Tag Archives: GDPR

Email Marketing in a Post GDPR World

email marketing services wexford
Category: Tips and Tricks
October 25, 2018
When GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was announced it struck fear in the hearts of all businesses, it especially struck fear in marketers as they worried about one of their arguably most important marketing tools being compromised or going extinct, that was of course the tool of email marketing. Where they justified in being worried? Well yes if they didn’t adhere to some required compliance’s. Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. These emails are usually sent with the purpose of to act as an advertisement, request business, or solicit sales or donations. Efficient email marketing at its core is meant to build loyalty, trust and brand awareness. Marketing emails traditionally could be sent to a purchased lead list or a current customer database. When GDPR came into law it greatly affected the rules and regulations regarding email marketing and email marketing campaigns. A recent study found that there are more than 269 billion emails sent every day and over half (53%) of these 269 billion sent emails were emails of a promotional nature. GDPR brought in the need for clear consent to be given by people when they sign up to your newsletter. Even if someone was already on your email list you had to run a re-submission campaign to get people to sign up into your GDPR approved mailing list. Seeking out clear consent and permission and keeping a record of it are the cornerstones of GDPR. Traditionally it was easy for websites to assume that if a user filled out a pop up or a web form that  can could add their email address to a mailing list and start sending them email campaigns. GDPR changed this when it made it clear that users need to clearly give you consent to market to them. This means that the old methods of having a pre-ticked box and concealing your communication policy within your privacy statements. If you want to send emails to a prospect, they must explicitly opt-in to receive newsletters from you. Despite the challenges GDPR has presented, email marketing still remains as the most tried and tested and preferred marketing channel of use for B2B companies. In fact email marketing doesn’t show any signs of becoming an irrelevant use of communication and as such it’s so important that websites get it right when it comes to utilizing effective compliant email marketing campaigns in a post-GDPR world. While being compliant with GDPR may seem complicated and head wrecking it’s important to remember that to be compliant when it comes to email marketing you just need to ensure the following:
  • Email campaigns can only be sent to those who have given consent and opted in
  • Always provide subscribers with the opportunity to opt-out of your email marketing
  • Offer subscribers the option to manage the type of content they receive from you.
If you can ensure these three above requirements then you are well on your way to being GDPR compliant when it comes to email marketing. From there you just need to ensure your content is great and engaging! Email marketing may have been rocked by GDPR but it certainly is not down and out, it’s still relevant and as strong as ever when used effectively. To find out more about excellent tools and strategies to use to improve your website Contact 2Cubed today! You can also contact us on 01 905 8114 or 051-440425, email hello@2cubed.ie Please feel free to follow and interact with us on the following profiles. facebook icon twitter icon linkedin icon Instagram icon Google+ icon

GDPR is Here – What Now?

GDPR is Here
Category: News
May 28, 2018
Unless you were living under a rock it was hard to ignore anything and everything GDPR Compliance related last week. Whether it was the constant inflow of “privacy policy updates” to your inbox or panicking over trying to make your own website compliant by the 25th, chances are the majority of your time during the week was taken up with GDPR related issues. As you may be aware the 25th of May was the introduction of the GDPR law and it is these rules that are laid out as part of the regulation that will be enforced in the future. To protect your business from fines for non-compliance it is vital that you make sure you are meeting the standards set out by GDPR. Whilst every website is unique and will require different changes to be implemented depending on their respective industry, there are a few things that every business must make sure they have done across the board to be in line with GDPR compliance. These are such things as:

Cookie Plugin Your website must have a notification upon entering the site that alerts users that your site has cookies, the option to view and disable these cookies must be presented to the user to be GDPR compliant.

Privacy Policy You must have a privacy policy and links to your policy enabled throughout site.

Cookie Policy You must have a cookie policy and this must be linked to in the aforementioned cookie plugin notification.

Data Statements Under any forms where user’s are inputting information to you such as contact forms you must have a visible statement below it which outlines what you will be using the data received for.

Terms and Conditions in checkout If your site has an E-commerce element you must have an opt in box that user’s must tick that says “I have read and understand the terms and conditions” before they input their card details to complete a purchase. It must be mandatory for the box to be ticked to complete the purchase and a link to the terms and conditions should also be available.

These 5 are a few important elements that must be implemented in your quest towards GDPR compliance, it is not however the full exhaustive list. Depending on your website there may be many more changes which need to be made or a select few more may only required. For a full comprehensive review of your Website by 2Cubed which will outline exactly in our opinion what is required to aid your website towards GDPR compliance please feel free to get in contact with us today!

Anchor Text, Page Speed and The Impact of The New GDPR Law

Anchor Text
Category: News
April 6, 2018

Welcome to this week’s edition of the 2Cubed Newsletter. Here you’ll find the latest news about the Website Maintenance we have have been carrying out, insight into how to maximize your Website User Experience and some top SEO Tips to aid you in your efforts.

SEO – Don’t Let Your Site Sink With Poor Anchor Text

Anchor Text is a text link that visitors can click on to be taken directly to another web page, this link can bring a user to either another page on your site or to another website on the internet. Effective anchor text can and should be used to help guide users through navigating throughout your website.

The anchor text should ideally include keywords and phrases related to what your site does. For example if you owned a clothes store, the words “Check out our selection of clothes” on your homepage should link to your online store page where people can browse and ideally buy your products. Through effective use of anchor text you would have helped guide this person from your home page to your online store where you want them to be all in the click of one button. That is why anchor text and its effective use is so important. Anchor text is a great way to boost your SEO, but keep in mind that excessive linking or anchors that don’t really help your readers can raise red flags with Google so make sure the links you put in are natural like the example mentioned above. To Learn More About Effective SEO Methods For Your Website Click Here

Page Speed to Soon Become Factor in Ranking of Mobile Pages

On January 17th Google announced that page speed will become a mobile ranking factor. Google have nicknamed the update the “speed update”. Page speed has been a ranking factor on desktop since 2010. Now for the first time Page Speed will also become a ranking factor which will now be an official part of a mobile page’s placement on the Google SERP. This will come into effect July 2018 so there is time for everyone to make sure their page speed is as efficient and fast as possible before this comes into effect.

One of the main aims of this update will be to target excessively slow loading pages, if you have slow loading pages on your website and you don’t amend them now, this update will punish you. However according to google’s announcement, they don’t predict that an extensive amount of pages will be impacted once the ranking factor of Page Speed becomes incorporated into the Google Algorithm in July. Page speed should already be a priority for any website who wishes to be successful as it is such an important component, and if it wasn’t already it should definitely be now with this “speed update” looming.

To Learn More About Increasing Your Page Speed CLICK HERE

GDPR: Why it Matters and What You Need to Know About it

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is the European Union’s new law on data privacy. It has come about as a result of the public concern over privacy. The GDPR replaces the EU’s Data Protection Directive, which went into effect in 1995. Unlike a directive, it does not require national governments to pass any enabling legislation and so it is directly binding and applicable. It will ensure that every individual on the internet has a right to know which company has what data about them, plus the right to have it destroyed if they wish. To now be active in the EU, websites, including social media, will have to comply with the new regulations that will take effect on May 25. This will affect all businesses, big and small.

GDPR will now place requirements on data controllers, forcing them to explain to people what personal data they intend to collect and why. It’s focused completely around consent. GDPR will also let users request a copy of their personal information free-of-charge and be entitled to get a response within a month. It will give people the right to not be subject to significant decisions by businesses that impact their privacy. Users will also have some rights to erase their personal data if they withdraw consent or it’s deemed no longer necessary for the reason it was collected. Violations of this can trigger hefty fines for businesses. For a long time the internet has been a bit of a wild west like environment when it comes to data privacy and businesses had free rein to do as they wished, this is no longer the case with the EU finally cracking down on this hot button issue, businesses must make sure they are able to show compliance by the time GDPR comes into effect on May 25, 2018.

To Learn More About GDPR and Other Important Google Updates You Need to Know About CLICK HERE

What The GDPR Means For Your Website

What is GDPR
Category: Tips and Tricks
November 9, 2017

What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a series of principles designed to strengthen the protection of data for EU citizens and residents. Having been ratified in April 2016 it will be enforced by every EU state from the 25th of May 2018 onward and represents the single greatest advancement of EU data privacy in more than two decades.

While many of the legislative principles that make up the GDPR are similar to those found in the current Data Protection Act (DPA), there are a series of new measures and significant enhancements involved.

Introduced in order to protect individuals from potential future data breaches, the GDPR will allow individuals to wield far more control over the personal data companies retain about them and place significant emphasis on businesses ability to demonstrate data control and security.

Who will be affected by GDPR?

These changes will impact any company that collects their clients personal data whether it’s through a website, an app, email or any other means that results in personal data being retained in an internal database.

This means that many businesses will have to adjust their approach to data retention and transparency in order to ensure they don’t incur a non-compliance sanction of up to €20,000,000 or 4% of annual worldwide turnover.

Make sure you are GDPR compliant 

Data transparency between companies and individuals is a cornerstone of the GDPR. Companies will be required to inform individuals:

  • What personal data are being retained

  • How their personal data are being used

  • Who is using their data

  • How long their data will be stored for and,

  • Who to contact with regards to obtaining further information on the company’s data processing procedure

In conjunction with data transparency, data security is paramount to maintaining GDPR compliance. In order to ensure this, firms will be required to carry out an online review, answering the following questions:

  • Does our target market include EU citizens? (Check currency listings, etc.)

  • Does our website contain a comment section?

  • Does our website facilitate newsletter subscription?

  • Does our website gather and retain personal information or online identifiers such as IP addresses via analytics?

Following this, it will be beneficial to carry out a review of the personal data being collated and retained, under the following headings:

  • Why are these data being collated?

  • Why are these data being retained?

  • How long will these data being retained?

  • How secure are these data?

Over the course of these reviews, any potential weak points in a firm’s data protection protocol should become clear and allow the company to take the necessary steps to maximise data security and minimise their risk of GDPR non-compliance.

Suffice it to say, this is a highly simplified guide to GDPR compliance.  If you have any questions or concerns about the potential impacts of GDPR on your firm please contact 2 cubed here and our web development experts will be happy to help.