As technology develops, most services are digitizing and shifting toward the online world. From online shopping, delivery, and shipping services, to online banking. Not only that, after the recent pandemic, people got used to shopping online, but the percentage of e-commerce increased by 44% in only two years. Naturally, this extreme increase is used to create an enormous amount of data to be harvested for future marketing campaigns and strategies. However, in such a way, driven marketing has nowadays met its obstacles in the form of different regulations for personal data protection.
Data regulation policies
Since 2018, when GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was formed for all EU countries, data protection has been taken more seriously. The same was for California’s Consumers Privacy Act when those regulations started shaping a new picture of online marketing in the US.
In the meantime, Apple has brought its privacy updates to the operating systems. Google has announced a change in the use of third-party cookies to remove them by the following year, 2023, slowly. Marketers are therefore turning their data-driven strategies around. They must get the best out of these changes and accept switching to using first-party and zero-party data.
New trends in data-driven marketing to follow
Of course, the changes are certainly not the end of the line for online marketers. Since Google will remove not all cookies, the marketing strategies and optimizations must adjust to other sources. Instead of third-party cookies, first-party cookies are still going to be out there, and that is something new and valuable to rely on.
First-party cookies will only track the customer’s activity on your website, for example, how often the users would visit the website, their passwords, and purchased products. Other basic data will come from the users themselves without even tracking their behavior and activity on the website. Those are called zero-party data and would be made through surveys made to evaluate users’ experience.
Taking this into account, online marketing is changing fast, and new trends and strategies are on the horizon. Therefore, the companies that do a big part of their business online shouldn’t worry but be open to accepting new ways.
To reach the essential personalized experience for their customers, they would need to invest in data-driven marketing as much as in AI (Artificial Intelligence). Marketing automation is crucial for targeting audiences, optimizing ads, and personalizing experiences.
What do customers want?
Online marketing is becoming privacy driven. As people are becoming more aware of personal data protection, businesses need to comply with these rules and be transparent about their use of customers’ data.
Surveys have shown that 86% of online users claim transparency is more important to them than anything else when shopping or buying services online. Being aware of these numbers is not only important but can also be helpful to marketers nowadays because knowing what their customer’s value can build trust and loyalty to the brand.
Besides that, customers today have much higher expectations, and there are numerous touchpoints before they recognize a certain brand and make the final purchase. Now, every business has to make sure to create a unified and blended experience for each customer to enjoy their brand.
It is the marketers’ job to decide on the best strategies to use in order to get to their clients and secure their ROI (Return on Investment). Knowing the users is still rule number one. Even though privacy-driven marketing is at its value, and all businesses must respect the laws and regulations, consumers haven’t stopped wanting a completely personalized experience. 80% of customers will be willing to buy a service or product if they receive a personalized service.
The online competition is enormous, and there is no more old-school loyalty to a brand. Today’s audience will disqualify a company they used to like for just one bad experience since other options are just a click away.
Essential tools for marketers in 2022
Most companies plan to increase their focus on first-party data and build strategies around it. Concerning that, a few tools can help marketers get the best out of their plans while tracking the first-party data.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) databases are very important as they gather users’ interactions over different channels into one platform. This kind of data can still allow companies to segment their audiences according to their past actions on the brand’s website and, in that way, create a better user experience in relation to their habits and needs.
Similarly to that, Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics are great tools that can help your data-driven marketing get the needed information on customers’ activity on your website. That can help your business personalize the users’ experience while growing your revenues.
When you already get the customers to purchase on your website, the data about the transactions is important for you to leverage. Creating user experience according to what they are buying through your web page will allow you to predict their customers’ preferences in the future.
Besides the website, mobile apps can work for growing your business, too. Tools such as Google Analytics 4 can help you harvest mobile app data. With this tool, you can measure the users’ preferences, their conversion paths, favorite features, and more, which is also perfect for optimizing user experience, and of course, the app’s performance.
For call tracking and conversation data, investing in AI and tools like Invoca. With that, your marketers will be able to understand customers’ calls in connection to the source and their intentions. These can be buying the product, complaints or help needed by customer service, conversion, etc.
It is also possible to integrate these tools and connect them to one another. If your company merges analytic data with call tracking or CRM, you will get the full overview of the necessary data to maintain and grow your business in 2022.