Humanity has never produced as much data as it does today – and the number is growing every day. Data plays a crucial role in digital marketing today. Through them, marketers learn to understand the needs of their target group. How do you create the basis for good data protection?
No Data, No Personalized Marketing
Data is also the foundation for the trending topic of personalization. To provide customers with relevant product recommendations, you need data. Likewise, to understand their behavior and to be able to decide on which channels and at what times it is best to contact them.
But the more extensive customer data is used for marketing purposes, the more critical it is that marketers are aware of their responsibility about data protection. Anyone who carelessly handles their customers’ data jeopardizes their trust and thus the basis for their business. Marketers need to stay current on best practices for managing customer data and ensuring security and privacy. Since May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has played a central role and means that organizations have to deal with data protection in a completely new way.
Limitation For Performance Marketing
Those responsible for performance marketing are particularly challenged: they are the ones who have to deal with personal data in real-time. They are sitting on a vast treasure trove of data that they will no longer be able to use in the future if they do not take countermeasures now. In addition, there are performance algorithms for real-time bidding or AdWords, for example, which are based on cookies. If the user opts out, the data basis for many targeting strategies is no longer available or severely restricted. Enriching your first-party data with third-party information (such as purchasing behavior on other sites or interactions with certain content) is made very difficult by the consent requirement in advance. In performance marketing, however, most campaigns are based on precisely this data, which makes it challenging to link different data pools. All subject data rights impact the IT architecture, with opt-outs (especially tracking opt-outs) and deletion requests being time-critical. The shorter the reaction time, the closer the data has to be available and changeable in real-time to the customer and me on the tool side.
Digital Marketing And Privacy
Against this background, the crucial question for marketers is: How do you create the basis for good data protection? How do you ultimately implement it without having to drive with the handbrake on when it comes to marketing? The following three pieces of advice will help you balance dynamic digital marketing and GDPR compliance.
1. Regular Internal Data Reviews
It is crucial to have an overview of what personal data is being collected. It is also essential to ensure that the company guidelines are constantly updated and compliant with legal requirements.
2. Deep Understanding Of The Data Collected
However, it is not just about understanding what information you are collecting. Equally important is knowing how that information is being used—and who can access it.
3. Marketing Technology
Marketers need the right tools to leverage data effectively for marketing campaigns while ensuring privacy and discretion. A corresponding platform must provide an overview of the existing data material. One solution can be a Customer Data Platform (CDP), which uses customer data to enable precise targeting and personalized customer journeys while offering the highest data protection and security.
Take Privacy Seriously
These three pieces of advice are just a glimpse when it comes to privacy best practices. Data protection, especially when it comes to customer data, is a complex challenge and the possible measures are numerous. In any case, marketers should not take the subject lightly because anyone who allows data breaches risks severe sanctions from the legislator and the trust of their customers.
Also Read: The Challenges In Internet Of Things