One of my mandates in my current role as a Database Sales Manager is to define the entry points where data is captured, managed and stored in a CRM-focused database. The obvious entry point is the web where the website owners use registration pages to get their users to sign up for benefits restricted to registered users.
This strategy worked in the early years on the Internet as users explored with a childlike innocence on how the digital medium brought them to places unimaginable before. Registering their details online seemed to be the only path to get more information from website publishers.
It was only when website publishers decided to work with marketing agencies to target their users that triggered frustrations of being bombarded with irrelevant email advertisements and the fear that their private data is being used by third parties that are not related to the website they registered in the first place.
As the Internet user matures and gains more experience over the years, website publishers are beginning to see their users imposing their right to manage their data and privacy. Increasingly:
- More users are using fake names and details to get themselves registered on websites (with the same intent of getting "more" information then un-registered ones).
- Email providers like Yahoo and Gmail give users the ability to have multiple email addresses at no incremental cost, vis-a-vis the old days when emails are tagged with the ISP we're registered with. Invariably, a user can have multiple email addresses used for different sites, some of which could be dormant and not checked over the years.
- Any attempt by website owners to send irrelevant email advertisements to their users are met with contempt and revolt, leading to a drop in site traffic and lower pageviews (i.e. lower CPMs).
Undoubtedly, marketers are facing a challenge to engage with their users. Most websites do away with the registration process completely, contented to focus on featuring banner ads and Google sponsored links to generate revenue. Some sites simply left their registration pages dormant, given that they too know that the onerous data fields to compel users to sign up is no longer relevant for today's Internet user.
Are the days of targeted and segment marketing over?
Interestingly, it is not, and even more surprisingly, there are sites where you can get real and factual information about the user. There are even details that describe the social life of these users, allowing preliminary insights on the lifestyle choices these users make.
Where are these sites? Try Facebook or LinkedIn. Users over there contribute their real details without any hesitation.
The question is how we mine these data as a marketing professional? That's where a social web contract is needed between the user and the website owner. You can read a very interesting post by Jeremiah Owyang, a social media analyst and researcher in Forrester.
More on this in my next post. For now, please enjoy the slide below.
