GDPR and cold emails to businesses
GDPR and cold emails to businesses
Author
Discussion

chml

Original Poster:

741 posts

126 months

Tuesday 29th December 2020
quotequote all
Hi,

Does anybody know whether it’s permissible to collect business email addresses from websites and sent an email regarding service a company offers, or is this a breach of GDPR?

Thanks

williamp

19,901 posts

290 months

Tuesday 29th December 2020
quotequote all
No. Just because their information is public, doesnt mean you can do what you want with it.

You can send out blank marketing material, as ithis isnt anyone persona, data. But for marketing, you would either need to get their consnrt, or have a legitimate interest for hqving and using it. The latter is usually expected after they have come to you.

Kermit power

29,622 posts

230 months

Tuesday 29th December 2020
quotequote all
You shouldn't be sending Spam, obviously, but if you're taking the time to create individually tailored communications to companies where the content clearly differs from one to the next, you're in a much better place. This sort of legislation is designed to stop abuse of the medium, not to prevent small businesses from legitimately trying to contact potential customers in a well designed, thoughtful way.

Specifically with GDPR, it would be interesting to know if there's a difference between sending an email to "info@potentialcustomer.com" and "joe.bloggs@potentialcustomer.com", given that in the first you're not sending to a specific individual human being?

chml

Original Poster:

741 posts

126 months

Tuesday 29th December 2020
quotequote all
williamp said:
No. Just because their information is public, doesnt mean you can do what you want with it.

You can send out blank marketing material, as ithis isnt anyone persona, data. But for marketing, you would either need to get their consnrt, or have a legitimate interest for hqving and using it. The latter is usually expected after they have come to you.
What is blank marketing material?

Kermit power said:
You shouldn't be sending Spam, obviously, but if you're taking the time to create individually tailored communications to companies where the content clearly differs from one to the next, you're in a much better place. This sort of legislation is designed to stop abuse of the medium, not to prevent small businesses from legitimately trying to contact potential customers in a well designed, thoughtful way.

Specifically with GDPR, it would be interesting to know if there's a difference between sending an email to "info@potentialcustomer.com" and "joe.bloggs@potentialcustomer.com", given that in the first you're not sending to a specific individual human being?
Thanks Kermit, not me looking to do it. I’ve a relative who is a BDM and he’s offered a family member (on school holidays) X amount per day to scrape email addresses for local businesses from Google but I wasn’t sure of the legalities of it for them both.

Sheepshanks

37,862 posts

136 months

Tuesday 29th December 2020
quotequote all
williamp said:
But for marketing, you would either need to get their consnrt, or have a legitimate interest for hqving and using it. The latter is usually expected after they have come to you.
My understanding is that, somewhat counter-intuitively, you can market to people by email if it's in your legitimate interest. It doesn't have to be in their interest, but you could be in difficulty if it clearly wasn't.

Kermit power

29,622 posts

230 months

Tuesday 29th December 2020
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
williamp said:
But for marketing, you would either need to get their consnrt, or have a legitimate interest for hqving and using it. The latter is usually expected after they have come to you.
My understanding is that, somewhat counter-intuitively, you can market to people by email if it's in your legitimate interest. It doesn't have to be in their interest, but you could be in difficulty if it clearly wasn't.
But you have to offer an opt out, and if they take it and you keep sending, you're in trouble.

Sheepshanks

37,862 posts

136 months

Tuesday 29th December 2020
quotequote all
Kermit power said:
But you have to offer an opt out, and if they take it and you keep sending, you're in trouble.
No you don't - but you do have to consider objections.

Stephanie Plum

2,797 posts

228 months

Tuesday 29th December 2020
quotequote all
Isn’t PECR more the limitation here than GDPR?

Kermit power

29,622 posts

230 months

Tuesday 29th December 2020
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
Kermit power said:
But you have to offer an opt out, and if they take it and you keep sending, you're in trouble.
No you don't - but you do have to consider objections.
Hmm.. Interesting!

It seems there's a really marked difference between B2B and B2C under PECR (and yes, Stephanie Plumb I think was right on that point).

If you're email marketing to individuals, then the opt out really IS critical, but not, it seems, if you're emailing a company or employee therein, although even then if it's a sole trader or partnership, it can be treated as an individual rather than a business.

Plenty of information from the ICO on this link,. and even more detail on this one if you want it.

Frimley111R

17,451 posts

251 months

Wednesday 30th December 2020
quotequote all
GDPR came in as a response to dodgy companies spamming huge numbers of companies and selling their data to whoever they wanted. It wasn't aimed at the 99.9% of companies who were managing their data mostly correctly. If you do something silly to lots of companies expect to be hauled up at some point but if you're a small company don't worry about it. The resources to deal with tiny GDPR issues are miniscule. Just apply a bit of common sense and get on with it.

miniman

28,529 posts

279 months

Wednesday 30th December 2020
quotequote all
Regardless of the legalities or not of doing it, it’s a dick move and so unlikely to generate useful leads that the negative impact is the most important factor.

Anything that comes my way like this is straight into blocked sender.

Kermit power

29,622 posts

230 months

Wednesday 30th December 2020
quotequote all
miniman said:
Regardless of the legalities or not of doing it, it’s a dick move and so unlikely to generate useful leads that the negative impact is the most important factor.

Anything that comes my way like this is straight into blocked sender.
I think that rather depends on what gets sent, no?

Do the equivalent of going through the Yellow Pages and sending every single plumber, undertaker, florist or and email saying "we can cut the cost of your document binding services by 30%" and I'm absolutely with you.

If you opened an email saying "Dr Miniman, I am contacting you as my research has suggested you may be interested in our new line in Paul Graham prints for just £650, which includes free framing and hanging services for logistics operatives located in the South West of England" would you still view it as a dick move?

Businesses still have to appeal to new customers somehow, so if it's done properly, why not use email?

mw88

1,457 posts

128 months

Wednesday 30th December 2020
quotequote all
Kermit power said:
miniman said:
Regardless of the legalities or not of doing it, it’s a dick move and so unlikely to generate useful leads that the negative impact is the most important factor.

Anything that comes my way like this is straight into blocked sender.
I think that rather depends on what gets sent, no?

Do the equivalent of going through the Yellow Pages and sending every single plumber, undertaker, florist or and email saying "we can cut the cost of your document binding services by 30%" and I'm absolutely with you.

If you opened an email saying "Dr Miniman, I am contacting you as my research has suggested you may be interested in our new line in Paul Graham prints for just £650, which includes free framing and hanging services for logistics operatives located in the South West of England" would you still view it as a dick move?

Businesses still have to appeal to new customers somehow, so if it's done properly, why not use email?
<sarcasm>Can't see a problem, just make sure you add "RE:" to your subject and it's a guaranteed sale!</sarcasm>

If it was me, the email would be deleted straight away - Unless someone has specifically opted in to be emailed by a company, while it may not breach GDPR, it's still essentially spam.

miniman

28,529 posts

279 months

Wednesday 30th December 2020
quotequote all
Kermit power said:
miniman said:
Regardless of the legalities or not of doing it, it’s a dick move and so unlikely to generate useful leads that the negative impact is the most important factor.

Anything that comes my way like this is straight into blocked sender.
I think that rather depends on what gets sent, no?

Do the equivalent of going through the Yellow Pages and sending every single plumber, undertaker, florist or and email saying "we can cut the cost of your document binding services by 30%" and I'm absolutely with you.

If you opened an email saying "Dr Miniman, I am contacting you as my research has suggested you may be interested in our new line in Paul Graham prints for just £650, which includes free framing and hanging services for logistics operatives located in the South West of England" would you still view it as a dick move?

Businesses still have to appeal to new customers somehow, so if it's done properly, why not use email?
Because 9 times out of 10, I'd say 99 times out of 100, they are irrelevant and poorly researched. I typically get "you work in IT, we can save you £££ on your network infrastructure" when network infrastructure is nothing to do with me nor has it ever been anywhere I've worked. Targeted is ok, harvested and bombarded isn't.

48k

15,436 posts

165 months

Wednesday 30th December 2020
quotequote all
chml said:
Hi,

Does anybody know whether it’s permissible to collect business email addresses from websites and sent an email regarding service a company offers, or is this a breach of GDPR?

Thanks
Yes perfectly fine.

People put business email addresses on websites so that people can contact them. It's kind of the point of doing it.


singlecoil

34,993 posts

263 months

Thursday 31st December 2020
quotequote all
48k said:
chml said:
Hi,

Does anybody know whether it’s permissible to collect business email addresses from websites and sent an email regarding service a company offers, or is this a breach of GDPR?

Thanks
Yes perfectly fine.

People put business email addresses on websites so that people can contact them. It's kind of the point of doing it.
They put email addresses on their website so that potential customers can contact them.

Kermit power

29,622 posts

230 months

Thursday 31st December 2020
quotequote all
singlecoil said:
48k said:
chml said:
Hi,

Does anybody know whether it’s permissible to collect business email addresses from websites and sent an email regarding service a company offers, or is this a breach of GDPR?

Thanks
Yes perfectly fine.

People put business email addresses on websites so that people can contact them. It's kind of the point of doing it.
They put email addresses on their website so that potential customers can contact them.
Rarely do they say "this email is for the use of potential customers only" though!

I work in this space (for a tech vendor, not actually as a marketeer) and I have to hang my head in shame at not having realised just how much difference there is between regs covering marketing to individuals as opposed to businesses. The former are far better shielded, it seems!

Ultimately it puzzles me when people seem to have this blanket refusal to accept anything inbound. How exactly do they expect companies (potentially including their own) to generate new business if they're not allowed to contact potential new customers?

singlecoil

34,993 posts

263 months

Thursday 31st December 2020
quotequote all
Kermit power said:
singlecoil said:
48k said:
chml said:
Hi,

Does anybody know whether it’s permissible to collect business email addresses from websites and sent an email regarding service a company offers, or is this a breach of GDPR?

Thanks
Yes perfectly fine.

People put business email addresses on websites so that people can contact them. It's kind of the point of doing it.
They put email addresses on their website so that potential customers can contact them.
Rarely do they say "this email is for the use of potential customers only" though!

I work in this space (for a tech vendor, not actually as a marketeer) and I have to hang my head in shame at not having realised just how much difference there is between regs covering marketing to individuals as opposed to businesses. The former are far better shielded, it seems!

Ultimately it puzzles me when people seem to have this blanket refusal to accept anything inbound. How exactly do they expect companies (potentially including their own) to generate new business if they're not allowed to contact potential new customers?
I had a company contact me and as a result I buy from them regularly. But they took the trouble to call on me in person. The thing about emails is that they are almost effortless and nearly always worthless.

Mdonnelly14

83 posts

58 months

Thursday 31st December 2020
quotequote all
Sorry to thread hijack! We will be looking at doing something similar but b2c... if we buy opted in data what potential pit falls gdpr wise should I try and avoid ?

miniman

28,529 posts

279 months

Thursday 31st December 2020
quotequote all
Mdonnelly14 said:
Sorry to thread hijack! We will be looking at doing something similar but b2c... if we buy opted in data what potential pit falls gdpr wise should I try and avoid ?
What do you mean by 'opted in data'? You can only market to people who have positively opted into receiving marketing information from you.