What are the email marketing best practices and GDPR requirements for EMEA countries like Poland, Turkey, Romania, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, and Estonia?
Summary
What email marketers say14Marketer opinions
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign recommends to segment your list based on demographics, behavior, purchase history, and engagement. This helps you send more relevant emails and improve engagement rates. Use automation to trigger emails based on specific actions.
Email marketer from Email Geeks notes that in Hungary and the Czech Republic many users use non-standard mailbox providers like seznam.cz and freemail.hu which may use stricter filters than providers such as Gmail.
Email marketer from Reddit user explains that under GDPR, consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. Pre-ticked boxes are not valid. You must clearly explain what the user is consenting to. Keep records of consent and allow users to easily withdraw consent.
Email marketer from Sendinblue explains that for GDPR compliance, obtain explicit consent, provide a clear and accessible privacy policy, allow easy unsubscription, keep data secure, and be transparent about data processing. Implement double opt-in and regularly review and update your compliance measures.
Email marketer from IAPP explains that GDPR applies to any organization processing personal data of EU citizens, regardless of the organization's location. Consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. Data processing must be lawful, fair, and transparent. Individuals have rights to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, and to object to processing.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests including GDPR information in the privacy policy instead of every email, to avoid deliverability issues. Recommends adding company address, name, contact number, and subscriber email address in the footer. Also mentions that some Polish providers like Onet may require payment for premium delivery for large email volumes. He identifies popular "non standard" email providers in Poland: wp.pl group (o2.pl and wp.pl), onet.pl, interia.pl, gazeta.pl
Email marketer from Warrior Forum shares that when marketing in other countries you should research local customs, understand the language and slang, respect cultural norms, and adjust your marketing message to fit.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that Seznam in the Czech Republic has a postmaster tool where domains can be registered to provide insights into deliverability.
Email marketer from Woodpecker shares that personalization is vital for email marketing success. Tailor your emails to individual subscribers by using their name, company, and other relevant details. This can increase engagement and conversion rates.
Email marketer from Klaviyo explains that maintaining good email deliverability involves using a dedicated IP address, authenticating your emails (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), segmenting your list, cleaning your list regularly to remove inactive subscribers, and monitoring your sender reputation.
Email marketer from SuperOffice explains to regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers, those who have unsubscribed, and those who have hard bounced. This helps improve your sender reputation and deliverability. Use double opt-in to ensure subscribers are genuinely interested.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that Poland has strict GDPR requirements, including a lengthy legal text that needs to be added to every email, typically at the end after the sign-out. Provides an example of the text and advises to check with a lawyer as laws may have changed.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that in Germany, the key is to have explicit double opt-in. You must obtain verifiable consent before sending any marketing emails. The imprint (Impressum) is mandatory, including the company name, address, and contact details in every email.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that you should always authenticate your emails using SPF, DKIM and DMARC as part of your standard practice. This is because it helps mailbox providers verify you are who you claim to be. When you fail to do this your emails may go to spam.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains that implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication protocols is critical for improving email deliverability. These protocols help verify that emails are sent from legitimate sources, reducing the risk of being marked as spam.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that GDPR requires explicit consent and recommends implementing a double opt-in process to ensure valid consent is obtained. This helps confirm that the subscriber genuinely wants to receive emails from you.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that GDPR significantly impacts email marketing by requiring demonstrable consent, purpose limitation, and providing individuals with greater control over their data. Email marketers must ensure compliance to avoid hefty fines.
What the documentation says3Technical articles
Documentation from ICO explains that individuals have the right to be informed, right of access, right to rectification, right to erasure, right to restrict processing, right to data portability, right to object, and rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling. Organizations must facilitate these rights.
Documentation from Article 29 Working Party explains guidelines on consent clarify that consent must be a freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject's wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her.
Documentation from European Commission explains that GDPR brought key changes including stronger rules on data consent, new rights for individuals (access, portability, erasure), mandatory breach notification, and stricter enforcement with significant fines for non-compliance. Organizations must implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure data security.