We recently wrote a blog about GDPR legislation and how it will affect insurance brokers come the 25 May. The response we have had is unbelievable.
When it comes to marketing, we keep getting the same questions around prospect lists and clients’ consent. So we put together this blog to share our thoughts and some of the work we have been doing to help brokers prepare for GDPR.
Here are our top 5 questions from insurance brokers, and please remember, this only applies where personal client data is involved:
1. Can I carry on sending my newsletters after GDPR?
Maybe,….You can send your newsletters to existing clients if they do not promote your policies and services, and would therefore be classed as relationship communications.
For newsletters promoting your policies and services, you may be able to send them if the terms of business agreement (TOBA) you have with your existing clients, allows you to market to them. So our number 1 tip is check your existing TOBA. If your TOBA does not mention this, then you need fresh consent.
Our best tip- Check your existing TOBA
For lapsed policies and prospects, you won’t be able to send them your newsletters unless you already have their consent to this. Our suggestion is that you get consent before 25th May.
2. What about cross-selling, should I get all my clients’ consent?
Yes,….To be able to send marketing material (direct marketing) to increase your cross-selling rates, you must have your clients’ marketing opt-in consent. You could rely on your existing TOBA if it has the right terms, or get fresh consent in order to be GDPR compliant
Going forward, make sure your staff are getting consent at point of sale or through your renewal process. Remember, this needs to be clear and unambiguous.
3. What will happen to my lapsed clients? Can I still contact them at their next renewal?
No…….Any consent you have around marketing is likely to finish when the policy lapses, and the business relationship ends. If you want to be able to market to lapsed clients, we recommend carrying out a consent exercise before the 25th May, else lapsed clients will fall outside your consented client lists and will be redundant.
4. What about clients I quoted but could not convert? Can I contact them at their next renewal?
No,….Without consent, you won’t be able to contact them at their next renewal. We therefore suggest that you advise all your staff to start getting consent when a policy is not converted. This can be a simple statement such as “Sorry we couldn’t find you a suitable policy this time but we would like the chance to find you the right policy at your next renewal. Are you happy for us to keep your records and get in touch again?”
5. I have bought prospect lists, can I carry on using them?
Maybe,…We recommend that you contact the list providers and get written confirmation that their lists are GDPR compliant. This should confirm that they have received appropriate prospect ‘opt-in’ consent before passing this data to you. If not, then this data would not be GDPR compliant. We still suggest you run a consent exercise to find out which potential clients are happy to be contacted. We recommend you do this before the 25th May.
Our GDPR consent programme
Getting consent for thousands of clients can be a difficult job. Email can be a quick way of achieving this, but it must be done right. Remember, if you have 5,000 names on your prospect list, you want to get as many of those consenting as possible or else you lose valuable potential clients.
Crafting the right email to get consent is a skill, so practice and get it right so you can get as many ‘opt-ins’ as possible. Managing this is a full-time job in itself so plan to spend quite a bit of time cleaning your data, segmenting your clients based on the policies they have, writing appropriate emails, having the right consent wording and also monitoring who is consenting to what and keeping a rolling database of this.
We have provided our 3 step consent process (below), which we currently run for our broker clients. This is designed to get as much consent as possible. Feel free to trial it out.
GDPR consent
For further information or to just have a chat about this process, feel free to email us: info@thebrokerlink.com
Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog is based on general observations and should not be considered as legal advice. Please contact your own qualified legal advisers for appropriate solutions.