We all know the Internet has enabled brands and consumers to interact better.
It used to be a considerable effort to reach your market. Now, it can be done within minutes or seconds. This allows businesses to grow faster and achieve new heights quicker than ever.
With the ability to access information at any time, day or night, comes a growing reliance on technology.
Because of this, so many people worry about their privacy and how companies can access it.
How can companies who rely on online marketing and campaign tracking data comply with the general consumer data protection laws if they depend on it?
Continue reading to find out more about how to strike a balance between digital marketing, privacy, and your business.
What is privacy in the digital world?
We must first discuss the information businesses must collect to protect consumers’ privacy.
Privacy is the consumer’s right to control third-party organizations’ use of personal data.
While this is a simplified version of digital privacy, you can get a good idea about the data types your business will likely already use for analytics.
Another question arises… How does your brand ensure digital privacy for leads, customers, and website visitors?
Data privacy laws are essential.
More and more laws are being passed to regulate the use of data by digital marketers.
Online advertisers must be more aware of their obligations and rights regarding privacy.
You should consider two pieces of legislation in particular:
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.
The California Consumer Privacy Act.
These guidelines govern how organizations collect information and allow individuals to opt-out anytime.
The first was also to regulate how website owners treat visitors from specific locations, such as the European Union or California.
You must always find out who will come from these regions to your website. This is why everyone is required to comply with these laws in some way. It was a game-changer.
There are other options.
Local and international laws are beginning to appear as more consumers express concern about using their personal information.
It is essential to know what is new in the data privacy world.
Observing its pulse lets you adapt your business methods to the changing industry.
Can digital marketing and data privacy coexist?
These new rules and regulations limit the ability of digital marketers to create a customized experience tailored to shoppers and customers.
Gartner’s prediction that 80% of marketers would abandon personalization efforts before 2025 is unsurprising.
Previously, it was common to track leads throughout their entire sales journey. However, some elements are starting to change to comply with global privacy laws.
Apple is a good example.
Beginning with iOS 14.5, the user must opt-in to share his unique Identifier For Advertisers (IDFA).
If iPhone or iPad users choose not to share their digital tracking data with advertisers, they will not be shared.
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram that rely heavily on these data for their analytics advertising platforms could lose a lot of money.
Small brands that use their service for advertising will need a clearer idea of how their campaigns work.
Digital marketing has its limits.
All these changes result from the evolution of marketing and the increased reliance on content.
Digital marketing must move away from data and tracking to a more compelling message resonating with the majority.
We are returning to the advertising era, where segmenting content into particular groups was easy. Now creatives must have a broader focus.
What do we mean? Remember the old-fashioned billboards and car ads before the advent of the Internet?
To be successful, these campaigns needed to reach a larger audience.
The exact impact of these changes is yet to be determined. It will depend on whether Apple’s and Google’s decisions influence other platforms to take similar steps.
Digital Marketing and Privacy: How can marketers adapt?
After we have discussed what digital privacy means and how device manufacturers, marketing platforms, and jurisdictions are changing, it’s essential to consider how advertisers can adjust.
There are many ways to do this, but it starts with marketers recognizing that the days of a surplus of personal data have long passed.
It is no longer possible to track the every move of your audience. What is left is rapidly diminishing, so you should have a strategy for moving forward.
Google says that the best way to balance data-driven marketing with privacy protection is:
- Collect data responsibly.
- Use different methods to reach out to your audience
- Hiring and training for privacy.
What does all this mean?
Focus on content quality.
Until now, marketers have focused primarily on matching content with metrics.
A greater focus on content quality is significant here.
You need ads and creative media to reach many people at once rather than just trying to cater to the smaller demographics.
This will allow you to adopt a “messaging approach for many.”
Increase the frequency of advertising and communications.
As digital marketing evolves, so will privacy.
Using various communication and advertising methods to reach your audience is better.
You should show different angles of ads instead of the same ad.
Increase the frequency of your brand interactions with an audience.
It is essential to remember that the details are still to be determined.
Integrate brand metrics
Refining your integrated brand metrics is crucial to prepare for the future and cope with these changes.
What does it mean?
This means ensuring that you are looking at the effectiveness of your campaign at a macro level instead of a microscopic level.
You stop focusing solely on the success of individual campaigns and begin to evaluate your entire marketing strategy, including:
You can improve your message by focusing on the big picture.
Transparency and compliance should be part of your methodology.
As we have seen since the adoption of GDPR, it is essential that you include compliance and transparency in your method of collecting personal data.
You can control some aspects of your website, even if you don’t always have the final say, such as with Apple or Facebook ads.
Make sure, for example, that your privacy policies and any other guidelines are easily accessible on your site.
Give users plenty of options to opt in or out for specific things like email campaigns.
If you make these practices clear, you are less likely to receive a complaint or face a monetary penalty.
Switch to gated Offers.
Give them something valuable in return.
It is called a gated offering.
Imagine you want to know how satisfied a customer is after they make an online purchase or book an appointment.
Send them a questionnaire after the process has been completed.
They will receive a coupon for a discount code on their next purchase in exchange for honest answers and time.