If you’re struggling to create personalised marketing campaigns AND meet regulatory demands such as GDPR, you’re not alone. Not only are increasingly cynical customers demanding more personalisation but new regulations and data protection laws have rewritten how marketing teams can go about their jobs. That’s why we’ve spoken to the experts and created The Compliant Marketer’s Ultimate Guide to Personalisation.

1. The Compliant
Marketer’s
Ultimate
Guide to
Personalisation
Featuring insights from industry experts to
help your marketing flourish (compliantly!)
eGuide

2. 3
5
7
10
How personalisation
became critical
The compliance elephant
in the room
What brought Marketers
to this point
Putting the spotlight
on financial services
Contents
13
Learning to love
regulation
16
How to let your
marketing flourish
21
Prepare, plan...
execute?

3. “Ultimately, both regulations and marketing should have the same focus and that
is the customer. In asset management, marketers are well used to the regulatory
environment and working closely with compliance colleagues, and it is this
relationship that is crucial.
“We operate within a broadly, principles-based regulatory framework so interpretation
is key and where a collaborative approach is important to allow for meaningful,
impactful and compliant communications.”
Mark Harper, Head of Marketing, Miton Group

4. How personalisation
became critical
Here’s one thing you don’t need market research to tell
you: customers, across all demographics and sectors,
have become more cynical of marketing.
Put simply, they can smell BS a mile away.
Today, customers expect more from brands and are
increasingly willing to hold them to account. The
latest research from Mention-Me shows that 67% of
consumers would prefer to discover a financial services
brand or product themselves (through research or a
recommendation), compared to 33% via traditional
marketing channels.
3

5. According to Hubspot, personalised CTAs have been
proven to deliver 202% better conversion and Salesforce
has found that 57% of online shoppers are willing to
share personal data in exchange for personalised offers
and discounts.
Ineffective marketing also carries with it an added
risk. Customers are increasingly willing to screenshot
and expose impersonal interactions and hold brands
to account, publicising their shortcomings and ‘anti-
marketing’.
The challenge for businesses is obvious and they have
to deliver to these expectations. The trouble is, Bain &
Company found that whilst 80% of companies believe
they deliver ‘super experiences’, only 8% of customers
agree. There’s a long way to go, and as experiences
improve the bar will only rise.
The key to this is personalisation.
Customer Experience (CX) has never been more important
and personalisation is the most effective way for brands
to deliver great experiences. Disrupters such as Airbnb
aren’t investing in typical assets (in this case, hotels),
instead they’re putting everything into CX. Not only have
they disrupted and grown, but their CX has done their
marketing for them.
Therefore it’s clear, brands can no longer afford to neglect
personalisation. However, there’s another shift in the
business world that’s having a huge impact on the way
marketers do their jobs.
Yes, that’s right, it’s regulation and the ethical use of
personal data.
4

6. The compliance
elephant in the room
Marketing departments know they need to prioritise
personalisation. The ability to target a prospective
customer with the right message could be the difference
between a new customer or a lost sale.
However, the onus on personalisation in marketing has
arrived in arguably the most regulated time in modern
corporate history. Suddenly, marketing teams have
something else to worry about beside missing conversion
targets. They now have to worry about falling foul of
increasingly aggressive regulations.
5

7. “The arrival of the GDPR, CCPA and other data regulations
marks not just a regulatory regime change, but an increased
focus and interest from consumers on the value and
treatment of their personal data. To respond, marketers must
build trust early in the customer lifecycle, earn permission to
access valuable information to use for personalisation, and
use that data for the customer’s benefit.”
Ian Lowe, Vice President, Crownpeak

8. The issue of data misuse and responsible marketing was thrust into the headlines in 2018 by the Facebook – Cambridge
Analytica scandal.
Data mining and the use of algorithms to target campaigns is nothing new. However, controversy surrounded British
consultancy Cambridge Analytica when it was revealed that it had acquired the data of approximately 87m Facebook
users through 270,000 of them accessing a Facebook app called ‘This is Your Digital Life.’
So, what brought Marketers to this point?
By giving this third-party app permission to acquire
their data, back in 2015, this also gave the app access to
information on the users’ friends network. This resulted
in the data of about 87 million users, the majority of
whom had not explicitly given Cambridge Analytica
permission to access their data, being collected. The app
developer breached Facebook’s terms of service by giving
the data to Cambridge Analytica.
Things got worse as this was linked to alleged
interference in the 2016 US Presidential Election and the
UK’s Referendum on leaving the EU...!
7

9. The truth in this is unclear (and investigations are
ongoing) but the damage has been done. People
suddenly started to think about how their data was being
used and greater regulatory focus was brought down on
the use of data.
If that wasn’t enough, around the same time four dreaded
letters were implemented across all companies: GDPR.
Standing for General Data Protection Regulation, the
GDPR was brought in across the EU and in the UK it
replaced the antiquated Data Protection Act. Bringing in
new rules for how public organisations and businesses
handle clients’ data, it also gives individuals greater
control over how their information is used.
The risk of falling foul of data protection rules is severe
and regulatory bodies have been very active in this
field. In 2018 alone, the Information Commissioner’s
Office (ICO) issued the largest amount of civil monetary
penalties in its history in relation to data protection.
In total, the ICO issued 26 fines equalling £3.28m
across companies of all sizes and oversaw 19 criminal
prosecutions (resulting in 18 convictions).
Suddenly, marketing departments are having to
think more proactively about how they use client
information while marketing effectively (and, ideally, with
personalisation).
8

10. “GDPR has probably slowed us down on the journey we were on,
but the output is much more usable. You and I trust our bank to hold
our money.
“We’ve probably never dug into how secure that bank is – we just
trust them because they are our bank. But we know the value of that
relationship and we trust them to do that job.”
Richard Cooper, Head of Digital & eCommerce, AXA PPP Healthcare

11. Putting the spotlight on financial services
No industry is immune to regulation but compliance
requirements are extremely high within financial services.
The industry’s regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority
(FCA), has placed consumer protection at the height of its
agenda since the 2008 crisis.
They have done this through an influx of new regulations
that call for clearer risk warnings, more transparency
around fees and a greater emphasis on suitability
(ensuring goods and services are only marketed to
appropriate audiences).
For example, the FCA has begun to regulate the P2P
lending space and is only allowing these platforms to
market their services to retail clients who meet certain
criteria (such as having relevant experience in P2P
investing).
10

12. This has added to the challenge facing marketing teams
in these firms – how can they engage with prospective
clients in a non-clunky and compliant way?
Unfortunately for them, the challenge of personalisation
can’t be fixed by algorithms alone. Regulators, such as the
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), don’t
want firms to simply tick boxes when it comes to their
rules. In it’s recent guidance, ESMA announced:
“The potential target market identification by
manufacturers should not be solely conducted on
the basis of quantitative criteria but needs to be
based on sufficient qualitative considerations as
well.
“Services for the mass market in particular,
may require automation of processes and
this automation is usually based on formulas
or algorithmic methodologies that process
quantitative criteria for products and clients.”
And the peril of non-compliance is real. In 2014, the FCA
fined Credit Suisse International and Yorkshire Building
Society a combined £3.8m for failures around their
financial promotions. And in 2017 the regulator fined
Bluefin £4m for misleading customers.
The price of getting these regulations wrong can be costly
for these firms.
11

13. “Modern regulation has moved away from a rules-based approach
to a principles or outcomes based approach. Therefore, marketing
departments now need to be able to take a step back from the
wording used within the advert and look at the message it is giving
as a whole, to avoid situations where a rather serious product is being
advertised in a way which makes it feel unimportant or light hearted.
“The major hurdle we need to overcome is education. Not only in
terms of knowledge of technical requirements but an acceptance
within marketing teams that compliance has evolved beyond a rules-
based approach to one where the overall impression of the marketing
material is equally as important. Compliance must lead this growth
through its advisory function.”
Robert Bell, Director, RB Compliance

14. Learning to love
regulation
For the above reasons, regulation is widely regarded as a
headache in many organisations. However, compliance
doesn’t have to be dull and regulation doesn’t need to be
negative.
Brought in to improve consumer protection, there is a
growing tendency from forward-thinking firms to view
regulations as a simple list of things firms can’t do.
Therefore, compliance can expand beyond this and be
everything firms can do.
For instance, here’s what the FCA had to say itself in a
recent speech by Christopher Woolard (Executive Director
of Strategy and Competition):
“Putting consumer protection front and centre
of our innovation agenda doesn’t mean stifling
innovators. As I hope I’ve demonstrated, the FCA’s
approach is progressive and proportionate. And
we will always be a friend to firms from around
the world who are innovating in the interests of
consumers.”
13

15. These regulations are creating an environment where
marketing teams have to know their customers inside-
out. By being able to show a greater understanding
of their clients’ circumstances and the regulatory
ramifications around these, marketing campaigns have
the potential to demonstrate greater resonance and
personalisation.
Regulation isn’t going away, so marketing strategies have
to adapt and learn how to bring personalisation to their
campaigns while satisfying these requirements.
While there may be some steep learning curves, the
risks of non-compliance and potentially damaging your
brand’s reputation are too severe to ignore.
14

16. “Regulation needs to happen.
We want to drive that as much as
possible because, at the end of the day,
it only helps us, and it makes it easier
for brands to be active in the space.”
Christoph Kastenholz, CEO, Pulse Advertising & Management

17. How to let your
marketing flourish
Taking into account how important personalisation
is, how can this be balanced with the regulatory
requirements facing marketing teams?
Know the customer
The simplest and best way to ensure regulations are
adhered to, and CX is personalised, is to know who the
customer is and what they want. This goes beyond simple
demographic metrics such as sex, age and income. What
do they like? What do they hope to achieve? What are
they motiviated by or afraid of?
In particular to financial services, money is a very
emotive subject and closely linked to someone’s
dreams and aspirations. For instance, instead
of simply marketing a mortgage, it is the dream
of home ownership that is being marketed.
Establish strong links with your compliance teams
Marketing and compliance don’t have to be at war
with one another. When both departments are working
together they’re going to inherently deliver more value
and minimise both financial or reputation risk.
Compliance must ensure any upcoming regulation is
communicated to marketing (with processes in place to
answer these requirements). They must guide marketing
forward. Collectively, both departments must believe in
improving their conduct and the value behind it.
16

18. Purpose limitation
Core to GDPR is the concept of purpose limitation,
meaning a client’s data should only be used for the
express purposes they give it over for. High profile cases
such as the Cambridge Analytica / Facebook scandal have
many of us paranoid about how our information is being
used.
With consumers paying greater attention to how their
information is used, how can trust be established early
on? Through embracing transparency and regulation,
brands can show their sincerity by how seriously
they take regulations and customer protection.
Bring empathy into personalisation
Understanding and empathy are critical if you want to
create meaningful experiences. It’s easy for marketers to
become data-focused and KPI-driven, simply optimising
for a high conversion rate or successful sale.
In this state of mind it’s easy to forget you’re dealing with
people. As a result, empathy and understanding are lost
and not only do marketing efforts suffer but customers
become disengaged because they simply feel like another
number on a spreadsheet. Departments that retain
empathy will also find their overall brand and marketing
conduct improve, a fact that won’t go unnoticed.
17

19. “Marketing and compliance are inextricably linked
and the relationship is unbreakable. There needs to be
a balance between robust compliance being imposed
without inhibiting creative thought and practice.
“Both teams must work together on a daily basis
in an open and transparent manner to share their
knowledge, expertise and concerns. It is only by
working together and understanding each others’
roles, responsibilities and obligations that effective
and compliant marketing can be produced on behalf
of the business for the public.”
Kira Mendelsohn, Compliance Consultant

20. A holistic view of data-driven personalisation
It’s fascinating how many businesses neglect the
foundations of effective marketing. For example, many
are simply adopting personalisation because everyone
else is doing it. To address this, businesses must return to
‘the why’, exercises that will help include:
• Creating a personalisation strategy that’s built around
current business objectives.
• Getting closer to your audience. Don’t assume you
understand them as well as you believe.
• Mapping out the customer journey, identifying both
emotions and interaction points.
• Identifying the personalisation rules that will most
effectively tackle your current challenges.
Collect actionable data with compliance in mind
Businesses capture, store, and analyse customer
data because it’s critical to their operation. But, when
businesses use data for marketing purposes, they must
first ask themselves a few questions. What data do we
need to deliver better contextual marketing? And how can
this data be available and used with compliance in mind?
If Marketers are to deliver better experiences they’ll need
to answer both questions and ensure the right technology
is in place to support their goals. For example, to deliver
more relevant messages to customers, they’ll need a
Content Management System (CMS) that allows them
to create ruled-based dynamic content based on the
transactional data fed from their Customer Relationship
Management system (CRM).
19

21. Deliver value through your journeys
Marketing isn’t just about facilitating sales. Instead,
think about how marketing can deliver value to new and
prospective customers. For example, consider whether
a prospective customer would prefer to be educated or
instead entertained?
Just as all customers are different, so are their journeys
and how they want to interact with a brand. Paying
greater attention to the journey a prospective customer
takes, and how much information they are willing to
forfeit during this, can not only strengthen a marketing
campaign’s personalisation qualities but also further
satisfy regulatory suitability concerns.
20

22. Prepare, plan...
execute?
There are numerous strategies available to marketing
teams and a strong understanding of the regulations
should encourage more practitioners to embrace
personalisation and think about how they can market
more effectively.
We’ve already listed a few things that can be done to
satisfy regulatory requirements while also striving
towards personalisation.
A thorough and capable CMS can help marketing teams
achieve the above while ensuring all their campaigns are
conducted in a compliant and responsible way.
21

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