Let's take a poke at Marketing and it's effects on Data Privacy

Have you come across the expression, data is the new oil? In today’s world, data is the fuel that drives business growth. Whether it's about providing customized experiences to customers or creating automated marketing messages, the volume, and quality of information can help businesses achieve their goals. However, it is not as easy as it sounds. 

Marketers around the world feel the burden of abiding by the laws of data privacy and simultaneously create marketing campaigns that can meet the needs of consumers. With the compliance regulations such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) being introduced or expanded seemingly every day, marketers feel the responsibility to do the right thing. 

However, achieving data privacy and collecting consent is not always easy to practice. In this article, we will explore how marketers who have high confidence in their data privacy practices might not be practicing it correctly.

The Unstable Building of Compliance

Many of you may not agree, but data privacy doesn’t limit success. Instead, maintaining it can help you improve your customer experience. Protecting your consumer’s data is equal to securing their trust in you. Moreover, it helps to comply with many government regulations, saving your organization from the fines that your business may not be in a position to pay. 

However, data privacy compliance comes with its own challenges. These challenges can be related to data security threats, rapid data growth, and reliable procedures for data recovery. 

According to a study, there is a hack attack every 39 seconds. Moreover, almost 45% of Americans have suffered from a data breach in the last five years. These stats clearly show how important data privacy has become today. 

As per a report, almost 46% of customers believe that they don’t have any control over their data. And that’s because businesses fail to offer the privacy that customers want to gain in exchange for sharing their consent and information. 

It is very tough for marketers to balance data privacy and marketing goals. However, one thing can help form a strong base, and that is a single customer view. Now, what is this?

A single customer view refers to consistent, holistic, and unified customer data, prospects, and history present within a company. Essentially creating one location or report that aggregates all the information an organization has collected or stored about an individual into one view. This information is imperative in delivering compliant data privacy because there are multiple channels available to receive customer consent today. 

To put it simply, customers today most likely share their consent on different platforms, which works against data privacy. Therefore, resolving options within a single customer view is essential to overcome that. 

A marketer who may not have access to a single customer view record might be breaching data privacy laws in many ways. And this might include many marketers who may think that their data privacy compliance is up to mark, but in reality, they might be making some significant mistakes only to bear hefty fines later. 

How to Become a Marketer Who Completely Complies

Balancing ambition and work can be tough; however, if you don’t want to be categorized as an overconfident marketer, you must look at some imperative factors when conducting your work. For instance, you should constantly challenge the source of data you collect and analyze the purpose of managing it properly. Moreover, you should keep an eye on people who have access to customer data within your company. 

Here are the details of some ways in which marketers can lead by example. 

Always Criticize Practices Used to Collect Data

Instead of focusing on collecting a heavy volume of data, you should use your resources and knowledge to evaluate the practices used to collect information and measure it against the purpose of using it. Essentially limiting the collection of data to only the absolutely necessary scenarios.  

Don’t Ever Take Data Access and Storage for Granted

If you have a Data Protection Officer in your company, team up with them to check how much each person working for you has access to the consumer data. It isn’t wise for everyone to have the same access and knowledge on the data collected. So you should take it seriously before anyone else uses the information for their own benefit. 

Implement Tools to Standardize Approval Collection Process

Your data privacy efforts shouldn’t only be limited to consumer consent. Instead, you should invest in the Customer Data Platform and manage various consent preferences across all marketing channels. 

Other than the above measures, you as a marketer should also be, 

• Be Transparent on your company’s website by integrating privacy laws that pop up on the screen. This notification allows consumers to opt-out of sharing their data and feel safe while scrolling through the website. 
• Optimize your creative strategy to mitigate challenges faced while maintaining data privacy. By targeting consumers on a macro level, you can attract a large number of customers without requiring specific data. 
• Let your customers feel that the requirement of sharing their data is optional and not mandatory. You can do this by giving them something in return for the data they share, so they can opt-out if they want to. 

The main motive of all these practices is to obtain transparent and valuable data that can be valuable for both customers and marketers. These practices may seem overwhelming to implement, but they can be a part of your daily routine with time, provided you take data privacy as a core driver of your real success. 

Simply put, be among the marketers who make this world a safer place for consumers so that you can be rewarded with great success and growth. 

Final Takeaway

If you think you are a successful marketer who cares about data protection and complies with the laws while obtaining consumer consent, we recommend you double-check your commitment to these missions. 

It isn’t always easy to balance your business’ goals and privacy laws. However, certain practices such as evaluating data collection procedures and implementing tools to improve approval collection processes can help achieve this objective with ease. 

Finally, it is also imperative that you take data privacy as a crucial key to success. It may seem daunting to practice at the start, but eventually, maintaining the privacy of your customers can help you gain their trust and increase the customer base for your business.