Collecting and Using Customer Information at the Correct Time
In the past, marketers could collect information and use it over and over again in perpetuity. In digital marketing, a prospect might join an email list, or submit a form to download a white paper and then end up receiving a wide variety of unrelated marketing for months or years afterward. To achieve privacy compliance, you will need to think differently about your approach.
How do you continue to grow your business and connect with customers? Start by understanding that privacy compliance recognizes a place for ongoing communication. For example, keeping customer data to fulfill technical support requests are unlikely to be a problem.
The more significant problem lies in customer and marketing lists. What if you have an extensive email list of people who signed up for an eBook? With new privacy and compliance regulations, it would not be wise to continuously contact them, especially regarding messages unrelated to the white paper. What’s the solution? One approach is to use content marketing techniques to connect your marketing assets and gather consent as you go.
Let’s illustrate how you could do this with a simple example.
- A prospect joins your email list to download a white paper.
- You can follow up to deliver the white paper and confirm they received it.
- Within the white paper, add links and calls to action to access other resources. For example, a white paper may explore a broad issue, such as privacy compliance. Within that white paper, you can include a call to action to sign up for a related offer, such as an Eloqua focused privacy compliance cheat sheet or self-assessment resource.
- The prospect opts in for the related asset, and now you can follow up with them on that point.
By using the above process, you can quickly show that a prospect has demonstrated an interest in finding out more and wants to hear from you.
While aspects of the book may be dated technically, the mindset and philosophy outlined in “Permission Marketing” by Seth Godin remain excellent. We often think about Godin’s directive: would your customers miss you if you stopped contacting them? Aim for that objective, and you are unlikely to have complaints.
Charting an Ongoing Course for Privacy and Compliance Updates
At this point, you have probably found more than a few holes in your privacy compliance program. What should you do next? There are two steps we recommend.
Complete A Privacy Compliance Self-Assessment
Go through each of the areas outlined in this eBook and rate your organization’s preparedness on a scale of 0 to 10, where ten is fully compliant. If you have more than two areas with a score under five, you have a strong need for additional support. Keep in mind that authorities have a track record of imposing significant fines for privacy mistakes and violations.
Request a free consultation with 4Thought Marketing
Our Privacy Compliance Consulting Services helps customers meet their regulatory obligations without sacrificing customer experience.
Depending on your needs, our experts can help define, build, and gain consensus for your privacy compliance strategy, assist with technology decisions, and manage your privacy project implementation. And we’ll keep you up to date with the latest privacy laws and regulations, including GDPR, CCPA, CASL, and more, everywhere you do business.
If you would like to get our entire eBook now, click here to download a copy of “Top 8 Privacy Compliance Topics for 2020.”
Contact Us if you would like more information on our privacy compliance products and services.
