Tracking customers has always been a challenge, but the challenge has been made even more difficult in recent years thanks to an increasing focus on data privacy and new regulations such as the European Union’s GDPR.
The good news is that there’s an alternative. The industry is increasingly turning to cookieless analytics and attribution platforms. The idea is to sidestep the challenges of using cookies to store first and third party data, especially as cookies are slowly phased out.
The big challenge that marketers will face in the brave new world of cookieless data is that they’ll need a web analytics solution that allows them to track cross-platform and cross-device without the use of cookies. It’s a big change, but that doesn’t mean it’s insurmountable.
As cookieless tracking becomes more commonplace, enterprise marketing teams will need to switch to cookieless analytics and attribution platforms if they hope to continue business as usual, whatever that may be.
Simply put, you’ll face the challenge of creating a personalised user experience without the use of third party cookies that show you what a user is looking at and searching for. Luckily, there are new platforms on the market, such as Metricsflow. Using proprietary AI technology, Metricsflow attaches a unique digital DNA identifier to a visitor from the first point of contact.
Through the simple integration of seven lines of JavaScript, B2B marketers can quickly and easily provide personalised content and services without the need for cookies. In our case, we collect over 40 different data points on users while protecting their privacy online. We will never show that user’s identity unless the user decides to share their Personally Identifiable Information (PII) with the company. And we will never share or sell that user’s information with third parties.
The goal remains similar to what it always has been: to understand the full prospect journey pre and post conversion. As part of this, marketers need to update their martech stack to adopt cookieless data analytics solutions now, before it’s too late. It’s all about future-proofing yourself and making sure that you’re ready for the change that’s coming.
In particular, it’s important to remember that your web analytics tool needs to track customers across multiple different devices. Web users today are accessing your content across any number of devices throughout the run of a day. By tracking across devices, marketers get full attribution that mirrors the user journey.
By focusing on first party data, you can provide more customised services and information, right down to the type of content that you present to them in your blog or through your email marketing. It’s difficult to do this without using cookies, but not impossible – and the next generation of B2B marketing attribution software is already on hand to help you.
In an age without cookies, there’s no excuse for marketers to forget the basics. Inbound marketing, personalisation and other best practices will still be equally valid, even when cookies are deader than the dodo.
Metricsflow is a cookieless analytics and cookieless attribution platform that’s designed to help enterprise B2B marketers to track their visitors across all campaigns and channels. Providing a 360 degree view of all accounts and users, it’s fully compliant with data privacy laws and best practices and avoids sharing or selling data to third parties and ad networks.
Available on the Salesforce AppExchange, MetricsFlow provides 100% of visitor data (where most companies lose 40-70% through cookies) and breaks it down into actionable, easy to understand insights right there inside your CRM. Visit our website to find out more.