For years, marketers have been using third-party cookies as a way to better understand and track their target audience. But all of that is about to change, thanks to the cookie blocking rules being implemented by major internet browsers including Google, Firefox, and Safari.

Consumers have grown tired of unknown entities tracking their behavior across the web without their knowledge or consent and, therefore, demands from consumers for more privacy surrounding the use of their personal data have grown stronger.  This has resulted in increased privacy regulation (GDPR, CCPA, etc.) which have forced the ad tech ecosystem to update their approach. While Firefox and Safari have already permanently blocked third-party cookies, the biggest blow to marketers came when Google announced it would also be phasing out third-party cookies and alternate identifiers on Google Chrome due to these privacy concerns. 

As a quick refresher, third-party cookies work by collecting data from website visitors which allows companies to track their behavior around the internet, even after they leave a website. These cookies have been critical to helping marketers understand their target audience behaviors and how to bring back their potential customers with targeted display advertising.

First-party data, on the other hand, is the data collected directly from visitors to your own website. It includes data volunteered by your prospects such as contact information like email, phone number and address (also referred to as zero party data). Consumer data given directly to the brand with consent is true marketing gold. While this first-party information is very valuable, it offers a narrower view of consumer behavior, tracking only visitor activity on the advertiser’s website, rather than across the web.

So, how can marketers plan for the loss of this behavioral data when Google fully blocks third-party cookies and alternate identifiers in 2022?

Since marketers will no longer be able to compile data via cookies from third-party sites – and considering that their retargeting efforts will also be considerably diminished by cookie blocking, marketers will have to uncover new strategies to learn about and re-engage their audience.

Marketers must embrace strategies that put the consumer in control of their data
The consumer privacy trends are pretty clear: Each new law grants consumers more control over their data. Ultimately, we’re all consumers, so we should respect that this is a good thing. As marketers, why fight it? We must get ahead of the trends and adopt strategies to succeed in this new environment.

Capturing first party data with explicit consumer consent will be the best way to engage prospects in the future.   

As Marnie Levan, Maybelline’s VP of Integrated Consumer Communications, recently said, “Personal data that somebody is opting to give us is better quality information than making assumptions based on who visits the website or goes to a makeup foundation page, and then we retarget them.”  Ideally, marketers only reach out to consumers who have given their prior express written consent to be contacted. There is no better quality of data than that which is voluntarily given with consent. We refer to this practice as “consent-based marketing”. 

Consent-based marketing respects the rights of consumers and fosters a closer one-to-one relationship between the advertiser and consumer — one that’s founded on trust and transparency. Creating direct relationships with consumers can also help advertisers learn and solicit information about customer preferences with accurate first party data – not inferred behavioral data. If done correctly, consent-based marketing can be a very cost-effective and scalable channel for pulling in new customers from across the web.

First-party data is great, but let’s face it: acquiring it at scale is really hard.

After all, your own website offers only a limited opportunity for collecting first-party data. For example, a consumer packaged good company might want to engage in a direct-to-consumer relationship with their customers utilizing first-party data. Companies often try to leverage loyalty programs for this purpose. However, their target customers typically have no reason to visit their website. Marketers must go to where these consumers are online to establish the initial relationship. 

Working with partners is essential for scaling consent-based marketing campaigns to capture first-party data.

As great as your site might be, it will never have the traffic of a media site. Face it: If you want to engage with consumers online, you have to meet them where they are, such as major ad platforms like Facebook and Google. Both Facebook and Google offer Lead Ad products that allow you to capture first-party data with consent from the consumer directly within these platforms. Other platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok also offer these types of ad units. These ad units are more cost-effective at capturing first-party data than trying to drive the consumer directly to your own website.

In addition to the major ad platforms, there are hundreds of specialized media companies that generate first-party data / opt-in leads for specific categories. Think LendingTree for mortgages, Everquote for insurance, and HomeAdvisor for home services as examples. The ActiveProspect platform allows marketers to directly access and integrate with these companies for real-time data capture. This makes it easy for advertisers to capture new opt-ins from any lead source across the web and deliver them directly into their marketing automation platform to take action on that data right away — no third-party cookies needed! 

How do we target potential audiences without cookies?

Lookalike Audiences are another key to the cookie-less future. Many great media partners that target consumers based on email address use lookalike audiences on Facebook to find prospects similar to their current customers and continue acquisition optimization. But without third-party cookies, targeting lookalike profiles will also be harder to create — unless you’re using a platform like ActiveProspect. 

With our Lookalike Audience solution, you can include the lifetime value of your clients or leads to create a value-based Lookalike Audience. That audience will then be made up of the people most similar to your highest value customers, while a regular Lookalike Audience can find people similar to all your clients/leads, enabling you to focus on an audience similar to the clients who spend more money in the long run.

Looking ahead to a future without third-party cookies can seem overwhelming to marketers, but this evolution is necessary for the increasing privacy demands from our consumers. By embracing first-party data, audience syncing, and new partnerships, marketers will be able to create more one-on-one relationships with their audience and, therefore, have the ability to remarket to them in a way that restores their privacy and gains new trust.

The post In A Cookie-Less Future, Marketers Need First-Party Data – Here’s How To Get It appeared first on ActiveProspect.

Imagine you send a brand new discount offer to your existing customer base via text message as part of a new campaign. You expect some high conversion rates through this exciting new marketing channel, and at worst, a few unsubscribes.

Now, fast forward to a few months later. Suddenly, you’re hit with a $10 million fine for sending that very text message.

Why?

In this blog, we’ll explain why every D2C marketer using SMS messaging for marketing communications should be aware of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and how to take every precaution to avoid costly litigation with protected SMS outreach efforts.

Over the past decade, Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) marketers have used email outreach to offer their customers and prospects promotions, discounts and alerts for new products. While email has become a successful marketing channel, its growing popularity has also created some issues. With nearly every D2C brand using email to communicate to their customers, inboxes are getting flooded daily – making it harder to get opens and stand out from the crowd. Additionally, marketing emails often don’t provide an opportunity for a two-way dialogue with consumers, which makes it more difficult to get feedback on their wants and needs from your brand. To increase the efficiency of your marketing emails, consider following DMARC policy to maintain a high level of security.

Luckily, there’s another marketing channel that solves all of these problems and creates opportunities previously untapped: SMS messaging.

Why SMS is the retail marketer’s next goldmine

As consumers grow more attached to their phone and bored of crammed inboxes, SMS has created a unique new opportunity for marketers. After all, the average person spends a whopping four hours per day on their mobile device and checks their phone over 150 times per day. Not only are consumers spending more time on their phones, but it’s also increasingly their preferred method of communication: More than 75% of consumers say they prefer to receive promotions via text messages than while browsing the internet or social channels. Consumer trends also show that they respond much more quickly to texts than email – 90 seconds compared to 90 minutes, respectively.

Source: Chatitive.

The variety of use cases for SMS are abundant. Texts can be used for a wide range of marketing purposes, from new user acquisition and remarketing and reengagement promotions, to creating a two-way dialogue between the brand and customers that builds stronger relationships. Ecommerce brands can even use texts to remind customers of abandoned shopping carts and increase conversions.

Teams route that reminder through an ecommerce purchase handoff so the link reopens the cart and keeps the payment step consistent.

The Catch to SMS: Potential TCPA Violations

Unfortunately, there is a danger to SMS outreach that D2C brands must be vigilant in preventing: Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) violations. TCPA legislation requires prior, express written consent for marketers to contact consumers via auto dialer or text message – an increasingly difficult challenge for D2C marketers looking to take advantage of the SMS channel.

Whether you’ve already entered into SMS outreach or are simply considering it, it’s important to be aware of the hefty fines you can incur if not appropriately documenting proof of consent. If a consumer files a complaint, the TCPA states that the burden of proof is on the advertiser. Even consumers who have previously opted in to your brand’s communications may forget and attempt a lawsuit. TCPA violations can cost anywhere from $500 to $1,500 per text. For example, if a business sent 10 text messages to one consumer, there is a potential statutory fine of $5,000 to a single consumer if they can prove a willful TCPA violation. These fines can increase even further if there are class action claims – which are increasingly being sought out by “professional TCPA plaintiffs” who offer consumers settlement shares if they bring violations to their attention through websites like these.

Big names from across the D2C industry have been hit for not taking the proper precautions in their SMS outreach. After sending unsolicited text messages with a discount offer to thousands of customers, Jiffy Lube was hit with a $47 million fine. American Eagle sent over 600,000 text messages to cell phones without consent, or after the recipient had opted out of future messages, resulting in a TCPA class action suit. In the end, American Eagle had to pay $14.5 million for its violation. Pizza Hut paid out $6 million in a settlement for sending out similar unsolicited texts, and Steve Madden paid out a class action settlement for $10 million after it sent text messages promoting a holiday sale on footwear and other products.

To help D2C marketers avoid these lawsuits and hefty settlements, ActiveProspect developed TrustedForm as the original lead certification product. It works by generating a unique certificate for each customer or prospect that is stored with each record, and includes a video replay of the prospect engaging with the web form. TrustedForm is considered the highest standard for documenting proof of TCPA consent for both outbound calls and text messages. With its video replay, marketers can easily pull the URL with video playback to dismiss a potential lawsuit before it ever becomes a problem.

SMS outreach – done with the proper TCPA precautions in place – shows incredible promise as a marketing channel in the D2C space. At ActiveProspect, our platform works to help D2C marketers take advantage of all outreach channels in a safe, cost-efficient, and scalable way.

To learn more, reach out to our D2C experts today!

The post How Retail Brands Can Take Advantage of Booming SMS Outreach – Safely appeared first on ActiveProspect.