The quality that makes your outbound approach better than inbound is its direct reach to the target audience. It involves your team's dedicated hours researching each target customer's data.
You can access your audience's demographics, firmographics, and psychographics data. The information makes your outreach more targeted.
But, the same quality can cause legal trouble if you don't abide by consumer privacy rules.
Understand that accessing data about potential customers comes with specific responsibilities. Established rules are in place to safeguard against misuse or harassment of consumers' data.
Moreover, 54% of customers face difficulty trusting businesses due to increased data breach cases. And 88% of customers' willingness to share personal data varies based on how much they can trust a company.
Thus, you must adhere to the guidelines to maintain trust and uphold ethical standards.
It opens a door for an undeniable need to adjust your outbound approaches to evolving privacy rules. Here, we list a few strategies to make the process easier.
The top concern of businesses like yours is to protect existing and potential customers' privacy. A study also showed that 48% of customers quit business partnerships over privacy concerns.
Such statistics drive the establishment of various data protection regulations globally.
These regulations aim to:
You may have heard about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that sets rules for global consumer privacy. In the United States, discussions about federal privacy laws continue, with various states introducing their privacy regulations. These include the following:
Every state's privacy law aims to make companies more transparent about using consumer data. It also empowers consumers to make informed decisions about how their data is used and shared among companies.
Your consumers now have the right to access, delete, and opt out of specific personal data uses. These form the foundation of today's privacy rights.
Also, principles like "data minimization" and "purpose minimization" are essential to today’s privacy rules. Both principles restrict the scope of data collection and usage to crucial business needs only. Thus, they promote privacy and protect customers from unnecessary or unauthorized handling of their personal information.
94% of businesses revealed that consumers won't buy from them if their personal data seems at risk. Considering this, updated and upcoming privacy regulations are more strict than ever.
It directly impacts how you carry out your outbound marketing efforts. Here are some significant effects of privacy regulations on the outbound approach. It'll help you stay compliant with the rules.
Let's explore each of them:
You will experience imposed limitations on gathering and handling prospects' data. It will affect the breadth and depth of information you can access for your outbound campaigns.
You'll need explicit consent to collect and use your prospects' personal data. You must have their permission before moving ahead with your outbound marketing activities. Thus, emphasis on the need for consent alters traditional approaches that rely on broad data access and usage.
You must stay aware of the strict consequences of violating privacy rules. Non-compliance with data protection laws may cost you significant fines and penalties. Thus, it will prompt you to adhere to privacy guidelines while designing your outbound marketing.
You will be required to adopt robust measures to safeguard consumer information. It may involve adapting to better technological stakes, CRM systems, etc.
You must address breaches and unauthorized access within your existing data processing system. These measures safeguard your outbound marketing initiatives.
Traditionally, you use cold outreach to showcase your offering to your target prospects. And, often, you send your content to prospects who remain unsubscribed the whole time. But, updated privacy regulations encourage you to ask for direct opt-in after a few interactions.
Thus, you'll prioritize building relationships with audiences who willingly choose to receive communications.
Now that you know how consumer privacy regulations shift your approach, let us share some practical methods.
4 Strategies to Run Outbound Marketing While Respecting Customer Privacy
You might be wondering how you can abide by changes that come with consumer privacy regulations. It looks specifically tricky in the case of outbound marketing, given its nature.
But, with a few adjustments and adaptations, it is possible.
Here, we have four sure-shot strategies to retain consumer privacy while actively reaching out for the first time.
There are multiple ways you can establish a transparent relationship with your prospects:
These practices ensure transparency in your outbound approach.
Understand that relying solely on technology won't make your organization compliant with all privacy rules. Also, these regulations often introduce new procedures. Some of the recently added ones are:
So, check if you already have tools and how efficient they are. These tools should help you with your ongoing compliance efforts. These may include:
Ensure the chosen tools align with your business needs. Consider factors such as cost and the complexity of your requirements.
This one is tricky but effective. You must portray your brand as a go-to information source your prospects can trust. You'll need to move ahead of email outreach for content sharing. Though your prospects gave you consent, they may forget or be too busy to check their inboxes.
Thus, you'll need to add more touchpoints to your sales cadence. These include the following:
It is the most preferred social platform for B2B buyers. Hence, it makes you the best touchpoint after email.
Here's how you can use it for outreach:
Calling your prospects is the most direct way you can contact them. Thus, the chances of being intrusive increases. But, it is an essential outbound marketing touchpoint you cannot miss.
You must ensure your prospects feel they control the interaction during the phone call. Here’s what you can use to give prospects a sense of control:
Joint marketing is another way to reach your audience without being invasive. Look for influential figures within your industry and request them for collaborative ventures to benefit both.
Associating your brand with credible entities will build authority. Here's how you can do so:
-If your target prospects attend these events, your authority will further flourish in front of them.
It'll repel them if you suddenly start DMing your target prospects on social platforms. They may even think you are spam. So, you need to be strategic about reaching out to them.
While applying your outbound marketing through social media, consider the following:
Monitor social media for mentions, comments, or discussions related to your industry. Engage with prospects by responding to their queries or providing helpful information when appropriate. It allows you to connect without initiating direct outreach.
Participate in public discussions, comments, or threads related to your industry. Engaging openly creates opportunities for prospects to notice and approach you. Thus, the interaction will be mutual and not bother them unnecessarily.
Utilize polls or surveys on platforms like Twitter or Instagram to engage prospects indirectly. It allows you to learn their preferences and valuable insights with their consent.
Keep checking and improving your consumer privacy compliance status. It involves updating privacy policies and reviewing contracts. Plus, ensure your databases are set up for easy tracking, access, and modifications based on the updated rules for consumer privacy policies.
Doing so is as complicated as it sounds. But, with the right outbound marketing partner, you can easily stay compliant. At Revnew, we create proactive outbound campaigns while abiding by the privacy rules.
Our experts consider the needs and concerns of your business while designing an outbound approach.
Overall, we work as your trusted assistant in your marketing venture. You can contact us here to learn more about our services.