The Best GDPR Resources for Email and Digital Marketers
Even though it’s been years since the European Union enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), plenty of people still have questions about how to follow the law.
That’s no surprise. Legal stuff can get pretty complicated, and every organization and situation is unique. Email marketers collect personal data, which means all of us are on the hook for protecting the contact information we use to do our jobs.
So where can you go to find reliable GDPR resources? Email on Acid scoured the internet for the best places for email marketers to learn and explore the ins and outs of GDPR compliance.
Check out the following GDPR resources. As you do, you just might find that many of the email deliverability best practices that you’re already following also help you follow data privacy laws.
Table of content
Official GDPR resources
There’s no more authoritative resource for GDPR information than the EU itself. Visit GDPR.eu for the official home of this important data privacy regulation.
On the website you’ll find a lot of information, which you know you can trust since it comes straight from the EU.
- Get an overview of GDPR
- Discover news about GDPR and other data privacy initiatives
- Find answers to your questions in a GDPR FAQ
- View templates to help you create forms and web pages for GDPR compliance:
- Advice on writing a GDPR-compliant privacy policy (or privacy notice)
This official website should be your first stop, and it contains plenty of helpful GDPR resources. There’s even an article addressing how GDPR affects email. (Thanks, EU!) If you want to dive in and read the actual legislation, you can find the full GDPR text here as well. That’s all 11 chapters and 99 articles of legalese. Enjoy!
Understanding the basics of GDPR
Of course, you’re probably not a lawyer, and you might want things explained in simpler terms. Need a little background on how this regulation came to be and why we need it? Some top business and technology publications have comprehensive articles that explain the story behind GDPR.
- Check out Wired.com’s article summarizing GDPR.
- Read what TechCrunch had to say about GDPR when it became law.
- Entrepreneur.com explains GDPR for small businesses.
- Forbes also covers the birth of GDPR.
You can always head over to the Wikipedia page for GDPR for details as well. Because you know those Wikipedia editors are going to be on top of everything in the data protection law.
Mailjet breaks down GDPR requirements for email marketers
Our friends at Sinch Mailjet have put together an all-encompassing GDPR resource that’s aimed at email marketers like you.
Visit Mailjet’s GDPR hub to find answers to common questions as well as helpful articles. There’s even a GDPR SOS kit you can download to guide you through compliance.
You can trust Mailjet as one of the best GDPR resources because this brand has been on top of compliance since Day 1. The email service provider was the first company in the world to achieve GDPR certification from ANFOR. Mailjet is also based in Europe and has its data centers in EU countries. That (among many other reasons) means you can also trust Mailjet as a GDPR-compliant ESP.
GDPR training courses
For those of you who really want to become GDPR experts, there are plenty of online GDPR training opportunities.
One of the more “official” places to get trained in GDPR is the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Check out the training schedule to find a course on GDPR.
Accredited certification bodies may also have GDPR training you can explore. For example, PECB is an accreditation body that offers GDPR training for Data Protection Officers (DPOs). These organizations are the third parties who assess organizational compliance against specific international standards (ISO 27001 and ISO 27701).
Our sister brands Mailjet and Sinch Mailgun use A-LIGN for security and compliance audits and certifications. A-LIGN has an excellent article explaining ISO 27701, which is a standard that includes specific GDPR controls.
Here are some other reliable resources for GDPR training:
- LinkedIn Learning GDPR courses
- GDPR training and staff awareness from IT Governance
- Emarketeer’s GDPR for Digital Marketers course
- Free GDPR compliance course from the Digital Marketing Institute
Udemy.com also has a collection of online GDPR courses you can check out. These are paid courses that range from $15 to $20.
Downloadable GDPR guides
Want a nicely packaged PDF that explains GDPR issues like data subject rights, data subject rights, and how to handle sending out a breach notification? Who wouldn’t? They’re out there.
Here’s what we recommend for marketers:
- The Data & Marketing Association (DMA) has a GDPR guide for marketers
- Adobe Marketo released a practical GDPR guide for its customers
- Read through a GDPR report from Deloitte
- Check out The Ultimate Guide to GDPR Compliance from OneTrust
- Learn more about GDPR in a guide from IT Governance
GDPR checklist resources
It should come as no shock that we are pretty big fans of checklists here at Sinch Email on Acid. We built our product, Campaign Precheck, around the idea of an automated pre-send email checklist after all. A checklist also comes in quite handy when you want to make sure you covered everything related to your GDPR compliance.
Here are several places where you can grab a GDPR checklist:
- Get an official checklist from GDPR.eu
- The IAPP provides a downloadable GDPR checklist
- Google Cloud offers some important organizational checks
- The site GDPRChecklist.io lets you select a checklist based on your roles as a data processor, data subject, or data controller.
Sinch Mailjet also offers an email marketing GDPR checklist, which focuses on how to pick a compliant ESP, how to map your email data, and much more. Your existing ESP, customer relationship management (CRM) platform, or other marketing tech solutions may have their own GDPR checklists and documentation.
GDPR compliance and email deliverability
So, after you’ve had a chance to review and consume all these GDPR resources, what can email marketers like us expect once we are confident we’re complying with the law and properly protecting personal data?
One of the biggest benefits of following GDPR guidelines is the distinct possibility of better email deliverability.
While GDPR isn’t necessarily meant to impact deliverability, it does. This is because the regulation requires that email marketers follow best practices that will improve your sender reputation, which is how mailbox providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail view your trustworthiness.
If you’re following GDPR requirements, you’ll only be emailing people who actually subscribed and want to hear from you. That’s going to improve email engagement, which can directly impact deliverability. Following GDPR also means you’re less likely to get spam complaints, which will certainly hurt email deliverability.
Ultimately, GDPR makes us all act more responsibly as senders. And that’s a very good thing. But... if you still want help with deliverability, you’ve got to check out Mailgun Optimize.
With Mailgun Optimize, you can:
- Quickly clean up your email list to reduce bounce rates and maximize your email’s reach.
- Ensure that every new email address you add to your mailing list is a real one.
- Seed test your emails to ensure they’ll land in the inbox and not the spam folder.
- See exactly where they’ll land in Gmail and other mailboxes with tabs.
- Preview your emails across all of the most popular devices and clients.
- Monitor IP blocklists so you can take action immediately if you’re listed.
- Work with the best strategists in the email industry to create an email strategy custom-tailored to your business needs.
- Maintain 100% GDPR compliance.
- Identify and avoid spam traps in your email lists.
- And a lot more – we’re bringing you more great features soon!
Don’t leave email deliverability up to chance. Take control of inbox placement and get more of your messages delivered with the help of Mailgun Optimize.
This article was updated on August 15, 2022. It was first published in May of 2018.
