Let’s be honest, there’s a massive elephant in the marketing room – the use of customer data. Data is the lifeblood of modern marketing, offering the ability to personalise experiences and make our efforts more efficient. But at what cost? As marketers, we must ask ourselves: Are we walking the line between insightful and intrusive? Are we truly respecting our customers’ rights?
The Power (and Perils) of Customer Data
Does anyone remember the days of hundreds of useless pamphlets in the post box? Did anyone use them for anything other than birdcage lining? Digital marketing has made huge inroads against pointless and irrelevant marketing. Utilising customer data has made ads more relevant, interesting and personalised.
Customer data unlocks a range of advantages for marketers:
- Hyper-targeting: Instead of broad demographics, we can target ads to individuals based on their online behaviours and interests. We can serve relevant content instead of spamming everyone on an SMS list.
- Personalisation: This goes beyond ads! Data helps us tailor website content, email offers, and more, making them feel more relevant to the individual.
- Efficiency: Data-driven marketing reduces wasted spend on messages that simply don’t resonate with the audience.
- The Privacy Paradox: Consumers express a desire for personalisation yet are increasingly concerned about how their information is used. Studies show this tension – people want the benefits but worry about losing control over their data.
The Law vs. Ethics: Regulations like POPIA and GDPR set a baseline for data privacy. However, there’s a significant grey area between what is technically allowed and what feels right to consumers. Companies can technically comply but still use data in ways that feel unsettling.
Walking The Ethical Tightrope
Transparency is Paramount: Avoid “legalese”: Don’t just bury data collection practices in a privacy policy no one reads. Use plain language to explain what’s collected and how it’s used.
Options, not Opt-Out: Give customers granular choices about what data they’re comfortable sharing, instead of an all-or-nothing approach.
Build Trust, Not Just Profiles:
Humanising Data: It’s easy to forget there are real people behind the data points. Marketers must remember these are individuals with feelings and concerns about privacy.
Long-term vs. Short-term: Building lasting relationships through respect and trust will outweigh any short-term gains from exploiting customer data unethically.
The Golden Rule: Ask yourself, “Would I be comfortable with this if it were MY data being used this way?”
Beyond Compliance Marketers shouldn’t just meet the bare minimum set by regulations. We should strive to be ethical leaders, setting an example within the industry.
Marketing with a Conscience – Is It Possible?
Collaborative Approach: Instead of solely extracting data from customers, find ways to work with them. Give them agency in the experience. For example, allowing customers to suggest the types of content they’d like to see.
Data Minimisation: Collect only what you truly need, not everything under the sun. Challenge the mindset of “nice to have” data collection.
Focus on the Long Game: Prioritise building lasting, trust-based relationships with customers over short-term gains through data exploitation.
Champion Privacy: Marketers have a unique understanding of both the benefits and pitfalls of data use. We should actively support strong data privacy regulations and advocate for ethical practices within our industry.
This is how and why we use data at clicked:
In the spirit of transparency, we use a variety of data from a variety of places:
Meta (Facebook & Instagram)
- Age – to make sure that we are targeting the right age groups that are relevant and appropriate
- Gender – we seldomly use gender but the option is available (we promised full disclosure)
- Location – again to target only customer that are relevant and appropriate. There is no use in inviting someone in Hogsback to an event in Brits
- Interests – Meta collects this data through tracking the content you interact with. We use the data to serve relevant content to people who might actually find it useful and interesting. We are not here to spam anyone or waste anyone’s time or even worse waste clients’ money.
- Off Meta technologies activity: Through the use of cookies Meta can serve ads to people who have interacted outside of Meta for example visiting a website and then seeing the products from that website being served as ads to you. In our world this is called remarketing which offers relevant reminders, showing you ads based on what you recently viewed online, making them more likely to be useful, interesting and of value to you. It also helps expand your awareness with related products within your areas of interest.
For more information on the information Meta collects and how to tailor it to your liking please check out this link https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy?section_id=1-WhatInformationDoWe
Google (including YouTube)
- Your apps, browsers & devices – Sometimes we need to market products that are only available to certain devices such as mobile apps or Apple services. This helps us ensure you don’t get served something of no use to you.
- Your activity – Google tracks content you interact with, terms you search and your purchase activity to name a few. We use this information to serve ads that are relevant to you – we’d rather serve an ad for TV to someone who is actively searching for a TV. You find something you like and have been searching for, we get a sale – win win.
- Location – Google tracks your GPS details, WiFi access points and cell towers. We use location information to serve content that is applicable and relevant like a store opening near you that might interest you.
For more details on the information Google collects and how to control your information please visit https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en#infocollect
- Profile data such as job title, place of employment, seniority, etc – we use this data to target specific industries or functions that may find content useful and relevant. E.g. we won’t serve a pre-school teacher SAP services.
- Data from outside LinkedIn – some companies like Microsoft share their information from time to time with LinkedIn (such as Outlook contacts). We’ve never used this feature nor find it useful.
- Location – LinkedIn collects your location data only if you have given specific permission. We use this data to target specific areas with relevant content such as accounting services near you.
TikTok
- Usage Information (how you engage with the Platform, including how you interact with content, the advertisements you view, videos you watch) – we use this information for targeting to serve ads and content that is relevant and you might find interesting.
- Inferred information (interests, age, gender) – we use this to serve content that is relevant and you might find interesting.
- Location – again to target only customers that are relevant and appropriate. Eileen in the UK is not interested in our Annual Sale in Sasolburg.
The choices we’ve made with regards to our own personal data.
Aneesa
As a mom of 2 young kids, I’ve chosen to make all my social media profiles private. I don’t share my kids very often – only certain milestones as I do enjoy the memories that pop up years later. However I have denied permission to their schools to post them on their platforms as you never know what other people will do with that information. I strongly believe in informed consent and they are not of the age yet where they can fully comprehend the impact or intricacies or lasting effects of social media. Until then it’s my job to protect them.
I have allowed and even tailored my personal ad preferences because it makes my life easier finding things I want like a holiday in Bora Bora or a Lamborghini Urus.
Conclusion
There’s no easy answer to the data dilemma. It’s an ongoing responsibility for marketers to find the balance between using data effectively and respecting our customers’ fundamental right to privacy. It’s not about fear or restriction, but about being ethical leaders. By embracing transparency, prioritising respect, and always erring on the side of caution, we can build a future where marketing is both impactful and trustworthy.