In the digital age, data has become its own commodity. Customers are more than familiar with mandatory fields asking for their email, home address, and phone number. The problem, however, is that they’re increasingly concerned about how that data is used, with many consumers saying that they want to stop sharing their data because they can’t gauge the risk of doing so.
These fears aren’t unwarranted either: in 2017, the data consumer-broker Acxiom alone provided over 10,000 attributes on 2.5 billion consumers to the likes of Facebook, Wells Fargo, and Macy’s. This information included the most personal of information–from births, marriages, religious affiliations, to spending behavior. Meanwhile, data breaches like the Cambridge Analytica scandal have only fueled people’s hesitation to offer up their data online.
Yet for brands, customer data will always prove valuable–not only for lead generation purposes but also to more completely understand their target audiences. And as more than a dozen US states introduce bills to address issues of data privacy (like California’s CCPA), businesses are increasingly forced to recognize their responsibility to be ethical and transparent in data collection. Attempting to navigate and overcome the rising mistrust subsequently means having to give people back control of their data, for good. Sounds impossible? It’s not. Here’s how to get started:
Imagine you’re meeting someone for the first time. What qualities would make you more likely to trust them and what would make you immediately unsure? What if they continuously interrupted you and yelled instructions at you? You’d probably make a swift exit. It’s the same with consumers: No-one wants to be aggressively told what to do or coerced into actions they don’t understand.
A recent study actually found that 91% of respondents think ads are more intrusive today than they were two or three years ago. Straight away, that’s an obstacle in establishing trust because it seems like brands are erratic and pressuring, which people automatically flag as dangerous. A better approach is to curate natural interactions with customers, where they are invited to contribute and are listened to.
How? Think interactive content. Things like online quizzes are great because they put customers in complete control; they decide if they want to respond. Quizzes can also be seamlessly integrated into the user experience and do not make big demands of each person. What’s more, quizzes provide value for audiences – they catch people’s interest as an opportunity to learn something about themselves or a particular topic. For example, ‘What character from X are you?’ piques people’s curiosity because they can categorize themselves within the context of something they enjoy. Remember, humans are vain creatures, we’re constantly eager to discover more about ourselves and where we fit in places.
The statistics back up this theory too. 82% of people were found to engage with quizzes that were exposed to them on their social media newsfeed, and 96% of users who take a Buzzfeed quiz finish it.
The best part of interactive content though is that you don’t have to be deceptive in how you collect people’s data. The structure of a quiz requires information to generate a tailored result, so you can openly state why people have to input certain details. Of course, you should be upfront about how this information is used–for instance, if you’re selling to third parties or if the person will be added to a marketing database. This transparency reaffirms users that you’re being honest with them and that they have the power to decide whether to proceed or not.
