Collecting the email addresses of people who are interested in what you sell is one of the most helpful activities that any company can undertake because it then means that you can email these people with information concerning your product or service at a later date.
This is perfectly allowable under GDPR providing you have good reason to believe that the people you are emailing are very likely to be interested in what you are offering.
Let us imagine that you are selling a wide range of GCSE and A level resources for history. If you put together a report titled “The most common issue that takes students down a grade at GCSE history” and offered it free, the chances are you would get a fair number of history teachers emailing you asking for a copy. You can then send them back the report and maybe a week or so later send a follow up email saying that you hoped the report arrived ok and that the teacher found it useful, and the teacher might like to know that you also have available…
Alternatively if you are publishing you can offer a digital version of one chapter from the book you are selling free of charge, which in itself can be a inducement to buy, and provide a mailing list for when you come to publish the next book.
The same process can operate in many other subjects. We found that a report showing exactly why taking students on school trips benefited their learning far more than might otherwise have been anticipated was requested by a large number of schools, again providing email addresses which could be reused later.
Of course if the system is abused and one starts emailing teachers too often, or on subjects that are unrelated to the original offer, this can do more harm than good, but if the information you are providing is genuinely interesting, most teachers will be happy to receive the occasional note, provided it is linked to their area of work.
In short you become known as a source of interesting information, and therefore it is only one step to becoming a trusted supplier.
If you are interested in this idea but can’t think how it might relate to your line of work, please do call 01604 880 927 or email Stephen@schools.co.uk and we’ll try and help with some ideas.