Email marketing and data security: how do you protect your customers' data?

Email marketing and data security

Email marketing is being used more and more. With this increased use of digital communication also comes an increased risk of data breaches and other security issues. Therefore, it is important to take steps to protect your data. In fact, this is always important. Personal data such as customer names, addresses, payment details and even passwords should remain confidential to protect both your business and your customers from potential fraud or identity theft. Moreover, maintaining strict data security protocols helps you comply with all applicable laws and regulations for the collection and storage of personal data.

As a business, it is crucial that you are aware of your obligations under data protection legislation when it comes to protecting customer data. In the EU, for example, companies must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This law requires companies to have procedures for collecting, storing and processing personal data. Companies must also ensure that they have obtained explicit consent from customers before using their personal data for marketing purposes.

Tips to keep your email marketing data safe

To get you started, we'd like to give you some tips to keep all your email data secure. Read on soon!

• Create strong passwords

The first step is obvious, but still hugely important, which is to create strong passwords for all your accounts. Use a combination of letters, numbers and symbols when creating passwords and avoid using words that are easy to guess or generic phrases.

💡At Reloadify, you don't pay anything extra per user. So make sure each colleague has a separate login.

• Log in with two-step verification

An important strategy to protect your email data is to use two-factor authentication (2FA) to secure your email account. This requires you to provide a second form of identification in addition to entering your password, such as a code sent to your phone. Within Reloadify, it is possible to set up 2FA for every user. By making this extra step mandatory for every user in your Reloadify account, the risk of unauthorized access can be reduced. This way we work together to create a secure environment for your customer data. We encourage everyone to set this up. However, we do leave the choice to our customers, like you, whether they want to set up the 2FA or not. After all, it's your data and you decide how to handle it.

To get 2FA working, you first need to install a verification app on your mobile phone. Such an app allows you to scan a QR code to retrieve authentication data. Apps you can use for this purpose include:

• Duo Mobile
• Google Authenticator
• Microsoft Authenticator

When you install an authenticator app, follow its steps carefully. After your app is downloaded and set up, the feature in Reloadify is easy to set up. You immediately turn this on for the entire account. So when a colleague logs in after that, they will be asked for two-step verification.

Be in control of your own database of customer data

Nothing is more annoying than a polluted database, full of spam e-mail addresses. This is not nice for you, considering you have a polluted database. But this is also not nice when emailing as it can be damaging to your sending reputation. For this reason, Reloadify has fully protected its pop-ups and landing pages with an anti-bot, namely reCAPTCHA. This helps prevent bots and other software from filling in a landing page or pop-up for you and thus entering spam email addresses. You don't have to do anything for this yourself. This protection is part of the software you purchase from us. Handy, isn't it?

Be careful with your CSV imports

In Reloadify, it is possible to upload profiles via a CSV import. Be aware that these clients must always give permission to be emailed. Is this permission given outside Reloadify? That too is fine! Indicate this clearly in your CSV Import by filling in the 'GDPR source' field. This way it can always be traced from which data source the profile entered your database.

Validate your CNAMES

It is important that mail delivery is properly verified. This is done on the basis of Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC). The SPF is a protocol that validates the origin of your e-mails. This validation is done based on the IP address. Does the IP address you mail out to actually belong to your domain? DMARC is an extra safeguard. With it, you indicate that your e-mails are protected with SPF.

Sounds complicated, which is why we have made it easy for you in Reloadify. You have a number of CNAMES that you need to validate. With these CNAMES, you validate both SPF and DMARC. It is important that you set this up before you start mailing out. This way, e-mail service providers will recognise that you are sending e-mails with an e-mail address that belongs to your website. As a result, you are marked as 'safe' email. It is just as well that this security is there. Otherwise, anyone could e-mail with your info@webshop.nl e-mail address. And of course you want to avoid that.

Comply with GDPR legislation

Perhaps an open door, but we like to put it in this blog anyway. Of course, it is important to always comply with relevant laws and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to ensure that your email marketing efforts are both effective and legally compliant.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced in 2018 and affects any business that collects, stores or processes personal data of EU citizens. This means that if you set up an email marketing campaign in Reloadify, you are responsible for ensuring that the customers you mail have given explicit permission to do so via an opt-in.

Another aspect of the GDPR, is the storage of customer data. If you set up an email with customers who are in the European Union, it is important to ensure that their data is stored according to Dutch laws and regulations. In addition, you need to ensure that any third parties who have access to this information (e.g. your email marketing software) also comply with Dutch laws and regulations when handling this data. To avoid potential legal issues, it is always advisable to store all customer data within the Netherlands or other EU countries approved by the European Commission. With Reloadify, you are completely on the safe side. Our servers are located in the Netherlands and your data is stored completely safely.

We cannot stress enough how important it is to properly secure your customer data. It is important to remember that there are certain laws and regulations that must be followed to ensure you remain compliant with GDPR standards. These include:

• You must ensure that you have obtained a clear opt-in from your customers;
• All customer data you collect is properly stored in the Netherlands or other EU countries approved by the European Commission;
• You can further secure your customer data by setting up two-step verification for your email marketing.

After going through all the steps above, you can be sure that your customer data is properly secured. Great for you and your customers!