How to get data?
How do businesses make it successful in the age of ever-evolving data privacy regulations?
How can your business genuinely gain loyal customers in the future?
These are some serious questions that businesses must ask themselves before it's too late.
A Marketer's Dilemma: Collecting Data beyond third party cookies
Since the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) fined large to small-medium-sized enterprises for violating the cookie consent policy, businesses have needed clarification about how to ask people for personalized marketing and advertising data. And that’s what consent preference management does.
As if stringent privacy laws were not enough, famous internet browsers like Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox have already deprecated third-party cookies. And even Google is following suit and plans to deprecate third-party cookies by 2024.
For those who don't know, third-party cookies are small text files deployed onto the user's devices to collect their data for behavioral profiling and targeting by any entity other than the website.
Third parties have long been marketers and advertisers' abode to collect personal data from the user and devise a marketing or advertising campaign targeting specific people based on their behavior patterns.
Though third-party data has been beneficial for marketers to provide a better customer experience, the customers have yet to be at ease knowing how their data has traveled and been exposed to unknown companies without their consent.
Marketers need to adapt to the ever-changing business and data privacy landscape. Big tech doesn't want to come off as arrogant and deceitful, and that's why some of them have stopped third-party cookies by default.
They are building strict privacy safeguards in their platforms, which will discourage and limit the use and sharing of data with third parties.
For example, Facebook is currently developing a Limited Data Use (LDU) feature that will disable the use of personal data of California's citizens with Third parties. Apple has created a stricter data policy for app developers and ad publishers. Also, Google is testing out its Privacy Sandbox, which they say will help advertisers process data without hurting personal privacy and privacy laws.
However, some top advertising companies are concerned that Google's Privacy Sandbox might give google a monopoly in the advertising industry, leaving them only a bit.
Revenue Recession: What do marketers need to worry about?
What do we know? What have we learned?
Third-party cookies are dead.
Data privacy laws will become stricter.
It will become more complex and challenging for a business to collect personal data.
Major reports by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) show that the advertising industry will suffer a loss of at least $10 Billion due to the demise of third-party cookies. Even Google has estimated that Ad publishers will lose around 50-70% of their overall revenue due to banning third-party cookies over the coming years.
As if this needed to be more, a report by BusinessWire shows that 95% of the business are not compliant with GDPR, and 90% need to be obedient to CCPA/CPRA.
Most of you need a systematic data security strategy and workable consent management system in your business operations. This will likely result in fewer customers as people want to avoid engaging in a business they don't trust.
As per a report by Adobe, more than 70% will likely engage and buy from a brand they trust. If your business fails to build a trustable brand, you can expect a remarkable fall in your profits.
Consent Preference Management: Building authenticity
Consent preference management is when customers willingly give marketers information about their preferences to receive better, more personalized communication and experiences.
This is way better than consent-led opt-ins, as it allows the marketer to communicate at the time, frequency, channels, and topics the customer prefers. With the inferred preference marketers have been working with so far, but the customer's actual stated preference.
The data that the customer voluntarily gives is also known as first-party or zero-party data. It is the most vital first-party data a brand can hope for.
Most marketers need help strategizing how to collect accurate first-party data from people with their current resources.
First-party or Zero party data is the most basic and essential data a brand could get. This includes name, email-id, phone number, address, bank account numbers, etc. It also has their communication preferences and the frequency of newsletters or other content that market to them.
Most websites have opt-in forms to collect names and email-ids, but often they need to provide the user the option to opt-out preference. This prioritizes people's privacy and builds a long-lasting relationship with them.
Consent Preference Management, like Adzapiers', helps you to personalize your pre-built consent opt-in forms by adding a preference section to it that saves the preferences of your customers, like what kind of services they would like to receive from your brand, how they like to be communicated or how frequently do they want to receive notifications from the brand.
Through Consent Preference Management, you build a trustable brand. People find a brand authentic when they feel they have a say. Consent preference management helps the brand to ask the user how you, as a company, shall communicate with them and let them know that they are in control of their personal data.
Content: Looking consent beyond cookies
As people are losing trust, data privacy laws aggressively charging fines, and a continuous decline in profits, businesses need to change their marketing strategies and tactics to be relevant in current global scenarios.
For business, your best defense is your best offense. Understanding your business's current UI/UX workflow is the best way to start having more data. This happens when you begin capturing first-party data.
If you, as a marketer or an advertiser, want to carve out a successful strategy, then there's nothing like first-party cookies.
First-party cookies, or zero-party data, collect personal data directly from the user or customer visiting your website rather than buying it from a third-party vendor.
First-party data: Capturing data with consent preference management
First-party data has more credibility as it is collected directly from the customer. This helps you to have a better psychological and behavioral understanding of the consumer.
You have accurate information regarding a particular user's demographics, sociography, psychographics, and interests.
One of the best ways to get first-party data from your consumer is by asking for their preference, interest, and interaction platform. This can be done through a form on a website, at the point of sale, or during social media and other live event interactions.
As far as the forms or pop-ups are concerned, you, as a business owner, must make it clear to the consumer about using cookies to collect first-party data.
Also, please write down your purpose in clear and straightforward language so that a user is at least willing to trust you before giving their due consent.
Before sharing their data with you, people want to know what's in it for them.
Let's be clear. No relationship in this world can indeed exist without any self-benefit. If someone wants to share their data, they want to ensure they get something in return. This can be interpreted in several ways.
A consumer might expect you to provide them with tailored content that genuinely meets their needs. Please give them the personalized products and services that they wish after giving them their personal information.
Ask them what content they would like to see and engage with. How often would they love to hear from you? Also, this will help you segment your data and better focus on niche people. Giving them more choices and communication control will make your business go big.
I get it. But where do I start?
To start capturing first-party data, first review your current data collection touchpoints.
Analyzing and refining your current data collection touchpoints must include opt-in forms like email newsletters and another signup form. You can ask users to tick checkboxes if they want to receive the weekly or monthly newsletter. Ask what type of content they want to see more often; for example, marketing, sales, b2b writing, etc.
Incorporating these in-context opt-ins will significantly impact your first-party data collection. Place these signup forms within your article, below the headline, in the middle, or at the bottom.
Also, you can set up a preference center on your website for email marketing. This can help you with customer retention by improving your relationship when they would otherwise be severed. For example, when a user feels overwhelmed by receiving daily mail from your brand, you can give them the option to "opt down "rather than" opt-out. "With this, they will still be subscribed but can choose the frequency and topics they would love to hear from your brand.
This will create a win-win for both the marketers and consumers. They will become loyal brand advocates if they get what they want through your content, products, and services.
Also, as a marketer, this will give you great insights into how to segment your audience. Which content does your audience engage with the most? Not only will this help you to design an excellent content strategy, but it will also help you to build new products and services which can match and fulfill exactly what your customer wants.
As you interact more with your customers, you'll get to know them better in and out. Giving them more choices and helping them to meet their needs will only level up their confidence in you and your brand. Trust will give you the most strategic advantage a company can have today.
Trust: The Only Success Factor
Honoring your commitment is the first way to build a successful and trustworthy relationship. Be transparent about the data that you are collecting. Define the purpose that this data will be used.
For example, if you are interacting with your audience and asking for their personal information like interests and preferences, like what they want to see from your brand more often. What kind of content do they want to consume; then make sure that the data you are collecting is used to provide the same benefit they seek with your brand.
Also, honor your customer's communication preference. If they want your email newsletter only once a month, ensure you abide by it. Sending more email newsletters will only destroy their trust in you.
Ensure only relevant information regarding a particular consumer is shared across all your marketing and customer service systems. This is how you must honor and provide a consistent user experience and deliver the values you promised your consumers.
And for those who think that trust doesn't pay off, the reports by the PR firm Edelman found that trust was the second most important factor after the price for consumers to engage with your business.
With trust as the new currency of the digital world, it's crucial to systemize your business operation to capture the consent and preferences and provide transparency to the user of the data you have collected. And this is where Adzapier comes in.
Adzapier's Consent Preference Management.
Adzapiers' Consent Preference Management provides solutions that synthesize your information and prioritizes your customer relationships by merging collected consent in one place and managing your communication for marketing compliance with multiple data privacy regulations worldwide.
In privacy compliance, consent preference is essential to maintain a comprehensive record of consent, primarily when concerned with GDPR. These records must contain the way to identify the user, proof of consent, and a record of the consent actions.
It can not only store multiple preferences from each user (if you have multiple opt-ins) but also stores whether a user is verified with a double opt-in.
Also, it can be integrated across your third-party tools, such as Mailchimp, Intercom, and Marketo, to use updated consent preferences across all the platforms. It records every user's consent at one central dashboard, which helps you comply and game up your data security and management systems.
Adzapier, we will be honored to partner with you to build customer trust, authenticity, and first-party data into your company's operation.
Want to get started building trust with your audience right now?