An important aspect of our digital marketing world, consumer privacy. Let’s talk about the upcoming changes and trends ( Speaking of trends: Top 9 Digital Marketing Trends for 2020) that you need to know about as a business.

84% of customers are more loyal to companies with strong security controls

Source: Salesforce

In this article, we’ll go over why it’s important to respect privacy and create an environment of trust for your audience, especially with technology getting more advanced and clever. Let’s see what we’re up against in 2020!

Data Privacy as a High Priority

To often we see headlines once in a while in the news, high-profile data breaches. Consumers are far more aware of their data privacy today than ever before and with this awareness, people are choosing businesses that emphasize high standards towards data privacy.

63% of customers say most companies aren’t transparent about how their data is used

Source: Salesforce

What you can do as a business is to stay as transparent as possible. This creates an open dynamic between the customer and you. Prioritizing data privacy should be something to invest in today as these are the businesses today that will stand out in 2020. Gaining public trust and becoming more data-conscious go hand in hand today and will help you ROI grow. Why? More trust in how you handle your business, will keep your clients coming back for more.

Innovation through Personal Data Solutions

One strong belief we can all agree with is that customers should be able to control personal data that they share and how organizations use it. This comes from the recent study that shows people don’t trust businesses with their personal data.

Ultimately, regulations provide the details of what control should exist. It’s the organization’s responsibility to provide these options when and if requested by the customers. Innovators are looking to change the game in the future by allowing customers to act and not just file requests. Cut out the middle man and create a greater sense of transparency.

84% of respondents indicated that they care about privacy, care for their own data, care about the data of other members of society, and they want more control over how their data is being used. Of this group, 80% also said they are willing to act to protect it

Source: Cisco

Some companies have already taken the steps to apply these innovations into their apps. As a consequence, bigger companies have already announced that their apps won’t store customer’s real email address. Instead, they will create unique company generated proxy emails for each customer.

This technology and ideas are already being applied in banking situations ( transfer of funds ) and even phone communications. And this is just the beginning.

Centralized Data

Keeping information safely locked up is crucial to protecting your brand reputation. Consider integrating your analytics with media functions. Not only will this make things far more efficient for you, it’ll help build trust among your audience.

81% of respondents feel as if they have little or no control over the data collected

Source: Pew Research Center

As marketers, it’s a good idea to control your data and minimize any risks associated with your brand or consumers. This means creating a role for a data protection overseer within your team to keep and manage data assets. If you’re not okay with an individual approach you can always create a team within your business who are trained in keeping your data centralized and secure.

Adapt To Regulations

Businesses need to integrate and adapt to the latest regulations at sometimes impressive speeds. The thing is, legislation related to privacy and data collection are being introduced all the time. Unfortunately, most failed and never got anywhere.

Researchers are showing that 2020 this trend is looking to turn around. More efforts for legislation will succeed and consumer data privacy regulations will be enabled by more countries around the world. Ultimately, addressing new regulations on a one-by-one basis won’t cut it anymore.

107 countries (of which 66 were developing or transition economies) have put in place legislation to secure the protection of data and privacy. In this area, Asia and Africa show a similar level of adoption, with less than 40% of countries having a law in place

Source: UN

Developing methods and applying them to your data privacy strategy will be all about flexibility. This will always give you an edge on the market. Your brand will be at the forefront of keeping your clients information safe. Brand reputation will rise and you’ll have more time to focus on increasing sales ( Check out : Video Sales Funnel Success) and driving traffic!

Conclusion

In the end, our digital marketing world revolves around data. Lots and lots of data. As a serious business it’s your duty to provide a comfortable environment for your audience. Therefore, handling and processing data accordingly will help your brand and build a positive reputation.

Put yourself in the shoes of the customer and invest in customer privacy. It’s obvious that times are changing, and so are regulations. It’s time to adapt and integrate with the latest strategies to ensure that you’re staying ahead of the curve!