We think it’s a good thing for live events and exhibitions
We can all agree that there’s been an awful lot of negativity surrounding GDPR. Certainly businesses need to get their houses in order from a personal data perspective before 25th May. In fact this seems to be the subject of every other email I’ve received over the past few months. You’ll be pleased to hear that this article isn’t intended to scare you to death and then offer to help you carry out an audit, cleanse your data and help you structure a re-engagement email campaign to ask existing contacts to opt in or double opt in to continue to receive your emails. I would hope by now you would have at least considered or preferably already put procedures in place so you comply with GDPR by 25 May.
In my opinion more rigid, far reaching regulations are well overdue to help protect our personal and business data, anything that reduces the amount of unwanted emails and phone calls I get gets my vote. However these new data protection regulations have left many companies and marketers very concerned about how they will reach their customers and potential customers after 25 May. The truth is that data-based emailing and calling campaigns have already become largely ineffective. We need now to be “magnetic marketers” as our potential audience has taken control of the process seeking out the solutions and products they require rather than being sold to. Subsequently our websites need to be more effective in providing advice, comment and content using blogs, news, articles and video to present products, solutions and communicate to build trust and a rapport. A return then to more traditional business values and level of personal contact that perhaps during this largely digital age we’ve grown unaccustomed to… or have we?
Well while you’ve been busy driving your keyboard and glued to your monitor pursuing an email quest you may not have noticed that face to face meetings such as breakfast meetings, seminar’s, conferences and exhibitions have become much more popular again. In fact many of the industry specific exhibitions we provide client’s stands at have waiting lists or rigid application procedures where stand space is in short supply, allocated on a first come, first served basis. We see GDPR helping to reinforce and grow this trend, proving a real positive in the wake of all the negativity. Face to face marketing, exhibitions and live events have never gone away and are today a stronger new business and marketing tool than ever before.