Even with increasing privacy restrictions, marketers can still get the information they should discover customers and personalize communications. This was one in every of the principal themes of the keynote conversation which kicked off Day 1 of The MarTech Conference.
“Whether we’re talking about B2B buyers or consumers, customers need you to know who they’re, whichever channel or device they’re meeting you on,” said Kim Davis, MarTech’s editorial director. “At the identical time, they expect you to respect their privacy. What meaning is that because the industry steadily weans itself from cookie-tracking, other ways of understanding customer behavior and the shopper journey develop into paramount.”
Is the industry prepared for this privacy-driven environment? Changes are underway as Google now plans to phase out third-party cookies from Chrome in 2024. Last yr, IAB CEO David Cohen called the deprecation of third-party identifiers “the world’s biggest slow-motion train wreck.”
Here are the approaches B2B and B2C marketers can use today as privacy becomes an ever greater priority.
Identity resolution solutions
Identity resolution solutions integrate consumer identifiers across channels and devices in a way that’s accurate, scalable and privacy-compliant to create a persistent and addressable individual profile.
“It’s privacy-compliant since the user’s profile is built around an anonymized token, not a name, email address or phone number,” Davis said.
Most identity resolution platforms maintain identity graphs into which they gather data from the complete range of channels and devices where the user is lively. Identity resolution platforms discover users either deterministically or probabilistically.
“The result must be the power to segment and goal audiences based on interests and behavior,” said Davis. “For most marketing purposes — not all, but most — it’s more useful to know what the shopper is interested in than their name, height, weight, gender and home address. That’s true whether or not they’re in marketplace for a sophisticated software solution, or simply on the lookout for a latest pair of sunglasses.”
Dig deeper: What is identity resolution and how are platforms adapting to privacy changes?
Zero-party data
Zero-party data is a sort of first-party data that a user volunteers that pertains to their interests, preferences or intent.
“It might be collected by something so simple as a three-question quiz,” said Davis. “Collection might be gamified.”
For instance, here’s how online temporary tattoo seller Inkbox uses a quiz to realize zero-party data from customers.
“Customers are desirous to hand over this information and hand it over in order that they will get the assistance they need, improve products and services,” said Tim Parkin, President of Parkin Consulting. “Zero-party data is huge. It’s been here for a while under the radar and we’d like to show it now and align our interests with the shopper in order that we are able to access this zero-party data.”
Data clean rooms
Data clean rooms (DCRs) use privacy-enhancing technology that enables data owners, including brands and publishers, to share first-party data in a privacy-compliant way. They resolve the information to a profile while keeping that profile anonymized.
This emerging technology requires a certain level of knowledge maturity, so not all organizations can take the leap into DCRs. Those that do typically have already got a CDP or DMP in place to administer customer data. Additionally, brands using a DCR might look to a consultancy to help in the implementation, and that costs more.
Dig deeper: How data clean rooms might help keep the web open
B2B community constructing
B2B marketers use communities to present like-minded individuals the platform to speak with experts in their field. This gives buyers the inducement to volunteer information in order to remain connected.
“B2B marketers have gotten pretty smart at attempting to determine how one can have people give their information in order that they will voluntarily communicate with individuals and firms that they feel they wish to do business with,” said Cyndi Greenglass, President of Livingston Strategies, a B2B marketing consultancy. “Some of the ways in which firms have gotten past the [privacy] challenge is by creating their very own portals, their very own communities and environments where individuals are offering up information in order that they will stay connected despite what’s happening in this environment.”
Marketers must serve high-quality content into their portal for the community to thrive. Businesspeople bring high standards to their B2B interactions because they’re used to best-of-breed buying experiences once they act as consumers making personal buying decisions.
“Community is more essential than it’s ever been,” Greenglass said. “We’ve seen that consumers — whether or not they are B2B purchasers or individuals — we bring our human behavior into the workplace once we do business every single day.”
“I’m a strong believer in customer proximity, that whoever is closest to the shopper wins,” said Parkin. “If you’re not talking to your customers, you’re not learning about who they’re and what they need, how they think and how they act. Community means that you can do this. It’s your experiment lab where you’ll be able to see people interact with one another and you’ll be able to get face-to-face with customers.”
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