Consumers value how businesses are using their personal information. And businesses are coming to terms with how best to handle data privacy when using customers’ personal data has been a gold mine in creating highly customized, targeted campaigns in recent years.
Attorney Sharon Toerek, founder of Toerek Law, who practices intellectual property and marketing law, shares three critical keys to have in place before running a digital marketing campaign.
1. Know the source of your customer data
How did you obtain your customer information? Businesses should be cautious before they run marketing campaigns; they need to know exactly where their data came from, e.g., sales team at trade shows, sales team calls, customer referrals, lead magnets, website contact forms, etc. You need to know where the data is from before you use it.
2. Ensure your third-party vendors understand data privacy laws
Make certain you know the marketing agency or contractors with whom you are working and that they know and understand all the data privacy regulations and have processes in place to be compliant with them.
3. Have a proactive plan to respond to data privacy requests
You want to be ready to respond quickly when a consumer contacts you to exercise one of their rights under the data privacy rules.
Toerek shares: “It’s having policies and procedures in place to respond when a consumer reaches out to you and says “Hey, ABC Company, I want to know what data you have collected” or “Hey, ABC company, I want you to delete all my data.”
“For example, it could be having a privacy communication page on your website like a privacy document center with your policy and contact information for a consumer to use when they want to get in touch with the brand,” adds Toerek.
Coming to terms with data privacy laws
As more and more states enact regulations and the environment in which businesses operate becomes stricter on data privacy, i.e., enforced with fines, the days of tracking your target audience’s every move online (through cookies and other tracking technologies) may be numbered, especially for third-party marketers and contractors. Personalization may become more and more difficult. Businesses are already rethinking data-driven marketing analytics, moving from micro-level data to macro-level and understanding their audiences’ needs and behaviors as a whole. Some are even finding ways to use artificial intelligence for aggregate behavioral data modeling.
What this all boils down to is being transparent about the data you are collecting, storing, managing and sharing and using that information in a morally responsible way. That has been “the story” from the beginning of time…businesses offering the right message to the right audience at the right time.
If you need help with that, reach out to us at helloindy@westcomm.com or follow us on LinkedIn for more insights. If you have questions about marketing law or need legal assistance, you can contact Sharon Toerek on LinkedIn or at legalandcreative.com.
