This article is not purely theoretical waffle! It is based on the real experience of companies using the Cassie Privacy Management platform. Cassie is currently used by organisations around the world, in 36 languages, totalling 165 million worldwide customer records with 2.4 billion preferences and making 2.5 million updates EVERY DAY! That gives us a huge amount of information on best practice. Read on…
Cassie takes feeds from your legacy systems and manages your customer’s personal channel permissions. It handles contradictory consent, (ie a customer opts-in when talking to your call centre but opts-out on your website or to a piece of direct mail). It enables granular product and channel-based permissions, (ie opt-in to newsletters by email but opt-out of sales promotions by email and telephone, and opt-in to sales promotions by direct mail, etc). As standard, there is a Customer Service Portal for use by call centres and a Public Portal for consumers to manage their own preferences. And an Admin Portal for you to administer the system, API’s, data loads, deduplication and the technical stuff!
In addition, Cassie generates standalone forms, widgets & links for deployment to any online real estate or for use in emails. All permissions across all channels are managed chronologically with a fully auditable log of every interaction across your business. Bi-directional API’s update your legacy systems with data from Cassie and vice versa.
So Cassie provides a technological solution and enables you to stay compliant. But as Marketers, we need more than compliance technology. We need to be able to analyse, interpret and improve what we do.
Maximising opt-in rates and minimising opt-outs has opened up a new Marketing front that requires consent statements to undergo rigorous testing and roll-out processes. Consent requires segmentation and analysis – just like the rest of your Marketing campaigns.
And of course, Cassie has been designed with this in mind. With the ability to split-test and see live comparisons via the dashboard, plus the ability to create unlimited statements, channels and products, there is no restriction to what you can do!
So here’s my tips based on real-world experience of clients using Cassie to gain a competitive advantage (in no specific order):
Best Practice 1 – Split-Test
You are probably used to split testing the creative concept for your campaigns. And you probably split-test your headline copy. And you should be split-testing your data sources. Well you now have a whole new set of A/B split-testing to perform – that of your consent statements. Best practice shows that using different wording, statements and channels produces different consent rates, (shock, horror!) So best practice dictates that you should be continuously testing new statements, using your “banker” statement as your control.
Over time you will continually optimise your approaches by deploying different statements. And your opt-in rates will improve. FACT.
Best Practice 2 – Segmentation
So clearly getting the right wording has an impact on opt-in rates. Now let’s go one step further – utilising different statements to different segments of your audience produces even more variation. So you should be testing different statements to different segments. How do females respond to statement A, compared to males with statement B? How do females aged 65+ respond, compared to 18-25 year old females? And then we have channels – does your retired customer respond better to an SMS or to direct mail? How about the 35-45 year old business executives – which channels do they engage with?
Segment your audience and keep optimising your segmentation. And your opt-in rates will improve. FACT.
Best Practice 3 – Granularisation
This one may be a surprise to you – ask for more consent. Businesses are still scared of asking for consent because you might not get it. And that is true, so most businesses are attempting to use Legitimate Interests as the legal basis. However if you make your consent request granular, you will find that your opt-in rates typically increase (and opt-out rates from Legitimate Interests reduce). Eg, if my car dealer asks for consent to text me, I will be likely to say “no” (I don’t want texts about their offers, special deals and other irrelevant communications). However, if they ask for consent to send me texts me about my servicing and MOT, there’s a good chance I will say “yes”. So make your consent requests as granular as you can. Obviously, people will not give you consent for everything – that is their right and their wish. But if you give them the option to consent to things that are relevant, they will give it.
Make your consent requests granular. And your opt-in rates will improve. FACT.
Best Practice 4 – Develop a Consent Journey
Picture the split-cell testing matrix – it’s become 3 dimensional (statements vs segments vs channels) and is complex. Even a simple business with 3 channels (direct mail, telephone, email); 3 granular message types (newsletters, sales promotions/offers, catalogue); 3 segments (high RFM, medium RFM, low RFM) now has a matrix containing 27 cells! You can’t put 27 statements in front of someone and expect a response! So you must develop a Consent Journey. Just like a Customer Journey (or Supporter Journey for a charity), this needs careful planning and timing. Prioritisation and personalisation is the key – analyse each person’s history and then prioritise your consent requests for each person. If I have only ever dealt with my car dealer by telephone then start with that channel. And if I have only ever bought a car and never taken service or MOT, ask for telephone consent for New/Used cars! Email consent for service/MOT is less important for me, so don’t give me “consent fatigue” by asking for it now. But of course, over time you will generate more opt-in’s from me as you gradually put the options in front of me.
Develop a Consent Journey. And your opt-in rates will improve. FACT.
Best Practice 4 – Cultural Change
Privacy Legislation means the way you do business with your customers and prospects changes completely. It means more openness about what your business does with a person’s data. It means putting the consumer in control – they decide what you do with their data. No longer can you (the business) hide behind wishy-washy, tenuous legal speak, hidden away in the bowels of your T&C’s.
The public is slowly coming to understand that Privacy Legislation is a positive change that has been introduced for the consumer’s benefit. The public is jaded by junk mail, nuisance calls and spamming. They want it to change and they will appreciate and value the brands that clearly give them choice and control. The recent Facebook/Cambridge Analytica debacle has raised consumer awareness even more. To quote the ICO “Doing consent well should put individuals in control, build customer trust and engagement, and enhance your reputation”. The best way of complying with Privacy Legislation is to adopt a holistic approach to the use of data across your organisation. From the Boardroom down, focus should be on your customers and how to best serve them – that means building Privacy and Consent into every aspect of your business. Remember – consumers will appreciate and value the brands that clearly give them choice and control. If done well, those brands will then generate a higher level of engagement and loyalty.
Embrace GDPR and Privacy Legislation – put the customer in control and do what they tell you! And your opt-in rates will improve. FACT.
Best Practice 5 – Use Consent As A Measure Of Loyalty/Engagement
By opting in, (or by not opting-out of Legitimate Interests!) a person is showing the highest level of interest in your cause, product or organisation. That is gold-dust! It is the best way to do a value segmentation of all consumers who touch your brand in some way – if they opt in, they are interested and you should focus your effort on them. So whilst Privacy Legislation does result in a smaller active customer/supporter/stakeholder base than pre-Privacy Legislation, the base will be of higher engagement and probably higher value than the current average. That means lower campaign and admin costs and higher responses. That equals improved ROI. And that is a good thing for all involved.
Use consent in your LifeTime Value models! And your engagement rates will improve. FACT.
Change Your Culture As Well As Your Systems!
Kudos believe that “Doing consent well” will enhance your brand reputation. In the future it will be expected by customers. Those companies that don’t do it well will fall by the wayside. Customers will expect organisations to use their data appropriately. And they want some say in what you hold on them, why you hold it and what you do with it.
Kudos have a vision of putting people in control of the use of their data – that it is fundamentally an ethical and morally correct concept. Consumers want change and they will appreciate and value the brands that clearly give them choice and control. If you agree with our view then get in contact and see how we can help you to create a competitive advantage.
