Privacy and the difference between a delightful and invasive experience

We are in an era where personalization is the key to building strong relationships with our customers through truly relevant communications. When we talk about personalization, we must always keep in mind that we are dealing with our customers' data and that privacy is extremely important.

Marketers and legal departments of companies often believe that they are dealing with two opposing ideas: personalization and privacy. But in reality, these are only seemingly opposite concepts. It may not seem like it, but both concepts are not mutually exclusive—in fact, they are quite the opposite.

Consumers or online users are willing to use services or products that personalize the experience. Sharing our data doesn’t really pose a problem as long as the brand generates trust. Can you imagine Netflix without personalized recommendations?

To personalize, you must generate trust with your customer or user. Here are key points for generating trust:

1. Inform online users about what information you will collect, how you will collect it, and why you are collecting it.
2. Give online users the option to choose how their information will be used.
3. If you share information with third parties, inform your online users, explain how it will be done, and let them choose.
4. Assure your users that you have the appropriate mechanisms to protect their information against any attempts at data theft, accidental loss, or unauthorized use.

What data can we use for content and communication personalization?

When working on personalizing communications or content, there are different types of data to use. Here are the three levels of information to collect and utilize:

• Anonymous information: This is the information generated when visiting a website without using any additional technology, meaning it is the standard information sent when browsing a webpage. This includes the IP address, web browser, operating system, device type, language, or local time.
• Non-identifiable personal information: This refers to information that, on its own, cannot identify a user. This type of information can be requested directly from the user (such as age, date of birth, education, gender, or hobbies) or automatically generated through browsing or cookies. In both cases, it does not identify the user but allows for creating a more complete profile.
• Personally identifiable information: Now we refer to information that allows us to unmistakably identify a user. This includes email, name, address, phone number, credit card, or ID number. This information is always provided by the user, either when signing up or making a purchase.

Psychologically, there is a big difference between personalization when you have already purchased or are a user of a platform versus when you have not yet shared any data with that company or website.

When browsing on a computer or mobile device, we react similarly to how we do in real life. This example will clarify what I mean:

Use common sense to avoid creating invasive situations

A marketing campaign can be delightful or invasive, depending on the context. Imagine being in a physical store with a charming salesperson helping you find what you need. Now, imagine that same salesperson shows up at your home at 10 PM to recommend a product. The situation goes from delightful to terrible. Only the context has changed.

In general, most customers prefer asynchronous communications, like email, over real-time communications like banner ads or push notifications. Look at these statistics. Can you draw any conclusions?

• 66% of customers appreciate an email about a product they have shown interest in.
• 24% of customers appreciate a banner ad about a product they have shown interest in.
• 50% of American consumers appreciate a welcome email.
• 34% of British consumers appreciate a welcome email.
• 52% of millennials expect brands to congratulate them on their birthdays.
• 21% of consumers over 65 years old expect brands to congratulate them on their birthdays.

With this data in mind, I’m unable to draw any clear conclusions. I also cannot identify a specific course of action. Actually, I can—one conclusion stands out: Ensure that I create a profile based on the personalization each customer desires. To be effective, we need to understand what kind of personalization each individual prefers.

Give your customers full control over their data

Customers must have full control over their data. Companies that give users control over their data come out ahead. Companies like Google and Amazon do this.

We have three ways to give customers or users control over their data:

1. Data editing: Allow the user to determine which data the company can use for recommendations, offering the option to delete part or even all of their purchase history.
2. Explain why: Explain to your user why you made a particular recommendation. This helps them understand why you think this communication is relevant to them. This trick helps users understand the recommendation and prevents it from seeming like a mistake.
3. Feedback loop: Allow the user to give feedback on recommendations, letting customers tell you whether the recommendation was good or bad. This way, artificial intelligence models will learn and make better recommendations in the future.

A clear example I’ve seen lately is how brands handle Father’s Day or Mother’s Day campaigns. Brands know these can be painful days for some people, and increasingly more brands are offering the option for customers to choose whether they want to receive communications during these specific days.

Remember this: A marketing campaign can be delightful, invasive, or disastrous, depending on the context of the situation.

You can start personalizing your marketing campaigns responsibly and profitably using predictive marketing techniques.