Email marketing remains one of the most effective online marketing measures. However, it is crucial that the high requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are followed when sending emails. Unfortunately, there are still many mistakes made in the context of online marketing strategies in businesses. The team at our full-service agency will show you the 7 biggest data protection mistakes in email marketing and how you should avoid them in your own email marketing.

Mistake 1: Sending mass emails

Sending mass emails is one of the biggest sins of email marketing strategies. Meaningless messages quickly end up in the trash folder. Once there, there is usually no way back.

At this point, individuality is key. Work with unique content that is personally tailored to the specific recipient. Focus on professional design and personalized text elements. To facilitate this, a software can be used to significantly ease the automation of email marketing.

Tailor the content of your emails and newsletter design so that recipients actually receive information with real value or customized offers. This not only increases the open and read rates but also the chance of getting the desired response to your email.

Mistake 2: Open email distribution list

A serious mistake that unfortunately still occurs is sending an email to multiple recipients where all email addresses are visible to all recipients.

This happens when email addresses are simply entered in the “To” field, which then reveals the email addresses to which the message was sent in detail. It is essential that the functions of email clients are used in compliance with data protection regulations.

Companies must ensure that personal email addresses do not fall into the hands of unauthorized third parties. If in doubt, you should seek advice from an experienced online marketing agency and get support with implementation.

Mistake 3: Emails end up directly in spam

If you do not comply with certain data protection requirements for email marketing and the associated sending of your newsletters, your message will quickly end up in spam long before the recipient even has a chance to read your content.

Emails are not delivered, and the open rate consequently falls negatively. Avoid this mistake in your online marketing strategies by choosing a reliable software provider for email delivery that is listed on the important allowlist, sends via a trusted server, and easily passes the spam check.

Error 4: The double opt-in procedure is missing

Based on the GDPR, companies must obtain the express consent of the recipient before sending advertising emails. Failure to do so can be very costly in the form of warnings and injunctions.

Use the double opt-in procedure, which allows for double confirmation. In the first step, interested parties enter their personal data. They will then receive an automatic email with a confirmation link.

In the second step, they must confirm the link and thereby give their consent, which they can withdraw later if they wish.

Mistake 5: Emails are not responsive

Mehr als 50% der E-Mail-Empfänger erhalten ihre E-Mails nicht mehr auf einem klassischen Desktop, sondern empfangen diese über mobile Geräte wie Tablets oder Smartphones.

If the emails sent are not responsive, this means that the display on mobile devices may be incorrect and, among other things, content may be truncated or missing entirely.

In this context, make sure that your email marketing strategies focus on professional responsive design and implement it consistently.

Mistake 6: Linking free offers to mandatory newsletter sign-ups

Time and again, companies make the mistake of only providing free software if the interested party agrees to sign up for a mailing list in return. From a legal perspective, newsletter sign-ups in exchange for a free product are only considered voluntary if the same product is offered on the same platform for a fee and without the obligation to sign up for a mailing list.

Consequently, it is not sufficient to make this offer available for a fee on a completely different platform operated by a third party. There is a so-called prohibition of coupling.

Mistake 7: Lack of evaluation

Email marketing can only be successful in the long term if it is properly evaluated and you regularly check whether your online marketing measures are achieving the desired results.

Monitoring the performance of your emails not only helps you to continuously optimize the quality of your content, but also to check which variants achieve the highest click and conversion rates.

Here, too, you can use an email software solution that automatically generates reports on sent emails, making evaluation particularly easy and regular. This allows you to continuously increase the potential of your emails and tailor them to your target group.

Conclusion: How to make email marketing work with the right data protection

Regardless of whether you're sending individual emails, newsletters, event invitations, or promotional emails, you should always ensure compliance with the GDPR and provide your prospects and customers with the best possible data protection. This way, you not only stay legally secure but also foster long-term trust with your target audience regarding the careful handling of personal data.

Create a customer dialogue through email marketing that ensures a reliable and secure handling of all transmitted data. Our experts in online marketing in Munich are happy to help you avoid data protection mistakes and develop and implement professional email marketing strategies.