As privacy regulations tighten across the country and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) deadline rapidly approaches, it’s more urgent than ever for marketing leaders to be able to navigate the complexity around privacy compliance.
From brands advertising with personalized ads to consumers interacting with the brands they love, everyone across the digital marketing supply chain will be impacted by CCPA— whether they are ready or not. Data is a powerful and valuable asset for marketers, but ethical data usage is imperative for success. It’s important for marketers to understand how CCPA can serve as a catalyst for driving best practices in data-driven marketing.
CCPA is a Catalyst for Change
Marketers may feel overwhelmed by CCPA, dreading the set of compliance boxes that need to be checked and its potential impact on ad effectiveness. However, what CCPA is actually doing is surfacing conscious behavior of data ethics and the opportunity for businesses to springboard to better, more effective data-driven marketing practices.
Fair Value Exchange
A fair data value exchange unlocks several opportunities across the advertising supply chain:
- Brands can deepen their relationships and establish trust with consumers by making consent and transparency a priority. Brands must be implicit about what information they are requesting from consumers, why they are requesting this information, and how they plan to use it.
- Publisher compliance will be more streamlined, enabling improved monetization.
- Consumers will have more persistent cross-device privacy controls and get the best value for their online experience.
One company that has recently demonstrated a fair value exchange is Amazon. Amazon Prime day came and went, but what was different this go-around was that Amazon was offering shoppers a $10 credit in exchange for letting them track their online shopping behavior across websites. The deal was for Amazon Assistant, a comparison-shopping tool that customers can add to their web browsers. If you are on a competitive e-commerce site, Amazon Assistant fetches the Amazon price for products that users see on Walmart.com, Target.com, and elsewhere.
At the time of the exchange, Amazon presents all users with its privacy policy and explains how shopper data is being used: “Amazon Assistant collects and processes browsing information (URLs, search terms, search results, page metadata, and limited page content) from websites for which we may have relevant product or service recommendations.” At any point, customers can opt-out by adjusting their advertising preferences.
As you shop across websites, Amazon Assistant helps you discover Amazon products and compare prices. In exchange for data about your shopping behavior, Amazon is using it to provide you, the consumer, with the best possible digital shopping experience. Amazon can use this data to improve its general marketing, products, and services, unrelated to the shopping assistant.
By participating in this fair value exchange and integrating data ethics into a marketing strategy, companies can harness the power of data-driven marketing in an open yet privacy-conscious way, engage customers and most importantly—earn people’s trust.
Responsible Communication and Best Marketing Practices
Businesses are powerful educators when it comes to communicating how CCPA will affect their customers—both B2B and B2C audiences—and are responsible for communicating clearly to foster credibility and trust.
Equipped with knowledge, marketers can refine their data-driven practices by:
- Counseling customers on consent: consent must be freely given, specific, informed, unambiguous and as easy to withdraw as to give.
- Explaining consumer data processing in a simple, informative and creative way: it will be appreciated and help brands develop trust.
- Staying in line with the concept of a fair data value exchange, marketers should spell out what individuals will get in return for their data; this is a better way to obtain data from prospective and current customers while cultivating and maintaining trust.
A few other points that businesses should keep in mind as CCPA looms closer:
- Consumers must see the value companies can offer in exchange for their information, enabling them to choose whether their decision will make their experiences more productive and enjoyable.
- Marketers must stake out an actionable thought leadership stance, with healthy consumer-first data practices and a strong data ethics strategy.
Next Steps
Understanding CCPA before it takes effect is the most important next step for marketers. Marketers should learn how to work within CCPA’s guidelines and when the time comes, federal legislation. Communicate what you know and how business practices under CCPA will impact consumers. Arm your customers with information by relaying everything you know about CCPA and how it will impact them—making them the hero and an advocate that CCPA is a catalyst for good.
If your customer is a business, counsel them to practice marketing in an ethical, privacy-conscious way. If your customer is an individual, empower them with the necessary context for data-driven marketing and provide them with tools so they can take ownership of their personal information.
Data-driven marketing is powerful. With great power, comes the responsibility to educate everyone along the advertising supply chain. The balance between compliance and data ethics is imperative for the economy’s success.
For more information on preparing for CCPA, visit RampUp from LiveRamp.