Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whether engaged in email marketing or not, will be wondering whether they will be affected by the end of the transition period, and, if so, what they will need to do in order to prepare themselves. If they aren’t, they need to be. While there is a certain lack of detailed information as to what our relationship with the EU will be from January 1st, there is one thing certain: we need to change processes.
For those SMEs with no contacts or customers in the EEA (countries in the EU, plus Iceland, Lichtenstein, and Norway), there is little they need to do as long as they comply with the current GDPR, which will be incorporated in UK 
law. All little means in this context is little more than being ready to implement any minor changes that might be required.
For other SMEs, different processes will be required depending on which of three broad categories the business falls into. These are:
1/ UK businesses and organisations which send or receive data to or from Europe;
2/ UK businesses and organisations with a European presence or European customers;
3/ UK businesses and organisations which send or receive data to or from countries outside Europe.
What specific SMEs are required to do in each case is generally incremental, and there is one fundamental requirement in all categories; your best preparation for data protection is to comply with the GDPR now. If you have an email marketing list, then you should be doing this in any case, but it could be a good idea to check compliance. You never know.
To our aid comes the ICO. In their website they have a whole series of articles specific to what SMEs must do in order to prepare for the end of the transition period on 31 December. Go to: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-at-the-end-of-the-transition-period/data-protection-at-the-end-of-the-transition-period-for-small-businesses/data-protection-at-the-end-of-the-transition-period-for-small-businesses-and-organisations/ The whole series of articles are written in accessible English and if you have a specific need, there is an FAQ page.
Email marketing can go on with little disruption from January next year, as long as we prepare.
