The intentions were good: more transparency and more protection of user data. However, for Marketeers, the GDPR forced the update of privacy policies and the massive sending of emails to contacts in their mailing lists. All because the GDPR required to get the consent of users again before sending marketing emails after May 25, 2018, the date on which the regulation came into force.

The problem is that users were flooded with emails related to the same subject, making them ignore all those messages. As the Data Protection Regulation obliged users to opt-in again, marketers had no choice but to delete the contacts that did not respond to the emails.

Now that the General Data Protection Regulation is officially in place, sending marketing emails without approval is illegal. The same applies to adding e-mail contacts to lists without users' consent. Thus, GDPR has been very inconvenient for marketers, forcing companies to delete active and organized email contacts for many years.

It may be too soon to gauge the real impact of GDPR on email lists, but some brands are stating they lost about 70 per cent of their mailing lists. Since there are companies that use email marketing as the main channel to attract new customers, this is a serious problem.

So, it's time to evaluate the damage caused by GDPR and re-build email lists. You can ask yourself the following questions:

• How much is left of your list

• Which segments are most affected?

• Are any demographic groups specifically affected?

To recover your contacts, there are some tips:

• Create a popup that encourages visitors to subscribe to your newsletter. When entering your site, users can be immediately encouraged to subscribe your newsletter, leaving their email address and giving consent to receive marketing messages.

• Offer incentives. If a subscription invitation does not show results, create clear incentives for your site’s users. For example, offer a 15% discount on a service or product to new subscribers. Recognizing that there is an advantage, the user will be much more permeable to the subscription.

• Organize real events where you can get people to leave their contacts, or broadcast this event on your site only for your mailing list contacts.

• Put a newsletter subscription field directly on your Facebook page and offer a discount to new subscribers.

• Include a "send a friend" button on all your marketing emails, convincing your audience to share emails with their network of contacts.

All of these tips may be crucial to retrieving your mailing lists, but if nothing works out, do not take desperate steps. Our last advice is: do not be tempted to buy contact lists from other companies. In addition to being ethically incorrect, it is also an expressly illegal action.