What Blockchain is and how it will affect the future of digital marketing and customer data privacy
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain technology has been in the news for the past few years. Almost everybody in the corporate world has heard of it, one way or other. However, only a few know what exactly this buzzword is all about.
In this world of cyber-crime and data theft, no one wants to compromise on data security. It is of utmost importance. Blockchain was originally developed for secure transfer of value, from one person to another without the need of an intermediary like a bank. It is a network of distributed databases in which the data is encrypted via cryptography and provides an easy way to send, receive, record data, and trade digital currencies.
One of the best things about Blockchain is that it is decentralized. It is a digital ledger which can be accessed by hundreds and thousands of computers (called nodes) which are the members of the network, each of them having a copy of the database.
Bitcoin is the first major application of Blockchain, that was released in 2009.
Why can it be a Good Use-case for Marketing?
In this era of digitization, companies are gathering more and more information about their customers, and they are making their business decisions based on the analysis of this information. When users share their personal/confidential data with the internet/IT companies, they have every right to know how it is getting accessed, used, and shared. The current digital scenario doesn’t offer transparency and accountability of the data shared by the users.
Blockchain can be a solution to this scenario; it can change the way different industries operate.
Differentiating between Fake and Real
In the world of fake likes and views, it’s tough to determine the real audiences. But Blockchain has the capability to make marketing more transparent. Marketers will be able to control the ad delivery by verifying the audiences. This will help the brands to target their audiences in a better way and build trust with their customers.
Privacy Protection
The most imperative concern of today’s connected world is PRIVACY. It is the advertisers’ responsibility to protect their customers’ private data. Because of the Blockchain’s secure environment, this privacy concern can be resolved that will eventually boost the customer’s trust.
Eliminate Intermediaries
Blockchain application development technology connects advertisers and users directly. It can eliminate the need for the middlemen. Apart from fraud protection and data privacy, this also reduces cost and increases operational effectiveness.
What are the Security Loopholes in Digital Marketing?
Cyber breach is an ongoing threat that has impacted the digital markets. Digital assets are more vulnerable than ever before, all because of increasing value and volume of data. Digital marketing is within reach of everyone, the broader the audience, the more is data collection and the more is the risk of data breach.
Content Marketing and CMS
Today, content is the king and cyber threat is the enemy. Content marketing is not just about delivering valuable content; rather it’s a key strategy to build customer’s trust. For this, a digital marketer uses Content Management Systems (CMS). These CMS are prone to malicious attacks, and these attacks aim to steal the customer’s confidential data and other related information.
Business Data Repositories (CRM)
Digital marketers working for e-commerce websites handle transaction data. That is why they are at a higher risk of being a victim of a cyber-attack. Besides this, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, that is a repository which stores all the essential business information, are often targeted by the hackers.
With the objective to acquire customer data, hackers will attempt to exploit any loopholes present in the system. It’s tough to deal with safety breaches, but with proper planning, their impact on the business can be reduced.
How can Blockchain Help in Securing Digital Marketing?
Solve privacy concern via Internet for Decentralized App
ISPs and web browsers have access to the browsing history as well as banking information. They know what you are doing online and to whom you are talking to. A network built (internet) on Blockchain’s verified signatures can help digital marketers to keep their customers’ data with them, instead of putting it on different servers managed by third-party applications. It can ensure internet anonymity and protect privacy.
Securing Display Ads and Rewarding Users for Viewing Ads
When it comes to online ads, there are two viewpoints. One is of the advertiser, and the other one is of the user. For advertisers, ads are expensive and difficult to manage, whereas, from a user’s point of view, they are infuriating and invasive. This issue can be resolved by using a Blockchain browser with its own internal cryptocurrency/token. In such a browser, the users get to decide which ads they want to see and are rewarded in tokens for viewing those ads.
Eliminating Click-Fraud
A lot of money of the advertisers go to waste because of the false clicks generated by bots on digital ads. Blockchain-based decentralized servers can help in monitoring activity on the digital ads and thus preventing click-fraud.
Conclusion
After implementation of Blockchain, the data collection process for the digital marketers would become difficult, but more refined. The data collected would be only from the users who are actually interested in the product/services marketed. This will lead to better conversions, which is the actual objective of digital marketing, and not just generating random clicks or leads.