With the arrival of legislation like GDPR and CCPA, companies are under more stringent requirements when collecting and storing consumer information. But how can brands collect the data necessary to reach customers, even as the traditional cookie disappears? This guide will explore some ways privacy-conscious marketers can obtain data in 2020.
More from PostFunnel on GDPR:
Balancing Privacy Regulation and Marketing
Getting On Board For Data Privacy Legislation
GDPR Six Months Later: What Have We Learned So Far?
Gearing Up Towards The Dreadful GDPR
Ready or Not CCPA is Here (And You’re Probably Not)
The Price of Privacy
What are cookies?
Text files stored in your browser history are referred to as “cookies,” supposedly because they’re a treat with a hidden message, like a fortune cookie. Cookies store details like search history, past purchases, and geolocation data to provide a more personalized browsing experience. The data that cookies provide is invaluable to marketers. Advertisers use algorithms to bid on placements that will put their product in front of a user who’s already indicated interest in it or something like it. If you’ve ever been browsing Facebook and seen an ad for the same jacket you’d Googled earlier that morning, that’s cookies working in the background.
There are two types of cookies: first-party and third-party. First-party cookies are used to optimize a visitor’s experience on the site they’re visiting. They’re how an eCommerce site knows what you’ve put in your shopping cart, or which language you prefer. Third-party cookies do not belong to the host site you’re visiting, but may track what you’re doing there anyway. The information they collect is used to track your behavior and serve you personalized ads.
But cookies collect information without the user’s explicit consent and therefore are the target of data privacy regulatory efforts like GDPR and CCPA. Seeing the writing on the wall, the companies that create browsers have started to get in step with protecting users. Safari doesn’t allow third-party cookies, and Google plans to shut off support for third-party cookies by 2022. Many sites now display a banner asking visitors to opt-in to cookies, but users don’t have to consent to view the content. Marketers need to change tactics to keep up with the changes.
What are GDPR and CCPA?
Now that we know about cookies, we need to understand how they intersect with GDPR and CCPA. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets the rules for collecting and processing personal information. If your company does business in the EU and stores personal data such as names, addresses, or even hobbies, it must be GDPR compliant or risk enormous fines.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is similar to GDPR in that it was designed to protect the data privacy rights of California residents by regulating how their personal information is collected and stored. The CCPA differs from GDPR in certain key aspects, however, so GDPR compliance does not guarantee CCPA compliance. It’s important to note that GDPR and CCPA regulations apply to the location of your customer, not your business. If you have any clients in the EU or California, compliance is compulsory.
Give some to get some
Perhaps the easiest way to ensure you’ve got a consumer’s full consent is to give them something in return. A survey or poll can provide a wealth of insight while also making the respondent feel positive about providing their personal details. Depending on what you ask, you can use surveys to create buyer personas, collect basic demographic information, or determine elements of your business that could use improvement.
Never underestimate the power of free stuff. Contests are another light-lift method for obtaining the kind of data you need for your marketing efforts. The prize itself can help target the kind of demographic segment you want—everyone enjoys an Amazon gift card, but a smaller audience is likely to give you their email address for a chance at bookkeeping software.
Don’t overlook the value of your own information, either. Perhaps you have a decade’s worth of sales data you could turn into an infographic, or a series of explainers to help navigate a challenging topic. Putting that kind of resource behind a simple gate not only makes it compliant, but also implies that it’s too valuable to simply give away.
The call of content
Customers don’t want ads shoved in their faces, but they do want content that is relevant to their interests. Articles, podcasts, videos, and blog posts can all be leveraged to bring your ideal customer right to your doorstep. Inform them, entertain them, but above all respect them, and they’ll be more than happy to let you sell to them.
“Make great content” is easy enough to put on a to-do list, but how do you actually go about it? Think about what your customers want and need on all stages of their buyer journey. What questions do they want answers to, what guidance would help them understand their options? What follow-up support would make them feel valued and increase their likelihood of sticking around? These are the questions to ask yourself as you craft a content strategy.
Marketing without cookies
While third-party cookies’ days are numbered, first-party cookies, which is to say the kind at use on your own site, are fair game. Information from transactions, forms, and support chat can be collected safely and mined to great effect. After all, these are people who’ve at least shown enough interest in your product or service to have visited your site, which puts them on a level above someone who just wants to win a prize.
This is where your content strategy shows real dividends. By attracting a willing audience to your site, you’ve created an opportunity to collect valuable information about them during every part of their journey. At its most basic, your content needs to be authentic, helpful, and well-made. Let your customers come to you on their own terms, then deliver what they expect to receive. This increases your relationship with them, which in turn creates trust. Is there a more valuable tool in your marketing arsenal than trust?
Yours won’t be the only site with first-party cookies, of course. Other sites, notably Google and Facebook, also have access to information derived from their own first-party cookies. Companies like Amazon use persistent IDs to create a vision of a customer, based on what their account does whenever they log in. It’s such precise information that it allows them to market based on the intent that one person displays and how they respond to the ads they’re seeing. Plenty of first-party publishers will be willing to share their data with you, just be ready to pay. Nobody is going to open their vaults out of the goodness of their hearts.