GDPR two years later: Lessons learned

This week marks the 2nd anniversary of when GDPR was first passed. 

Though we knew it was coming, very few of us were adequately prepared. Marketers were quickly faced with having to adapt – without fully grasping the impact it would have on our work. Initially it seemed that the new regulation would mean limiting marketing to EU clients and prospects. 

However, the impact was much more far-reaching –it crossed EU borders and quickly became a new reality for all global businesses. Now considered the gold standard for data protection, new jurisdictions are considering changing laws, most recently and notably, in the great state of California. 

What we all come to learn is that two fundamental things changed for marketing:  data acquisition and automated targeting.

Understanding the customer is paramount to successful targeting and engagement. Without gathering data on how our clients behave during the discovery and buyers’ journey, it becomes very difficult to build great experiences. GDPR data acquisition regulations has limited our ability to gather behavioral or path-to-purchase data. Path-to-purchase data gathering facilitates digital ad targeting and re-targeting. While harvesting data is more difficult, it’s not impossible. 

The big shift is in requiring consent.

Is requiring consent such a bad thing? I would argue no, but we’ll come back to that.

GDPR has restricted automated decision-making – meaning using algorithms to drive inferences and targeting ads. Human involvement in these decision inferences was required for EU citizens after May 2018.

The crux of the problem with limiting use of automated ad targeting is that consumers are more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalized experiences.  Customers have come to expect better digital experiences when interacting with brands.

So what does that mean for marketers?

First of all – it means we have to ask for permission. Second of all – it means we need to rethink the type of data we gather and how best to use the data to deliver better experiences for our clients. It requires us to be more thoughtful in the data collection process and truly understand our customers and prospects.

Many are still struggling how to do this well. Here are some ways to think about that:

1.      Start with simple permission-based demographic data pulled from form / databases. This can be solved by updating forms and adding cookie-tracking agreements to sites in the form of pop-ups.

2.      Shift campaign builds from behavioral to contextual by playing with content and product placement.  Amazon has mastered this skill. 35% of Amazon’s conversions are powered by their recommendation engine because they create unique, hyper-personalized experiences for each consumer.

As marketers, we know the importance of getting data right. Not only when it comes to getting content in the hands of the right buyer or proving ROI, but also how to humanize our branding efforts. 

As the data available grows, so does our responsibility to use it appropriately, especially in the era of data privacy legislation like GDPR.

Let’s talk a little about Asking for Permission – and what it means for marketers.

I’m sure you’ve heard of Seth Godin’s book Permission Marketing.   Interestingly GDPR is essentially forcing marketers to adopt the philosophies he discusses – Be Polite and Ask First – And then Market only to the people – who want to be marketed to.

This might seem like basics, but here comes the hard part – actually using this data!  Studying it, analyzing it, and then crafting a highly targeted and personalized strategy that maps back to a marketing campaign is no easy feat. But when done well, it’s powerful.

Here’s a great example of curating experiences using data. Do you know the IKEA catalog that used to come in the mail once a year? It was about 200 pages and included nearly every piece of stock IKEA had. But, what’s the ROI on this campaign after factoring in costs? How can you track it? You can’t. Unless someone calls and says: I saw this sofa in the catalog and I’d like to place an order.

IKEA converted the print catalog to Pinterest. To give the catalog a longer' shelf life,' they created a shoppable version that used a product questionnaire build directly into Pinterest to learn the user's preferences to build personalized user boards or recommendations for boards and specific products.

This is an excellent example of a company using data responsibly to provide customers with what they are looking for. It's also a great lesson in automation while still keeping the customer engaged. The customer feels understood while IKEA can leverage automation to aggregate its product line and serve what the customer needs in its typical, useful and functional style. 

As challenging as GDPR has been, it opens doors for a lot of opportunity – particularly in building more transparency and putting the customer experience front and center. It challenged us to think creatively on how to deepen customer relationships and re-evaluate what content was being put out. Frankly, it cut out a lot of fluff and clutter, eliminating bad actors with it.

By adopting a first-party collection and measurement system, you're asking customers and prospects directly for their consent to collect and use their data, rather than a third-party collection. This allows you to have a deeper understanding of your customers as individuals, a greater ability to segment them, easier compliance, and more confidence in data accuracy.