What to Know About Customer Privacy and Marketing
Online businesses have found themselves in a tight and often difficult spot. They have to balance a sense of customer privacy with other various marketing objectives. There’s also not just general privacy to consider, but security as well.
While businesses may be using all of the most advanced security technology on their end, such as encryption and a vulnerability scanner to make sure they stay ahead of issues before they happen, is this something that’s felt by their customer? Does their customer feel like they’re being protected? If not, it can spell disaster in terms of marketing.
The following are some key things to keep in mind at the intersection of customer privacy and security and marketing.
Using Security Measures As Marketing
A lot of digital marketers may feel like they’re doing everything necessary regarding privacy and security, but they don’t necessarily need to share the details with their customers, but this isn’t the case.
Sharing the privacy and security measures and tools you’re using can be a marketing strategy. When people feel like you’re dedicated to protecting them, it builds a sense of trust and loyalty that’s tough to achieve in marketing.
Go ahead and let them know even the details of the measures you’re taking.
Cloud Storage
People want to know not just that you’re doing things to keep them secure when a transaction is being processed for example, but they also want to know what happens to their information once you’ve collected it. The idea of their valuable personal and financial data floating in an abyss somewhere isn’t one that’s reassuring, and it’s not necessarily and image you want to be associated with your brand.
Use security features like SSL to protect data transmissions when you receive customer information, and if you’re using cloud storage to keep that information, make sure you’re choosing an established provider with an excellent reputation.
You might want to opt for a cloud storage provider within your own jurisdiction because this will give you more options if there is a legal issue.
Testimonials
If you’re like most digital marketers, customer testimonials might be an important part of your overall strategy, but be careful here as well. First, make sure you have full permission from your customer to share their review in other places. You can handle this efficiently by including a clause in your Terms of Service or Privacy Policy.
Also, don’t take reviews from other sites like Yelp and use them on your own site. There are intellectual property issues that can arise from doing this.
You’re better off either including links in your marketing content to reviews on other sites or asking customers directly to provide you with a testimonial.
Marketing and privacy are two areas that are continuing to intersect with one another, and they can work well together if you’re smart with your approach. On the other hand, there are a lot of legal issues and gray areas online marketers need to be aware of so it’s important that this is an area you continue to educate yourself on.
……….
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
