With Biden’s recent executive order addressing the safe and secure development and use of AI, data privacy is even more mind top of mind for SaaS marketers. In this episode, Conor Bronsdon, Director of Marketing & Communications at LinearB, breaks down the order and discusses the new privacy demands on marketers, plus how to build buyer trust in today’s AI economy.
“Be prepared to win eyeballs.”
Many constituents — of both the political and consumer variety — feel hopeless about modern privacy (or the lack thereof). In 2019, six in ten Americans believed it was “impossible” to protect their data from marketers. Conor suggested that Biden’s executive order on data privacy and AI is a long-awaited band-aid for these concerns.
Remember, policies protecting digital consumer privacy aren’t new. The EU has led the charge on robust privacy protections via GDPR, and even individual companies like Apple have limited consumer trackability. And, in just one year, the death of third-party cookies will further
transform how digital marketers obtain leads.
According to Conor, yet another significant pivot is on the way. Say goodbye to demand capture and hello to demand generation.
“If you’re a marketer today, you need to be prepared to win eyeballs on a platform and not just redirect them,” said Conor. As part of that process, you must identify your brand’s ‘marketing flywheel,’ or content of interest: “[LinearB’s DevInterrupted] podcast is one of our key flywheel places. It doesn’t have to be the right choice for you. Maybe it’s short-form video you really need to lean into… Then you turn that all into, you know, six, seven snippets every week.”
Trust is tantamount to success.
Omnichannel experiences have improved customer satisfaction, it’s true. But they’ve also flooded the airwaves — and in a deluge of content, sometimes releasing marketing materials feels like yelling into the void.
Conor’s take? Don’t let the noise stop you from producing organic content. If influencers have taught us anything, customers love to consume well-intentioned content and advice. All it takes to get there is a little trust.
“Sales teams may want us to take away pricing on a website so they can, you know, maneuver the pricing more in the background, but that’s not how buyers want to buy today. Buyers want to be able to sign up…. They want to be able to try out the product for free. They want to be able to upgrade easily. And they’re going to do that if they trust you,” said Conor. “And the better way to [gain trust] — instead of trying to over-engineer around some of these privacy issues — is to actually approach this as okay, ‘How can I get people to come to me?‘”
To solicit consumer trust, Conor suggests stepping up your transparency game. For example, when a cybersecurity event inevitably occurs, communicate that information to your constituents. You may be surprised by the positive long-term dividends it’ll pay.
The ultimate data privacy checklist
In closing, Conor provided a checklist for marketers hoping to get ahead of Biden’s executive order. Worried about data privacy regulations? Make sure you’ve completed the following by H1 2024:
- Obtain SOC 2 compliance, a voluntary standard guiding consumer data use.
- Create role-based access control (RBAC) protocols within your own operating procedures and in any consumer-facing interface(s).
- Develop and maintain a strong relationship with your enterprise’s security compliance leaders.
- Don’t conduct outbound marketing from the same domain as your internal email. Doing so could land your entire sales and marketing team in an import prospect’s spam folder.
- Understand global privacy regulations like GDPR and enforce privacy standards that allow you to continue operating in critical markets.
Listen to episode 361 of SaaS Half Full for more of Conor’s insights.