There are an increasing number of regulations and policies, such as Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) update, that are making consumer’s digital data more private. This is a good thing for consumers who should be in charge of their digital information as well as other personal information. However, it presents a new challenge to small businesses in general: prospects and customers can now prevent companies from tracking them on apps and websites. Lots of small businesses rely on tracking data, but the good news is there are ways to make the best of it.
Before getting into how to react and deal with the new privacy updates, here are some definitions:
First-party cookies are pieces of data that are stored on the user's computer. First-party cookies are set by the website.
Comparatively, third-party cookies are created by domains other than the one the user is visiting at the time, and are mainly used for passing data and activity between apps and websites to deliver online advertising. Many people are especially concerned about being tracked by third-party cookies.
SEO (search engine optimization) is using special techniques to maximize your website traffic and its visibility on search engines.
Early indicators show that over 60% of Apple users are opting-out of device tracking for ads. This means that it is more difficult to target ads towards these consumers on other apps and sites (such as Facebook) that depend on these third-party cookies.
This change is only the first step towards a more private era of digital advertising which relies less on individual user data, and instead uses advanced statistics to infer the success of ad campaigns.
Here are steps you can take to update your digital marketing best practices to be effective in the age of online privacy:
Make a Page on Your Website to Tell People How You Collect Data
When you make a page on your website dedicated to how your website collects data, it demonstrates to your customers and prospects that you care about their data. It also helps to build trust. The more transparent you are about how your website collects data, the more your customers will trust you.
If you know how much traffic your website or social media is getting, you can pivot. If you need to put more keywords in your articles or blog posts, you can do that. If you do not know how well your content is performing, you will not know what you need to tweak (or possibly change completely). It also means you will not be able to quickly adapt to what is popular.
Have a Broader Term Audience Strategy
When you focus on gaining a broader audience it makes it easier to grow. When marketers target gaining an audience from a select group of people it does not allow them to recognize all the other potential followers they could gain.
Review Cross-Channel Performance
Reviewing cross-channel performance allows you to see what is and is not working on your various social media platforms. Content that is not working on Facebook that would work better on LinkedIn could be moved to LinkedIn. Reviewing cross-channel performance also allows you to keep up with trends. And people these days on social media want to follow companies that keep up with the ever-changing trends.
Focus on a First-Party Cookie Strategy
Check out this article Developing digital marketing strategies without third-party cookies to learn how to update your digital marketing strategy with more emphasis on first-party cookies and be less dependent on third-party cookies.
Be sure to contact us if you’d like more help in navigating these challenging waters!