🍪🍴 no more cookies???

Yep, you may already know -- third party cookies will be deprecated from Chrome, Safari, and Firefox by 2022....yeah, crazy enough that’s just 7 months away!

Why does this matter?

Cookies are the foundation upon which marketers rely on for digital advertising and
analytics.

This means that marketers will need to reassess how ads target potential customers, how conversions are measured, and how attribution across channels will work. A world without cookies makes this much harder.

The bottom line:

📈 Acquisition costs will increase.

🌪️ Marketing strategies will change.

😎Gathering customer data will be imperative.

Brands that prepare for the change will be in a stronger position to build long-term, scalable marketing strategies.

Adweek had a good high level overview of how marketers are preparing. Two of the most pursued strategies:

Build a customer data platform - “CDPs are appealing because they promise to help marketers see a single view of their customers that can power omnichannel personalization.”
Strategize around first-party data - “If a brand has strong first-party data, it can activate that data much more effectively with partners and publishers. It is also the foundation of acquisition strategies—understanding your best customers is the starting point for finding more like them.”

So what should you do?

Ben Wood offers up some ideas in “How to Prepare Your Ecommerce Business for a Cookieless Future”:

“Perhaps appeal to your customer base through softer engagement promotional activity that targets an email address or an account creation instead of a purchase.

Focus on establishing ongoing, positive relationships with both prospects and customers. If you have a compelling offer or value proposition, customers are generally willing to opt in.”

I think that this is a compelling point that serves both brands and consumers: the marketing game is shifting towards long-term engagement and customer relationships.

This comes down to an exchange of value: customers will share personal information (contact info, likes, preferences, purchase intentions, etc) if there is a good reason to do so.
Need some inspo on how to exchange value with customers?

Here’s a list of 125+ great ecommerce quizzes….customers offer answers to questions that are helpful to the brands, and receive some value in exchange (product recommendation, personal assessment, discount, etc).

🤔 How are you preparing for these changes?

"Mass customization" -- seems like an oxymoron, but Tina, is making handcrafted customized jewelry accessible.

One way that has helped her create the guided shopping experience is a quiz--especially for someone purchasing a gift.

Answer a few questions about the person, the style, the type of jewelry....and get a recommendation.

It helped increase Avg Order Values by 20-30%.

Tina's at the forefront of creating unique products for individuals, and capturing a story in a product and brand.

Take a listen here.