By Steve Johnson
In a bid to up its privacy protection game, Google begins phasing out third-party cookies this month. That means a longstanding tactic for tracking user web activity will be obsolete by the end of this year. So, much of 2024 will be spent preparing for this shift, pivoting to new strategies, and measuring impact.
According to HubSpot, marketers can adapt by switching to first-party cookies. This approach tracks the activity of users on your site (but not on other sites).
The key issue with collecting first-party data lies in persuading potential customers, clients, or donors to feel comfortable or incentivized (ideally both) to provide even the barest bit of their contact information.
Some tactics worth trying include:
- Give people one-time discounts in exchange for their first name and email address.
- Ask them to sign up for a newsletter. This works especially well for nonprofits. People will often provide their email for a newsletter from a charity they give to, because they want to know what their donation helped support.
- Another tip for nonprofits: ask for more data when people donate, including fields for not only their email address but also for their MOBILE phone number and whether or not they prefer texting as the way to communicate with them. That information is golden!
- Consider offering what is known in the trade as “gated” content, prompting a quick form fill before someone can download a higher-value document such as a whitepaper, e-book, or catalog. This works especially well for B2B marketers.
- Ask them to complete a survey, poll, or review – people love giving their opinion and they may give you their name and email address to do so.
- If you have not already committed to a good, consistent e-mail marketing program, this may be the perfect year to invest in one such as Constant Contact, Mailchimp, or Salesforce.
Success belongs to those who adapt. So, ask your agency how to roll with the changes and enjoy the ride!
For an in-depth examination of these and other tools and techniques, see this Hubspot article:
The Death of the Third-Party Cookie: What Marketers Need to Know About Google’s 2023 Phase-Out