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.

GDPR legislation is coming on 25 May 2018, are you ready for it?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the EU’s new regulation on how personal information can be used, and it’s due to be come into force on 25th May 2018. Do you have new marketing controls for how you deal with existing and potential customers? Then read on.

GDPR aims to replace the Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) which are long overdue for revision.

Penalties are due to increase significantly up to a maximum of €20 million or 4% of global annual turnover. The question is, are you ready for it?

The key points to note are:

1. New subscribers will need to confirm that they want to opt in.

This affirmation must be via a dedicated subscription form, or via an unticked checkbox in situations where you’re collecting data. Remember pre-ticked boxes or “Tick here to opt out” will not be permitted for your marketing.  You will need to be able to show that your existing clients opted into all your marketing in order to comply with GDPR legislation.

2. You will need to tell subscribers how their data will be used.

For example, if they give you their email address to download a free article, you must tell them if you plan to use that email address for any other marketing purposes including cross-sells. Remember, you must give existing and new clients the option to choose which marketing they would like. The starting point is to be aware of all the marketing you do and to ask clients permission.

3. You will need to keep a record of consent.

For example, if you use a provider such as Campaign Monitor they will store details of how and when a recipient subscribed along with their IP address. This would help you in meeting the GDPR legislation. The UK government has just issued guidance and we will give you more updates in the coming months. Note- your ToBA disclosure might not meet the new consent rules.

4. The following commonly adopted scenarios will no longer apply.

(i) An existing business relationship will no longer imply consent- for example, where you have an existing target list along with their email addresses and contact details. You will need to get in touch with them to get their consent.
(ii) The current soft opt-in where you can email people if there is an existing business relationship.

There is, however, a “legitimate interests for processing” test which means in some cases it might be possible to continue emailing a subscriber without the above in place. You can read more from the DMA >>

5. You will need to get your existing data up to GDPR legislation standards.

If you can’t provide sufficient proof of consent for existing subscribers, you won’t be allowed to contact them anymore. You will need to run a re-permissioning campaign.  This includes subscribers you have added using soft opt-in.

What next?

Marketing in the future will rely on attracting customers through content and interactions that are relevant and helpful — not just interruptive selling.

If you want to find out more about marketing in the GDPR age and how to run a re-permissioning campaign to your clients, then simply drop us an email stuart@thebrokerlink.com and we would be more than happy to give you a few tips. Get in touch with us and we will help you stay within the GDPR rules.

The above content should not be used as a substitute for professional legal advice.

Source: http://www.expertiseontap.co.uk/