Navigating Privacy Regulations in B2B Marketing
Your Guide to What’s Changed, How It May Affect You, and How You Can Adjust Your Marketing Strategies
Data is the lifeblood of the digital marketing industry, and the Internet revolution has been a boom for consumer information. Businesses have more access than ever before to the habits, interests, and patterns of their ideal customers. But that influx of data has led to a Wild Wild West (shout-out Will Smith) landscape of low-quality data brokers and breaches that have made data privacy a big concern for consumers. Over the past decade, governments have been responding to those concerns by establishing laws and regulations in the data privacy space.
For B2B marketers, it is vital to know what regulations are changing, how they’re impacting things, and what you need to do in order to stay on top of it.
So What Are These Recent Changes to Marketing Privacy Regulations?
There are quite a few, starting back in 2018 with the passage of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the initial California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which was then updated and expanded in 2020:
- The CCPA was the first state law enacted to enhance privacy rights and consumer protection. It provides California residents with the right to: know what personal data is being collected about them; know whether their personal data is sold or disclosed and to whom; say no to the sale of personal data; access their personal data; request deletion of any personal information about them; and not be discriminated against for exercising their privacy rights.
- Meanwhile, the GDPR was enacted as part of the EU’s charter with the goal of enhancing individual’s control and rights over their personal information. It includes: the right to be informed about the collection and use of their personal data; the right to access their personal data; the right to rectification if an individual’s data is inaccurate or incomplete; the right of erasure of personal data related to them within 30 days; the right to restrict processing of their personal data; the right to data portability, wherein personal data can be transferred from one system to another safely and securely; and the right to object to how their information is used for marketing, sales, or non-service-related purposes.
While these were the initial regulations put into law, they both had a domino effect. After California, 19 other states have enacted comprehensive consumer data protection legislation, including Oregon, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Vermont, Montana, Kentucky, and more. In the wake of the GDPR, several other countries modeled their own regulations after that law, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The United States is also looking at federal-level data protection with the bipartisan introduction of the American Privacy Rights Act of 2024.
Additionally, the Federal Communications Commission recently announced a new rule that will go into effect on Jan. 27, 2025, that impacts what counts as prior express written consent under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). While in previous years you could obtain consent through your marketing partners, the new rule requires that each company must separately get prior express written consent from a consumer before sending automated or prerecorded calls or texts.
On top of all this, tech companies themselves are stepping a toe into the privacy-focused update waters. Google notoriously toyed with the idea of ending third-party cookies (although they recently rolled that back). Apple, meanwhile, has instituted measures like Mail Privacy Protection and Link Tracking Protection that block tracking and engagement information.
What Are the Potential Impacts on the Marketing Industry?
So, obviously, consumer data protection and privacy is not a topic that’s going away. In fact, it’s likely only going to spread. The IAB State of Data 2024 report highlighted that two-thirds of the marketing decision makers predicted the implementation of more privacy laws and 80% say privacy-first shifts have led to them significantly restructuring their organizations.
Consumers want control over their data. Period. No getting around it. And that will impact B2B marketing and businesses, turning down the firehose of widespread, freely available information. Failure to get on board and in compliance with the new regulations can literally cost you money in the form of fines and penalties, but maybe more importantly, it will cost you consumer trust and your brand reputation.
This shift does bring some challenges for the B2B space:
- You’re going to have more limits on the types of data you can collect and use and more hoops to jump through in order to use it.
- You’re going to need to be a lot more transparent about your data — what you’re collecting, where you’re sharing it, and how you store it.
- You’re going to have to implement a lot more opt-in options, including getting explicit consumer consent.
- You’re going to need to be ready to handle requests for data access and deletion efficiently and effectively.
On a personal level, though, data privacy compliance is also just a smart business move. You want to be targeting the right consumers with the right, tailored marketing campaign, and good, up-to-date data management helps you to do just that.
Is There Any Way I Can Adapt and Stay Compliant?
There are actually a lot of things you can do, both in how you structure and target your marketing campaigns and in how you operate within your business.
From a business perspective:
- Start with a data audit, looking at all your current collection, usage, and storage practices so you can have a clearer idea of where you’re falling short
- Prioritize collecting zero and first-party data, including applying directly to your customers for contact information, survey feedback, and more
- Bring data protection front and center with your team, either by implementing privacy training or even setting up a dedicated person to oversee data privacy
- Review your privacy policy, ensure it’s in line with the latest regulations and that it’s easy to find and not cluttered with incomprehensible legalese
- Set up a response plan, deciding all the details of how you will receive, process, and respond to requests for data access or deletion from customers
From a marketing campaign perspective:
- Consent is key. Make it a priority. Get consent from all of your customers before you collect their information, and implement double opt-in methods for ensuring that customer data you do have is high-quality.
- Opt-out options are your new best friend. If you give consumers a clear, easy-to-find way to opt out of targeted marketing, it’s both a great best practice for compliance but also just a good look for your brand.
- Protect the data you do have. Implement encryption and two-factor authentication on your sites, landing pages, and contact forms. Secure your data storage systems. Write down your data privacy policies and procedures and integrate them into company onboarding.
- Sweep and clean your email lists. Don’t hold on to obsolete data, email addresses that are no longer current, or customers who’s preferences may have changed. It saves you time and gives you a better return on your email marketing efforts.
Privacy Is the New Marketing Future
There is no avoiding the shift in data privacy regulation. The new best practice is “privacy-by-design” — i.e., being proactive by treating privacy as the default and embedding into your designs and campaigns from start to finish. Embracing this approach means putting the needs and desires of your customers and users first, and with proper preparation, it can benefit your B2B business as well. Staying in compliance means keeping your data clean, targeted, and secure, helping you tailor your messaging to customers who are the most interested and engaged in what you’re offering.
The era of the Data Wild Wild West might be ending, but the future is still looking bright.
