The real effect of online privacy measures

In May of this year a new privacy law was introduced within the European Union, the so-called “Cookie law”. I remember thinking of the possible consequences for the rapid development of user tracking for both analytical purposes as well as for remarketing purposes. Now, half a year later, not so much appeared to have changed. But truth is, I never anticipated much change. All of us know that it are the “less digital natives” who are concerned for their privacy most. So it never has been about changing the technique, but about changing segmentation strategies, or more bluntly put, about putting more effort in thinking your marketing strategy through.

I myself had to do the same thing. First questioned I raised was whether there might be a correlation between “fear of privacy infringement” and “online buying behavior”. Let me assume for a moment that there is a significant correlation. Through some deductive reasoning I could quite well come up with some strong arguments that make it plausible that this correlation is negative (hence higher fear results in less buying). For example, those people with high fear of privacy levels are skeptical about leaving personal details with a non-visible online organization, require relatively more trust indicators and are likely to have a below average online conversion rate. If this is your target group, one might wonder whether you should try to lure visitors through retargeting campaigns all together. Offline marketing methods or focus on direct one-to-one communication methods (e-mail) might yield better results.

Within the same line of reasoning I could very well come up with arguments supporting my notion that less fear of privacy infringement leads to higher online buying behavior. These consumers are experienced online shoppers, don’t need as much assurance and feel confident enough to share personal details to get their order shipped out to them. They might even use Twitter to look up product reviews, and ask product related questions at expert fora to gain more knowledge. With this image in mind, do you think these users will be distracted by retargeted campaigns? Or feel insecure about the fact that the online vendor might track their browsing behavior through the web shop? I for one think that many of these users will appreciate the targeted ads, its contents are relevant, shown options might add to the consideration set and one doesn’t feel obliged or pressured to convert as much as one does when talked to within a brick and mortar.

Admitted, this is a very generic distinction between two types of users purely based on age. To actually be effective you might want to poll your users for their view on privacy related matters. And while you’re on it, ask them for some likely influential demographics. Use findings to categorize your visitors, use visualizations to shape a recognizable image of the segment at hand and set marketing campaigns accordingly.

Such a strategy formulation touches upon multi-channel marketing, and most ideally might even entail some customer journey mapping. Two activities most likely conducted within the organization, but with new variables added to the equation.

XG.