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Are the days of the cookie numbered?
Cookies have long been the power behind the ability to track your customers’ web activity. But with this power comes great responsibility, and not all companies seem to get it right. Especially when it comes to personalisation and ads.
This has paved the way for a new approach to collecting your customer information. Introducing: zero-party data.
Unlike third-party data, which is passively collected and shared along the web through third party cookies, zero-party data is information that is exclusively shared by consumers themselves.
This allows your website visitors to keep a hold over their data, as well as allowing for companies to offer far more effective personalisation.
So where does this leave your digital marketing and more specifically, your website visitor tracking tool?
What is zero-party data?
Unlike third-party data, zero-party data is exclusive information that is intentionally shared and collected as a result of your website visitors directly interacting with your site or digital marketing in some way.
This means third-party companies can’t make inferences about them dependent on their browsing history. So as a digital marketer, how do you leverage the benefits of data-driven marketing without making any privacy faux pas? You can find the answer in zero-party data.
To collect zero-party data, you’ll notice many brands have started using questionnaire tactics such as polls, quizzes and interactive social media posts to collect explicitly opt-in data.
In doing so, they’ve automatically bagged highly specific insights into their consumer’s preferences. And the best bit? The consumer knows about it.
This will offer customers tighter control and greater transparency into how, when and where their data is being used, whilst also giving companies access to useful demographics to ensure personalised offers can be targeted safely.
As you start to think more and more about data and cookies, it’s important to remember that the problem with cookies isn’t the levels of personalisation is offers. It’s the lack of respect for consumer privacy.
In fact, you’ll see that your customers are happy to receive product offers that accurately match their needs, that is good marketing after all.
They just don’t want their data to become trapped in the merky depths of the world wide web and then plastered all over every site they browse on thereafter. I mean, we’ve all had a few embarrassing online shopping stories haven’t we…
The future of data
Luckily for you, zero-party data is already all around us. And it’s here to stay.
The demand for a transparent and secure user experience is increasingly rising, yet expectations for that tailored buying experience isn’t waning.
So what happens when the cookie is cancelled?
The good news is that the demise of cookies is in relation to third-party cookies and the data they collect. You know those annoying ads that pop up everywhere after you’ve been having a nosey online?
They’re invasive and infringing on data protection rights. So there’s no wonder people want them banished for good.
This sounds a little scary when you think about your digital prospecting, especially if you’re using tools like CANDDi that monitor a consumer’s journey across your site.
But fear not! Here at CANDDi, we’ve only ever used first-party cookies. That’s because we’ve always believed there’s no need to unnecessarily trace people’s clicks and swipes all over the internet.
Instead, we focus on gathering real, insightful data on the visitors of one website only, yours! This allows you to monitor visitor session activity, profile website visitors, map visitors across multiple platforms and refine your sales & marketing targets, all without an intrusive violation of your viewers privacy! Win win.
But how does in work? In practice, CANDDi has always used its own tracking code which is installed directly onto your website.
This includes two first-party cookies on a visitor’s machine and some _ CAN_Store_xxx _ cookies.
I know that just looks like my dog has trampled all over my keyboard, but the _ CAN_Store_xxx _ cookies are temporary cookies which CANDDi uses to ensure that the data which has been captured is recorded and transmitted to the CANDDi servers.
These cookies are deleted after a positive response is received from the CANDDi tracking servers. All of which complies with GDPR data protection.
These cookies are of course explicitly opt-in, too. So your website browsers will know exactly what they’ve let themselves in for. And if they don’t want to, no problem! They can continue browsing in virtual incognito mode.
If you’re not sure of the implications this has for you and your marketing, reach out to us at help@canddi.com for more information.
