In modern digital marketing, personal data is a critical resource for generating profits. After all, this information is what allows organisations to create automated, tailored experiences that win customers.

However, a dangerous mindset of entitlement has grown as a result of this data boom. Too often, organisations view people’s data as an asset to be owned, bought, and sold. They’re careless in how they collect and store this information. They exploit intimate details about people’s lives to make money, with little thought of the repercussions their actions have on those people.

We believe it’s time for organisations to ask themselves some fundamental questions about the data they collect on their customers. It’s not only whether they are protecting the data they collect or complying with laws like the Data Protection Act 2018 or General Data Protection Regulation. It needs to go further than that.

We need to remember the people behind the data. To recognise that the purpose of gathering all this information is to improve how these people experience our brand. We need to shift our mindset away from being data "owners" towards being data custodians.

No, You Don’t Own People’s Data

As defined in the Cambridge dictionary, a custodian is:

“a person with responsibility for protecting or taking care of something or keeping something in good condition.”

This definition beautifully encapsulates how we, as organisations, should approach data collection, management, and use.

Organisations don’t own customer data. Period. Even if someone clicks “OK” saying that we can use their data, this doesn’t grant us free-reign with it. We’re not entitled to someone’s personal information. We need to respect that it’s a valuable resource that people entrust into our care. This entails meeting customer expectations that the data they share will be used to improve their overall customer experience.

But just because we don’t “own” this data doesn’t mean we’re not responsible for it. The information we track online can reveal a lot about an individual – their buying habits, finances, political leanings, location, travel plans, family, etc. Our customers face having their information exploited or held hostage in the inevitable event of a data breach. Behaving otherwise is deeply unethical, will erode consumer trust in your brand, and likely result in legal action against your business.

People Are Taking Control of Their Information.

Surveys around the world show that trust in government, the media, companies, etc., has rapidly eroded over the past few years. Moreover, customers are becoming more powerful and are pushing for greater control over their digital lives. The confluence of these two trends has resulted in legislative change like the data protection regulation GDPR.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) caught public interest in 2018, casting a large spotlight on data protection. Countries around the world have been following suit in implementing data sovereignty rules. For instance, Brazil recently enacted its own data protection law, Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados(LGPD). Even in the US, which has long held a laissez-faire approach towards data collection, a growing number of states have put data regulations in place.

The GDPR has had widespread effects across different industries, particularly around the general experience of marketing. While the first year was somewhat of a grace period, data protection officers made an example of some large violators – most notably, British Airways, Marriott, Google, and Facebook.

Understandably, many firms and in-house marketing teams are nervous about inflicting penalties on their clients or themselves by accident. Or they’re concerned how they’ll operate effectively with increased oversight. According to a 2019 survey of US digital marketers, 52.8% of respondents worry that government regulation/threat of regulation may impede their ability to derive value from data-driven marketing initiatives.

However, the opposite is true. Laws like the GDPR mean that organisations can no longer blindly spam people without consequence. Rather, it forces them to be effective marketers who create targeted campaigns that get people engaged with their brand. And it’s these types of marketing initiatives that generate value – not underhanded tactics that create a bad experience.

According to a survey of UK consumers by DMA, 62% responded they felt more comfortable sharing their data with organisations with these laws in place. Another survey, by Marketing Week, found that 31% of consumers felt their overall experience with companies had improved as a result of the GDPR. Moreover, nearly half (48%) said they now understood their rights around how their personal data is used.

We’re excited to see that data control and ownership is might shift further in favour of individuals. Every ethical business should have an ethical data policy. Organisations that tend towards data exploitation tend towards exploitative behaviour of people, institutions and resources. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, has a new project that puts people more in control of their data, who uses it, and how. Called Solid (Social Linked Data), people will have their own data pod which they can control. Apps will save data in the user’s own data pod rather than on their own systems. It’s early days, but it could create an opportunity for conversations around how data can be used to increase relevance and improve customer experience, whilst allowing individual people to decide for themselves the right balance of privacy vs. personalisation.

Use Personal Data to Improve Customer Service

All of this underscores the point that organisations need to demonstrate compelling consumer-centric value around their data collection as part of their B2B digital marketing strategy. We need to show that the data we have about customers is actually being used to help those customers. This is the only way to create trusted data relationships with them. To start:

Find fresh ways of delighting customers with the data you already have.

An enormous amount of data we collect remains stored in virtual warehouses without ever being used. Or, when put to use, it’s for business-centric goals, like more efficiently targeting people at a lower cost. Go back through what you have already collected and look at it through a customer-centric lens. You will uncover new insights for ways to delight your customers with the data they’ve already entrusted to you.

Explore how you can enhance value for the customer in a broader context.

Harness the potential of data by shifting from a narrow transactional focus to thinking about how to enhance the entire customer experience. Offering proactive data insights – such as purchase recommendations or content suggestions – requires using personal information in an ever-changing context. But, when done correctly, you further the relationship by helping customers attain more value from your product or service long after closing the sale. What is key is asking permission, providing a relevant experience for the individual customer, and requesting feedback.

Use data to improve customer experience through personalisation.

Customers are far more willing to share more data when they know you will use it for their benefit. According to the DMA, 57% of respondents in the UK were pro-personalisation in some form. Use the data you collect to tailor your offerings and respond to the unique and developing needs of individual customers. Apply this information towards improving the customer experience across your website, email campaigns, social media advertising, sales team, etc.

Explain how you will use someone’s data.

People’s level of comfort with sharing data for marketing depends on the data being collected. They also need to trust that you won’t use or sell their personal data in ways they might find objectionable. Be clear about what type of information your collecting and its role in creating a good customer experience. Don’t just rely on a data protection policy notice to educate customers. Spread this information by word of mouth, as you talk with clients. This honesty and focus on customer satisfaction will earn you customer loyalty.

Create Data Protection and Privacy in Your Organisation

A customer-centric approach towards data helps provide rich, real-time insights so you can deliver greater value to your audience. It also means developing appropriate privacy controls around data storage and automation to preserve customer confidence and protect your brand. However, starting the journey towards data custodianship does not require an expensive infrastructure overhaul. Here are some basic, cost-effective ways to help your organisation get started:

Create a data policy committee

Bring together internal stakeholders to review (or create) your organisation’s data policies and make key enforcement decisions. The goal is to improve policy to better serve your customers and create a culture of data accountability.

At a minimum, make sure to include leaders from marketing & sales, customer care, design, engineering, legal, security, and IT. This diverse membership is necessary since different parts of your business will need to access and use data in different ways.

Furthermore, the idea of data security can take on multiple shapes, depending on someone’s background. A committee whose members all share the same life experience and world view will inevitably overlook some important considerations. There are numerous examples of where a seemingly harmless data management decision resulted in the targeting of marginalised groups. Ensuring that you have a diverse data policy committee can help overcome these blind spots.

Use data accountability reports

As part of building a data custodian culture, encourage peer-accountability around personal data use by running a monthly or quarterly data access report. This report should list how many personal records each employee (or team) has accessed during that time. The point isn’t to shame anyone. Rather, it’s a tool to bring awareness and transparency to your team’s work habits regarding interaction with customer data.

Encourage less data access

Being a good data custodian doesn’t mean avoiding data altogether. Rather, it means only accessing personal data when necessary. Encourage this mindset by celebrating teams that find ways to operate effectively with less frequent access to personal data. Invite them to showcase their strategy to other teams and have brainstorming sessions to generate even more ideas. For example, how are they avoiding the need for data access? What tools and techniques are they using? Should something become best practice? These kinds of discussions reinforce to your employees that they should be proactive about good data management.

Have guidelines for processing of personal data

The reality is that there will be times when you need to analyse personal data and share results. For instance, providing data-driven insights in a white paper so customers can make a more informed purchase decision. Just make sure you analyse this information responsibly by using broad sets of anonymised data.

Aggregated and anonymised personal information can still reveal the valuable insights you need while ensuring customer privacy. Moreover, it demonstrates how you handle data privacy, which can encourage prospects to trust you with their own information.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

As a marketer, we like GDPR and advocate for people to take data protection seriously. After all, every one of us is also a consumer. As industry insiders, we know exactly how the traces we leave online can reveal private aspects of our lives. As such, we have a responsibility to safeguard and use the data we collect for the benefit of our customers.

Contact the experts at 1827 Marketing to learn more about building data-accountable marketing strategies.