Privacy is not an Option, but a Necessity

[Free Takeaway Included – GDPR Compliance Checklist]

At the first glance, data is a panacea for marketing, making it possible to hyper-personalize campaigns and messages down to the individual customer level, and accurately attribute marketing performance.

However, there’s also a dark side to data. With heaps of consumer data generated at a staggering level, marketers now have to deal with data privacy. The advent of new laws, regulations and initiatives focused on protecting consumer data is changing how businesses collect and use data.

In addition, consumers are also increasingly concerned with how their private and confidential data will be stored and processed on public servers or clouds. A new study from Consumer Reports’ Digital Lab found that a whopping 96% of US consumers wanted companies to do more to uphold data privacy.

Regardless of how consumers feel about privacy, fostering trust and data security is paramount for the sustained success of businesses.

Marketing in the Era of Data Privacy

While the world is crying foul over data security breaches, data privacy and security are not one and the same. They are inextricably linked – while data security protects data from being compromised; data privacy is focused on the secured collection, usage, storage, governance and sharing of data.

Data privacy matters because mishandling consumer data can not only threaten your online reputation but also crush consumer trust in your business. Obtaining first-hand consent from consumers and explicitly communicating how the data will be stored, processed and used is of utmost importance. Furthermore, accessing a comprehensive first-party data foundation is critical for forging customer relationships based on trust and value exchange.

How to Measure and Ensure Business Performance in a Privacy-First World

Taking the steps to be privacy ready can be daunting. Nevertheless, the following best practices and strategies can help marketers embrace privacy as an opportunity to accelerate growth:

1. Establish Direct Relationships with Customers

When people see value in their relationship with a brand, they are likely to engage and willingly share data that companies need to make future interactions even more valuable.

Consider the following ways to offer users value in exchange for permission to collect their data:

• Curate content or product recommendations based on how users browse or engage with your website and app
• Offer an incentive when users agree to share their information to receive your marketing communications
• Invite users to register for your loyalty program to receive exclusive benefits and content
• Create overt privacy policies and find ways to help users easily understand rather than jargon-filled notifications that feature a pronounced “accept” prompt on a website
• Provide flexibility and control to users to review and manage the way their data is used such as opting out, customizing cookie tracking settings or adjusting the frequency of marketing communications

2. Generate Insightful Enterprise Data from your Customer Relationship

When people directly interact with your business through your website, app, or customer help desk, it provides an opportunity to enrich your customer profile. Using this data, you can extract actionable insights to serve your customers better with relevant ads and product recommendations. Here are some resources and martech solutions that can help you leverage enterprise data to enrich your digital ecosystem:

• Customer Data Platforms – Create a persistent unified customer database by ingesting data from multiple sources and matching data into one single source of truth
• Site-wide Tagging Infrastructure – Set a first-party cookie tracking mechanism for measuring site engagement patterns and conversions
• Second-Party Data Enrichment – Augment first-party customer data using high-quality data from private data exchanges and marketplaces
• Customer Relationship Platform (CRM) - Invest in a CRM tool to help you capture data that’s shared by people during offline interactions like store visits or phone calls

3. Rely on Machine Learning and AI Tools to fill gaps in the Customer Journey

Even after building a strong first-party and second-party data foundation, gaps in the customer journey are inevitable as people move across devices and platforms. Not to mention, browser restrictions and varying consent choices make it even more challenging to build a complete customer profile. That’s where machine learning can step in to bridge the gaps. Leverage predictive and analytical AI algorithms to decipher customer behavioural signals and put together the complete picture of your audience in a privacy-safe way. Machine learning works by analyzing data to identify trends, correlations, and other insights that may otherwise be missed.

4. Explore Privacy-Preserving Technologies

It can be hard to imagine re-targeting without third-party cookies. But this will soon be the reality as these cookies that track users’ browsing habits across websites will be phased out by Google in 2023. So, how can you measure the causal effect of ad interactions across the web? Some alternate solutions created to make up for third-party tracking include the following:

• Google’s Privacy Sandbox - Without revealing their individual identity, people with similar interests can be pooled into anonymous groups and shown relevant ads across the web.
• Contextual Advertising - Serving ads based on an analysis of the web page’s contents for keywords and phrases.
• User Identity Graphs - This solution combines Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as an email address with non-PII like 1st-party cookies and publisher IDs.
• Customer Match Lists – These lists enable you to match your first-party data with users moving across Google properties including search, shopping, Gmail and YouTube.

5. Create a Centre of Excellence

Some companies have established a dedicated team of experts and vendors ranging from legal, data science, marketing and technology. Their focus is to stay on top of all the changes, consider different scenarios and come up with a strategic plan for how to respond to each. Prioritizing the technical side of data management may not be enough to cope with data privacy challenges. Instead, companies may benefit from ensuring that they have the right people, processes, and technology to shift mindsets and embed these changes throughout their operations.

Conforming to data privacy norms and changing mindsets towards a data-safe environment doesn’t have to come at the cost of business results. On the contrary, data privacy provides an opportunity for businesses to leverage a gamut of tools and resources to connect with customers, while respecting their privacy and earning their trust. It allows brands to future-proof their marketing in a privacy-first world and make transparency a cornerstone of their operations.