Looking after our members’ data has been high up on any good marketers list for a long time. The Data Protection Act 1998 has ensured of that. But these days ‘data privacy’, as it’s becoming known, is vital to gaining and keeping new members.

It’s simple – you want members’ data so you can market to them appropriately. But they’re not stupid anymore; they’re aware of their rights and what the implications are of handing over their contact details (and more). But that doesn’t mean no one wants to hand over personal details – quite the opposite actually! People are quite happy to share their information with you BUT you need to gain their trust first.

“What’s in it for me?” – you need to tell them why you want the info and what you’ll do with it. They’re only too happy to share it if you’re going to personalise the emails you send them

“Who else are you giving it to?” – be honest and transparent if you intend to share their details with anyone else. And give them the option to opt out.

“Show me your policy so I can trust you” –have your privacy policy easy to find on your website and make it easy and clear to understand.

Personally I’d say it’s better not to sell details to other companies and this is borne out by the recent Customer Acquisition Barometer 2014, which found that 85% of people will only share their details if it’s made clear that only the company collecting them will use them.

43% surveyed preferred email as their channel to sharing information, closely followed by the brand’s own website.

So what does all this mean for you?

  1. Acknowledge and embrace the fact that data privacy is not just a tick box n forget exercise
  2. Review your data emails and websites
  3. Make sure your privacy policy is up to date, easy to understand, find and accurate
  4. Make sure you’re clear when asking for information as to why and what you plan to do with it
  5. Provide a preference centre for people to manage their data rather than a simple unsubscribe – people might not want to receive all your emails but if you don’t give them the option to select which ones they do want they’ll simply unsubscribe to everything
  6. Only collect the data that you really need – I have bailed out of numerous forms recently because I got bored answering irrelevant questions. Do you really need to know their middle initial/title/favourite colour?
  7. Make sure what you’re offering members in return for their data really is of value to them

Your members’ data is precious, look after it. After all, how do you feel when your own data isn’t cared for?