A guide to privacy-first marketing in 2022

Say hello to a cookie-less, high-privacy world.

The internet has become a place where we share everything about our lives. But that’s swiftly changing. Soon, marketers will not have access to intimate details about where people have been on the internet and what they’ve done. Instead, they need to rely upon new strategies to differentiate themselves and provide the customized marketing people have come to expect.

Regulations Regarding Privacy Are Quickly Changing

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect in 2018, setting a new standard for data privacy. The regulation requires companies to get explicit consent from users before collecting, storing, or using their data. In addition, it gives users the right to know what data is being collected about them.

Since then, things have moved rather quickly. iOS and Android devices have started alerting users to third-party tracking and even disallowing it entirely.

In response to these changes, marketers are now turning to first-party data and contextual marketing. With first-party data, businesses collect data directly from their customers through activities like loyalty programs, online surveys, and website interactions. This data is then used to create marketing segments and target ads.

The Cookie-Less “Future” is Already Here

Marketers cannot wait until cookies are entirely banned. For the most part, people are moving toward browsing on mobile devices—more for B2C than B2B interactions, but still a significant number. Mobile devices are now becoming fortresses of privacy.

The faster marketers start to incorporate first-party data into their customer relationships, the easier the transition will be. And the transition will need to come faster than many believe, as many users are already starting to block cookies and starting to become somewhat impervious to generic messaging.

Marketing in the Olden Days: Context and Audience

How did marketers function in the old days? Through context and audience. Before giant advertising networks existed, companies would sponsor sites that resonated with their brand. They placed ads as they would on television stations, radio stations, and magazines; again, context and audience.

But building that audience and context is far more difficult on the web, where each bit of content may be exposed to a tremendous diversity of individuals. Today’s audience is also far savvier and tends to resist generalized marketing, instead seeking custom, targeted marketing that feels unique to them.

How First-Party Data Wells Work to Solve the Problem

When used correctly, first-party data provides the contextual information needed to deliver custom content that users will find valuable. It allows businesses to understand their customers on a deeper level and develop marketing strategies that are tailored to them.

There are two types of first-party data:

• Behavioral. This type of data includes information about what users do on a website or app, such as the pages they visit, the products they purchase, and the searches they make.
• Demographic. This type of data includes information about users’ characteristics, such as their age, gender, location, and interests.

Behavioral data is collected through web analytics tools, while demographic data is collected through surveys and registration forms.

When combined, these two types of data provide a well of information that can be used to understand users’ needs and develop marketing strategies that address them.

But companies can have issues bringing disparate data in from multiple sources, especially when they’re trying to consolidate information about specific customers. Data warehouses and lakes can be used to consolidate and transform data into usable, comprehensive user insights.

Start Building Your First-Party Data with Lytics

First-party data is the future of marketing, and Lytics is here to help you make the most of it. Lytics is a customer data platform that consolidates all your customer data in one place and makes it easy to use for marketing, analysis, and personalization.

Lytics also has a built-in machine learning engine that automatically analyzes your data and identifies segments, trends, and relationships. This allows you to quickly develop targeted marketing campaigns that deliver the right message to the right people at the right time.

Get started with Lytics today and start building your first-party data advantage.