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The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) initiative has put customers back in the driver's seat. Customers and prospects will henceforth own their personal data and have control over the communications they receive.

As marketers, we represent the voice of the customer. The European Union's GDPR helps us do that by focusing on the "customer first." The best possible outcome is that Marketing provides the customer with information considered valuable.

We should do so not only for EU customers but for all customers.

Preference Center

One way to provide valuable information to customers and prospects is to use a preference center.

Forrester defines it as follows: "The business practice of systematically collecting, managing, and utilizing explicit customer preferences—about frequency, channel, content, interests, and intent—in outbound communications. These preferences are managed in a centralized repository and collected in a user-facing portal known as a preference center."

Preference management provides you with the ability to honor your customers' needs, improve marketing ROI, and comply with GDPR regulations.

A preference center is based on the issues you solve for customers, not on the solutions you sell. Customers can identify how often they want to receive communications from you and on which marketing channels—email, text, blogs, etc.

The following table shows which functions customers should be able to easily perform once you've created your preference center:

A sample preference center that complies with GDPR is shown below. The preference center must be mobile and tablet (cross-device) friendly to ensure your customers and prospects can access the preference center on any device.

User Experience

The user experience for the preference center is critical. Companies with great customer experience drive revenue growth, Business.com research indicates. The user experience for your preference center should be interactive and it should immediately update across devices via responsive design.

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GDPR Is Already Here: A Simple Marketing Guide for Compliance

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Kay Kienast

Kay Kienast is a data-focused, infrastructure marketing executive focused on designing and implementing end-to-end marketing programs that build brands and rapidly acquire and keep customers.

LinkedIn: Kay Kienast

Twitter: @KayKienast1