Check out this article on GDPR from OPTZMO’s head of marketing on Forbes.com.

GDPR seems to be on the mind of every marketer these days. Before the regulation went into effect on May 25, you probably noted the deluge of emails in your inbox requesting that you reaffirm your opt-in status to continue receiving messages. You’ll no doubt continue to receive them in the months ahead. We know GDPR has wide-ranging effects on how companies can market to current and prospective customers in the EU, but how does it impact email marketing specifically?

Check your GPS.

First and foremost, remember that GDPR applies to recipients in the EU. While some companies have chosen to implement GDPR compliance for their users outside of the EU, this is not required. In some instances it may be easier to have a single protocol for data privacy across regions (for website policy or customer database management, for example), but email may or may not be an area where a company decides to apply GDPR universally.

If you decide that your entire email program needs to be GDPR compliant, then you have more work to do, as suddenly all your email campaigns around the world need to comply, including regions where opt-ins may not have been required previously. For the purposes of this article, let’s assume you are choosing to manage just your EU email program under GDPR guidelines.

Understand consent.

Before you email a recipient in the EU, you’ll need their consent. You may be asking, “Didn’t I already need consent to email users in the EU?” Yes, that’s correct. Previous email regulation in the EU generally required that a recipient had to opt in to receive email communications…

Read the rest of the article on Forbes.com.