I won’t bore you by citing the well-worn stat about how the average B2B database degrades by upwards of 35 per cent each year (much more than B2C’s comparatively meager 14 per cent). And as a suppression file provider, I am only too aware of the high churn rates, expense and complexity associated with maintaining business data. But with new Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUT) promising fines of up to £5,000 or two years in prison for companies who continue to make persistent and unwanted solicitations by telephone, fax, email or other remote media except in circumstances and to the extent justified to enforce a contractual obligation’, keeping B2B data clean and up-to-date is no longer an optional extra’ – it’s now a legal necessity.
So the message to all marketing cowboys (and cowgirls) who persist in playing fast and loose with personal data is: Time y’all got out of Dodge. That message isn’t solely coming from the regulatory Sheriff, either. Your marketing colleagues are also getting fed up with the collateral damage your actions are inflicting on an otherwise responsible, self-regulating industry.
I’m the first to admit – Information Commissioner Richard Thomas and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on all matters data. But in wanting to see a paradigm shift in where, when and how B2B data is collected and used by UK companies – particularly at a time when confidence amongst consumers of all persuasions is shaky at best – the ICO and I are of the same mind. Yes, maybe the age of cheap, unsuppressed data is drawing to a close. Yes, Thomas’ and Wellcome Trust director Dr Mark Walport’s recent Data Sharing Report did induce needless hysteria amongst some marketers (B2B folk please note – this document contains data handling implications far beyond just the hoary old issue of electoral roll access, in case you were thinking of banishing it from your compulsory reading list). And with a new EU ePrivacy Directive looming on the horizon (if the current draft is ratified next year, it will be compulsory for companies to notify all B2B and B2C customers of data breaches), data collection and usage in the UK is about to get even more complicated.
Solutions are available, however. It is possible to maximise brand loyalty and ROI without falling foul of CPUT, the Data Protection Act 1998 and/or the Distance Selling Regulations 2000 by better managing all your available data assets. Why not try this data management Top Five’:
- Read up on your data handling responsibilities by familiarising yourself with the above-referenced regulations (the Direct Marketing Association’s Code of Practice is also a good place to start);
- regularly clean your B2B databases of deceaseds, gone-aways and MPS/TPS registrants using commercially available suppression files;
- ensure transparency by publishing your company’s policy on how you intend sharing data with third parties for marketing purposes (in all probability, this will soon be a legal requirement);
- integrate your multi-channel marcoms (research undertaken by B2B Marketing and Royal Mail demonstrate that campaigns with strong, integrated brand activity deliver response rates of 60 per cent plus above the norm);
- unlike some Government agencies, don’t leave a laptop containing sensitive information on a train or lose data discs in the post. Richard Thomas’ office is threatening to impose substantial fines for every person affected by data losses, so any breach could prove to be very expensive.
The result of all this data due diligence? More up-to-date and better targeted datasets, substantial cuts in overall mail volumes (both direct and online), money saved and – last but not least – considerable environmental benefits. At a time of chillier economic climes, this new data mantra’ – compliant, clean, transparent, integrated and secure – will be music to the ears of even the most downturn-hardened CEO (particularly when it results in profit). Marketing will again have proved its worth during tough times and, as a sector, we’ll have helped usher in an exciting and more equitable chapter in the ongoing tussle between the forces of supply and demand – to the benefit of industry, consumers and the environment alike.
