How Apple's Privacy Changes Force Social Media Marketing to Evolve
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Direct-to-consumer businesses that previously relied heavily on Facebook (now Meta) as a way to target and advertise through social media are now beginning to take notice of Apple’s announcements of privacy policy changes. . These changes have upended the digital advertising strategy of hundreds of thousands of companies and forced these companies to find new paths to their coveted customers.
Some brands have remained loyal to Facebook and Instagram, but many others are making sharp changes to embrace more third-party and third-party data while turning to new social platforms for one-to-one connection-based marketing, like TikTok.
Apple, maker of the iPhone and iPad, has changed the way it handles the privacy of its users. Specifically, it now gives customers enhanced control over privacy settings, giving them more say in what personal data is provided to brands.
Big data-driven ads have helped companies target people on social platforms like Meta and Instagram, platforms that in the past could send messages to users possessing characteristics that indicated the messages and offers were likely to be from them. interest.
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Big Data, of course, is the process of buying data from a third-party vendor: collecting online activity, purchase history, social media content, and more to identify people who are potentially interested in what companies have to offer.
How are brands of all sizes changing their marketing?
But today, Apple’s privacy changes have made this process more difficult, leading more companies to seek alternative channels to send their marketing messages. Privacy aside, this twist isn’t all bad news for businesses, as these Big Data-driven ads were based on outdated or inaccurate data.
As a result, a growing group of brands are taking a more community-driven approach to building relationships and producing their own content on social platforms and blogs, while also working with smaller-scale influencers and returning to other ways.” traditional” marketing methods such as direct mail and email. These brands feel that engaging more with consumers on social media through direct messages is almost the opposite of the large-scale targeting of consumers they had previously employed through third-party lists. By taking a more personalized approach to each individual client, they can make a more lasting impression.
This pivot has helped companies take advantage of third-party data, which is information that a customer freely and intentionally shares with a brand they trust. You can include personal information such as preferencescomments, profile information, interests, consent and purchase intent.
The result is more trust, empowerment and control of data.
This step goes in the right direction in that customers should have more control of their data. The benefits of using zero-party data are as follows:
- It is exclusive to the brand and no other brand has the same data.
- It is the ultimate source of truth in that the customer provides their own insight, rather than the brand making assumptions based on big data.
- It is relationship-based, so it has a higher level of trust with the customer, which means the company needs to be transparent about its use of data and the relationship needs to be mutually beneficial.
Every communication throughout the customer lifecycle (lead, purchase, registration, customer service) creates a huge potential for third-party data collection. For example, you can send customers a survey to better understand their unique perspectives on your company, products, or services. You can create a questionnaire in your welcome email, which can be engaging and insightful. You can send a text message shortly after a customer makes a purchase and get a little creative to entice consumers to share data and set yourself apart from others. Today, many companies also use pop-ups on their websites that ask some enticing questions, promising to provide something of value in exchange for users’ time.
Even B2B-focused companies are seeing changes in the way they’ve been marketing. The FTC is currently reviewing whether to continue its business-to-business exception to the telemarketing sales rule, which if discontinued means B2B-focused businesses will no longer be able to use telemarketing as the government cracks down on the telemarketing abuse. This change would mean that B2B companies would also have to identify new forms of marketing, such as zero-party data approaches.
The changes implemented by Apple have made Meta and Instagram less attractive as marketing channels. this has done zero-party data and new social platforms and engagement through blogging and traditional marketing even more valuable. Brands that head in this direction and take advantage of new marketing and consumer engagement opportunities will see huge benefits for years to come.
Scott Frey is founder, president and chief executive officer of PossibleNOW.
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