In anticipation of the new EU Global Data Privacy Regulations set to take effect in May 2018, the legal industry has understandably focused on data security and legal risks and obligations. But GDPR also presents fundamental business challenges for marketing in the legal field and across all industries.

GDPR has the potential to create a painful compliance experience for users, and contacts—sales channels, prospects, leads and customers—will feel it first. As stewards of personal data and the creation and nurturing of customer relationships, marketers are in a unique position to design GDPR-compliant interactions that preserve and even enhance a positive customer experience and increase loyalty.

The role of marketing on a cross-functional GDPR transition team is to represent the customer in designing user-friendly processes that are GDPR compliant. This article will look at seven key areas of focus for marketing. For simplicity's sake, we refer to individual contacts of all types simply as customers or data subjects.