The impending General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into force on 25 May, presents one of the most challenging overhauls that many marketers will have ever faced. Nowhere is that truer than in small businesses.

While a lack of awareness and resources is putting many SMEs in danger of being on the wrong side of the law, those that have taken proactive steps with appropriate advice could even be able to teach larger companies some lessons. The simplicity of their approaches and the benefits some are already seeing in terms of customer engagement could represent in microcosm how bigger brands should address the task of compliance.

Research from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) suggests most SMEs are cutting it fine when it comes to meeting the deadline, however. In late February 2018, three months from the enforcement date, it found 90% of small firms were still not fully prepared, while a third hadn’t even begun preparing and 35% were only in the very early stages.

“The GDPR is the biggest shake-up in data protection to date and many small businesses will be concerned that the changes will be too much to handle. It’s clear that a large part of the small business community is still unaware of the steps that they need to take to comply and may be left playing catch-up,” says Mike Cherry, FSB National Chairman.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.marketingweek.com