Can Data Privacy And Data Driven Marketing Coexist?

In 2018, GDPR marked a fundamental shift in how organizations were allowed to gather and leverage a consumer’s personal data. If they wanted to conduct business within the European Union , that they had to follow an extended list of regulations that were designed to guard the privacy of their citizens. Some businesses saw the writing on the wall and began overhauling their marketing strategy to match the regulations put forth in GDPR – including businesses that had little interest in European consumers.

Businesses that did make these radical changes were rewarded. With time, it became clear that GDPR created a ripple effect across the world , igniting debates about how user information are often used or stored during a multitude of communities and legislative bodies. Now, marketers got to not only comply to GDPR, but also the Californian Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), while preparing for legislation just like the Massachusetts Data Privacy Law, ny Privacy Act, and even North Dakota’s HB 1485. At an equivalent time, even private businesses like Apple are restricting data collection.

These changes are enough to form a contemporary marketer’s head spin. For years, they’ve been told data-driven marketing and one-to-one personalization is that the only thanks to go. Now they’re being told that if they use data incorrectly during a certain region, significant fines are often levied against their organization.

So, is that the era of data-driven marketing over? We don’t think so. However, this may require marketers to completely rethink what “data-driven marketing” is. Let’s take a better check out how this has affected marketers, and the way their strategy can begin of this upheaval during a new and improved state.

How Marketers are Responding to Data Privacy

In 2019, Forrester surveyed almost 2,000 global marketing decision makers and uncovered some interesting insights. 31 percent had changed their approach to identity resolution within the EU and employed less audience-based digital ad targeting. There’s little question that these changes happened because leveraging customer data became incredibly risky in light of GDPR.

With similar regulations within the pipeline, marketers round the world – including those that don’t conduct business in Europe – are turning to the past for answers and leveraging Media Mix Modeling (MMM). This method takes aggregate media exposure and features it up with KPIs like sales conversions and web visits to broadly determine how effective a particular media buy was.

This looks like an honest idea on paper since many senior marketers can remember using it with moderate success. However, it falls a touch short since it’s agnostic of how consumers actually make decisions. Different audiences provide different amounts useful to marketers, and that they also respond differently to varied ad buys. With MMM, there’s no reliable thanks to tell if you’re reaching high-value customers or not.

Thankfully, there are other ways to adapt to those privacy changes. The actual answer lies during a flexible approach to marketing analytics.

Why Data-Driven Marketing Needs Flexibility

Between an epidemic , social upheaval, and new privacy regulations, it’s clear that we sleep in a constantly changing world. If you’re not experiencing disruption today, you ought to expect disruption tomorrow – and marketers need an adaptable approach to marketing analytics which will evolve to match these changes.

When you look closely at how legislators and personal businesses are enacting privacy standards, they’re often doing it with good intentions – but nobody features a ball and may see how the dominoes will subside . It’s inevitable that a number of these changes are going to be a net negative for consumers. Everyone’s excited to be ready to opt-out of knowledge collection today, but will they keep that very same excitement when they’re served an equivalent , mind-numbingly redundant ad for the 10th time?

Expect many regulations to be implemented, then rolled back, then resubmitted with changes – this changing environment can either offer you whiplash or offer you new opportunities counting on how flexible your marketing analytics capabilities are. While organizations can’t afford to violate privacy regulations, they also can’t afford the value of continually swapping platforms to satisfy the changing legal environment surrounding advertising. They need an all-in-one solution.

Collecting Data to make Impactful Campaigns

While many marketers need flexible marketing analytics solutions, how you employ data is merely half the info privacy controversy. Collecting data that respects a consumer’s privacy may be a whole different beast.

First and foremost, marketers should specialise in the standard of their data. Under the present (and likely, the future) data privacy environment, more isn't necessarily better. Rather than buying bulk amounts of third-party data and trimming the fat afterward, specialise in primarily collecting first-party and zero-party data. If you would like additional third- or second-party data to support your models, collect it through a verifiable, reliable, and reputable source. Then, only keep data that yields campaign outcomes that are in line together with your expectation or exceed your expectations.

However, marketers won't be well-versed in where to seek out high-quality data, especially if they need relied on third-party data providers for the past decade approximately . The solution to this lies in your content strategy – by trading information for content that's actually valuable to a customer, you'll get reliable, relevant insights. For example, imagine that you’re a technology retailer and a customer arrives on a landing page that shows off all of your computers. For the typical consumer, purchasing the proper computer for his or her needs are often overwhelming – they’re unsure if they need a tower or a laptop, a mac or a PC, a gaming computer or a general-purpose computer.

To help them while collecting data, consider offering a quiz which will outline which specs the customer will want, and supply a couple of relevant recommendations at the top . This won’t just guide them towards a computer they’d like – it'll offer you insights regarding broader habits, which may assist you recommend more products down the road . For instance, someone who likes to play video games on their computer could also be more likely to shop for a headset or mechanical keyboard.

Of course, quizzes aren't your only option – there are tons of creative ways to convince customers to opt-in to sharing data for a far better shopping experience. Just confirm that you’re providing a worthy incentive for patrons , and they’ll willingly provide high-quality insights. Then, implement those insights into your advanced marketing analytics solution. With a platform, you'll be ready to compare this new, high-quality data alongside your existing data, helping you get an up-to-date understanding of your customer’s motivations.

Final Thoughts

Privacy may be a rising global controversy, and marketers will need to combine grit with creativity to beat the obstacles in their path. The best way to make sure that your performance will stay strong is by adopting a privacy-positive approach to data collection and analytics before you’re legally required to try and do so. This won’t only be a point for privacy-conscious consumers, it'll also assist you compute any data privacy kinks before fines and restrictions might be levied against you.

To support proper data vetting and analysis, think about using a versatile marketing analytics solution that leverages Bayesian learning and forgetting. As you collect more high-quality information about your customers, the algorithm will vet the info for accuracy. Then, it'll analyze the info alongside your existing data and reinforce relevant insights while reducing the influence of insights that became irrelevant thanks to the uncertain state of our world.

In the end, marketers should use these solutions to check new theories about customers, and marketing leaders should give them permission to be wrong about their analysis as long as they’re right target when it involves privacy.

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