you….

DO

• Reach out to people in companies that will legitimately gain a competitive advantage by doing business with you.
• Personalise your cold emails.
• Specify – why you’re getting in touch (other readers found the Empty Cardboard Box technique BOMB).
• Call ahead, and mention you called in the email – this is optional, not necessary.
• Follow-up with a call if they don’t respond (GDPR does not impact cold calling).
• Make more use of your phone.
• Include website link and contact details in your email signature.
• As a PS, include something courteous like: I’ll stop bothering you forever, if you’re not interested.

DON’T

• Send mass and generic emails.
• Don’t spam them with annoying multiple follow-ups
• Track if the email is opened using software
• Cold call individuals or cold email individuals – non legal entities or sole-traders or partnerships. Basically gmail and hotmail addresses, etc.

Sending emails to brand new potential clients is the second fastest way to get a steady drip of new potential customers. Stick with these and you’re safe.

Keep soaring. Xx