Why You Need to Include Data Privacy in Your Marketing Plan

It’s no secret that marketers love data. A data-driven approach makes it possible to hyper personalise campaigns and messages, tailor content specifically for your target audience, and accurately correlate marketing spend with results. However, data proliferation comes with a dark side that increasingly confronted marketers with – data privacy. But what does data privacy mean?

What is Data Privacy?

Data privacy refers to the policies and processes that govern how your business collects, shares, and uses data. Here are three primary concerns about securing data:

1. Data collection and storage practices of companies.
2. Who gets access to consumer data?
3. Laws governing privacy such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), etc.

In case you want to know more about these laws handling privacy, here are some of them:

• General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR): Regulations the collection, storage, and processing of personal information of EU (European Union) data subjects, meaning individuals, as well as gives them control over personal information (including their right to be forgotten).
• California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): Provides consumers with information about what personal data is collected and regulates the use and distribution of that information.
• National data protection laws: Many countries, including Canada, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and others, have comprehensive laws about data protection.

Mishandling consumer data is increasingly illegal, but betraying consumer privacy and trust is also bad for business. Collecting more data than necessary can harm a brand’s reputation. In maintaining data privacy, we must get proper consent from our audience and be transparent about how we will collect and use their data.

Importance of Data Privacy

Across the world, data protection laws aim to give individuals control over their data and empower them to know how, by whom, and for what purpose they are being used, giving them control over how their personal data is processed and used.

According to Invoca’s 2020 State of Data-Driven Marketing Report, 64% of marketing executives strongly agree that data-driven marketing has become a necessary component of marketing today. Here are some of the key points why data matters to every marketer:

• Through data-driven marketing, businesses can bring consistency to their messaging, content, and overall strategy.
• Personalised and targeted advertising is more effective.
• It made measurement and optimisation possible with data.

Not using data will have less dire consequences. Your customers are likely to get annoyed, and you risk falling behind your more data-savvy competitors. Integrating marketing with data is an obvious step. Keeping up with data privacy laws and regulations is just as important, if not more so, than leveraging customer data.

Why Should you Include Data Privacy in your Marketing Plan?

In case it’s not included yet in your marketing plan. Here are significant reasons you should start including it:

#1 It Matters to Your Target Audience

Research, purchases, shopping, social media, etc., are all ways consumers share information online. Many of them subscribe to newsletters and email campaigns. However, consumers are wary of businesses that sell their personal information without their consent.

If your target audience visits your website, they will consider their privacy when handing over their details. Let them know your business values their privacy and ensures their data is safe. As the business owner, ask yourself: How do you ensure their data is safe?

#2 It is Important to Your Brand

Building a trustworthy brand comes from valuing data privacy. You should not just acknowledge data privacy on your website’s terms and conditions page; you should incorporate it into all your interactions daily. Data privacy can affect a brand’s reputation. Keeping user privacy protected will allow you to drive more revenue and win more customers.

Remember, in growing your business, trust is the core reason your target audience can be converted into a sale. They trust you for your work because they know that their information is safe with your business.

#3 It’s Vital for Business Growth

Usually, companies view data protection as a protective measure. It is one of your best strategic opportunities. By protecting your customers’ data, your business can grow. The growing number of devices has resulted in a lot of concern over data privacy. Every device on the market is being connected to the internet. As a result, privacy breaches are becoming more and more of a concern.

For small businesses, this is the best opportunity. Even large companies can take advantage of it. Privacy and trust are two of the most important value propositions.

After knowing and understanding how important data privacy is, here are some tips on how to secure your data:

• Use a strong and secure password.
• Create different passwords for each of your social media accounts.
• Change your passwords regularly.
• Avoid logging into social media accounts using public computers or a friend’s phone.
• Be cautious when using public wireless networks to access your social media accounts. Whenever possible, use a virtual private network (VPN).
• Try to avoid using shared or public devices to log in to your social media accounts.
• It’s best to not click on social media links, even if they were sent to you by a friend.
• Protect your social media information and other information on your devices by using password protection or 2 Factor Authenticator (2FA)

Data privacy has become more important than ever in the 21st century. Consumers are concerned with the security of their data. People do not want their data to be sold to companies. Therefore, they want a company that respects their privacy. In most cases, terms and conditions are just a written statement. In reality, it could seriously affect your reputation.

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