Introduction

GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation is a European Union (EU) law for privacy and data protection.

It assumes that people do not want to receive marketing emails from an organization unless they explicitly sign up for it. Thus, you cannot send marketing emails to your leads and customers without their consent. If you do, you will be held legally responsible.

To learn about email campaigns in Vtiger CRM, click here.

GDPR law on consents

The GDPR law also states that you cannot store a customer’s personal data such as their phone number, email address, religion, etc. without their consent. And, Vtiger CRM backs up this rule with the Consents module.

To learn more about Consents in Vtiger CRM, click here.

Effects of GDPR on Email Marketing

GDPR requires that you get affirmative and provable consent from EU citizens to send them marketing emails. You can do this by obtaining a double opt-in from them.

What is a double opt-in

A double opt-in is a confirmation of a subscriber’s wish to receive your emails.

To obtain the subscriber's confirmation, you must:

• Send an email to the subscribed email address
• In the subject of the email, explain that the subscriber must visit a link to permit you to send them marketing emails

If the subscriber visits the link, then they are 'double opted' in, which confirms that they have agreed to receive marketing emails. This ensures that you can legally send your marketing emails to the subscriber.

Creating a GDPR-compliant Email Marketing Process

Who should create a GDPR-compliant process

You should create a GDPR compliant email marketing process if your business:

• Already sells (or provides for free) products or services to citizens or businesses in the EU
• Plans to do business in the EU in the future
• Could be perceived as doing business in the EU, although you may not consider yourself as doing so

Creating a GDPR-compliant process with Vtiger

To make your email marketing process GDPR compliant, you must do the following:

• Request double opt-in from all your contacts
• Change the Email Opt-In field in Contacts value to ‘None’ from ‘Single opt-in’ for all your contacts in the EU, or who you are not aware of the location
• Add the email opt-in checkbox in your webforms

To learn about email campaigns in Vtiger CRM, click here.
 

Configuring Double Opt-in Email Delivery 

To send a double opt-in email, you must first configure your email delivery settings. 

Follow these steps to set up double opt-in email settings:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the User Menu on the top right corner of the CRM screen.
3. Click Settings.
4. Select Email Settings under Configuration.
5. Click the Edit icon.
6. Scroll down to the Double opt-in and consent emails section.
7. Enter the From Name.
8. Enter the From Email address. This should be an email address of your company.
9. Click Save. 

You can access Settings only if you are an Admin user.

Sending a Double Opt-in Request to your Lead and Contacts

When your leads and contacts have the Email Opt-in field set to ‘None’, ‘Single opt-in (user)’, or ‘Single opt-in (webform)’, you can send them the double opt-in confirmation email. 

You can send a double opt-in request to a single contact or to multiple contacts at once. 

To a single contact

Follow these steps to send a double opt-in request to a contact:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts.
5. Click on the contact you want to send the request to.
6. Go to the Details tab on the right sidebar.
7. Look for the Email Opt-in field. 
8. Click the Request Confirmation link attached to the field. 

How it works

A double opt-in confirmation email is sent to the contact. When the contact clicks the Confirm my subscription link in the email, it provides you a double opt-in to send them marketing emails. Also, the Email Opt-in field in the contact record is set to Double opt-in (contact).

 
The email will also contain an unsubscribe link. By clicking the links, the contact can see the marketing lists that they are a part of. 

They can unsubscribe from one or more lists. Also, if a contact unsubscribes from a list, then the Email Opt-in field in the contact record is set to Opted out (contact). 

Getting Consent through Webforms

When you intend to create leads and contacts through a webform, you can also request the GDPR compliant consent in the same webform. Insert the Email Opt-in field in the webform to send them the double opt-in email.

Follow these steps to insert the Email Opt-in field in a webform:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the User Menu on the top right corner of the CRM screen.
3. Click Settings. 

• You can access Settings only if you are an Admin user.

4. Select Webforms under Automation.
5. Click +Add Webform.
6. Select Contacts from the Primary Module drop-down and fill out other details to create the webform.
7. Go to the Contacts Field Information section.
8. Type Email Opt-in under Add Fields and select the field. 

Optional steps: 

1. Click the Edit icon beside Email Opt-in in the Field Name column.
2. Change the field name to a descriptive phrase such as “Allow me to send marketing emails” or “Subscribe to email newsletters”.
3. Click the checkmark.
4. Enable the checkbox beside the Email Opt-in field to make it mandatory. 
   • Note: Users cannot submit a webform before filling the mandatory fields.

9. Click Save.
10. Click the Get form code button on the top right corner.
11. Copy the code by clicking Copy to clipboard.
12. Embed the code to your website. 

When a user fills the webform, his details get stored in the CRM as a lead or a contact record. If they enable the Email Opt-in checkbox, then the Email Opt-in field in their contact record is set to Single opt-in (webform).

To learn more about webforms, click here.