Build Digital Resilience to Stay Competitive in a Cookieless World

Performance marketing inherently promises results—and practitioners rely on customer data to satisfy the expectations set. But the increasing restrictions around privacy has forced brands need to find alternatives to cookies and third-party data sources to build digital resilience and stay competitive in a privacy-first marketing ecosystem. About 64% of customers expect a tailored brand experience based on their past interactions—but then again, eight out of 10 customers report their willingness to leave a brand that uses their data without consent. We need to explore new ways of using customers' data without exploiting their most crucial asset—trust. Here’s how marketers can adapt to changing privacy regulations and develop digital resilience for a cookieless world. Personalization and Privacy Can Live Under One Roof Focus on first-party data collection 62% of marketers are strategizing around first-party data. The primary reason behind this is the demise of third-party cookies—but that’s not all. First-party data simply comes with a host of benefits that third-party data just doesn’t offer. First and foremost, first-party data is more accurate since it comes directly from the source. With such accurate data, you get precise behavioral insights which can generate better, more personalized campaigns. And when your customers receive highly personalized messages without compromising their privacy, customer loyalty abounds. This is perhaps why brands using first-party data generate better results: Research shows they can achieve a revenue increase 2.9 times higher than companies using third-party data and a 1.5 times higher cost-savings increase. This also presents an opportunity for progressive marketers to fill the vacuum and start perfecting their first-party data collection strategies so they're already a step ahead when the entire world moves toward it. Big companies like Google and Facebook have already started, and other brands must follow suit to avoid falling behind. There are quite a few ways through which you can bypass third-party cookies and collect critical business data directly from the source. Brands can track all their customer touch points, from offline transactions and customer service engagements, to gain as much data as possible. Apart from that, website analytics can provide key insights into where the users are coming from. These same tools also allow insight into users' demographic information and web page sessions, among other data. It helps if brands develop a multichannel marketing approach to increase their customer touch points: More touch points means more data. Additionally, offering incentives in exchange for data is a good approach to personalization and loyalty. Work with CDPs Customer data platforms, or CDPs, are gaining popularity. They collect data from various touch points, organize it and create individual customer profiles. Primarily, it gives advertisers the ability to build tailored marketing campaigns. CDPs are designed to collect primarily from first-party sources and make them actionable, so the profiles are based on highly accurate and authentic data, running the gamut of identity, descriptive, behavioral and qualitative. CDPs do come at a price. But they promise to help you foster digital resilience as cookies are phased out. It depends on the marketers' needs, but in most cases, CDPs can be worth the investment. Invest in data clean rooms Gartner estimates that 80% of advertisers with $1 billion or more in their media budget will invest in data clean rooms by 2023. Data clean rooms operate as virtual platforms. They're "spaces" where companies like Google and Amazon share data they've collected with advertisers without violating their users’ privacy. Data clean rooms also collect user information from first-party sources and give you an understanding of an audience that the demise of third-party cookies has put out of your reach. With this data, performance marketers can gain a deeper understanding of the target audience, adjust their strategies and build metrics-driving campaigns. Monitor social media insights Social media is bursting with audience data. And if your brand has a social media presence, you can tap into each platform’s insights and use them to understand your target audience’s behavior. Tracking social media helps you get a read on your audience’s preferences, interests and the other brands they follow. You can also learn more about their demographics and tailor your campaigns accordingly. For example, a cat video posted on the brand’s Instagram garners many likes and comments—marketers can gather from this that their audience is interested in cute, lighthearted content. Such information can help with building a content strategy. And when a content strategy is shaped with audience preference in mind, it is more likely to drive the kind of results that performance marketers pursue. Final thoughts Performance marketers live and breathe data. This is why the onset of a cookieless future has them scrambling for profitable strategies. A lack of data could lead to the demise of performance marketing. But fortunately, data is not disappearing. The collection approach, however, might change. Marketers need to rethink their data collection strategies and start building their digital resilience to brace themselves for the new challenges that the future promises. Don’t Leave Your Email Marketing Capabilities on the Table