Data Privacy for Your Business

Lots of marketers collect more data than they really need to. It's hard not to, when it's so easy to set up a tool like Google Analytics and let it run 24/7. But by considering how much data you REALLY need, you can reduce the amount of information you have to sift through, find the key details you need to connect with customers faster, and reduce the amount of information you might be responsible for protecting.

Kevin: So I asked you to come on to the show today because we're talking a little bit about data collection. And I know we're supposed to collect data so we can measure it. But I find that sometimes we do collect so much data, we just get overwhelmed. And will I forget it? You must see that all the time.

Emily: Absolutely. I talked to so many business owners, from small solopreneurs all the way through like pretty big companies, where they're collecting all this data. And they don't know exactly what to do with it all. Sometimes they don't even know what they're collecting or where to find it. And other times they know, but they're just totally overwhelmed by: what does this even mean? What do I do with it? Things like that. It's just very confusing for a lot of people.

The liability of collecting this data

Kevin: I guess the one to raise your one. I'm also concerned about the liability of collecting the data. You know, if you're collecting something that's confidential, and you're not securing it, that can end in a really bad day, right?

Emily: Yeah. And I'm really glad you brought that up. Because that's something that a lot of people, especially in the States, don't think about. When you're collecting data, you might think that it's pretty innocuous: name, location, address, payment details, what have you. But that data is actually really personally identifiable. It's called PII, personally identifiable information, and you as the person collecting that data are responsible for safeguarding it. This is especially true if you do any business, or you have any customers or website visitors who live in California or the European Union, because both of those locations have really strong privacy laws to protect their residents' data. So you're responsible for safeguarding it and making sure that nothing bad happens to it. And if you don't entirely know what you're collecting, or where it's being stored, or how it's being protected, that can open you up to risk. Now, I'm not a lawyer. But you know, I've worked with enough data over the years that I've seen it, sometimes it's easy to collect data that's personally identifiable, and you don't even realize it.

Where should business owners go from here?

Kevin: So what's the advice? What should we be collecting? We realized we can't not collect anything, but we also know we can't go to that extreme. So what's the middle?

Emily: So, again, not as a lawyer, I always recommend that people really take a close look at what data they actually need. And sometimes you can figure it out yourself. Other times, you will need to bring in the help of an expert to help you figure out, you know, what's the right data for your goals. So for instance, if you're running an e-commerce store, yes, you're going to need to call in a lot of data, including payment information and shipping addresses. That's just the nature of your business. But Kevin, I know you have a lot of followers who are either selling business to business or they're providing services in their local area to consumers. So a lot of your followers are going to be doing other kinds of businesses where they're not necessarily selling products and collecting payment information directly. In that case, I really recommend people just collect the absolute bare minimum. And for most companies, for marketing purposes, that's going to be two things: where someone is coming from, and what kind of device they're arriving to your website on. How you can get this data is through Google Analytics. Google Analytics actually collects a lot of data. So it's actually not what I recommend for most people. There are a few other tools, you can use. If you have a website through a platform like WordPress, Shopify, or Squarespace, there's some built-in data analytics that are going to collect just those bare basics. And that's enough for most people to start understanding where their customers are coming from. If you're really looking to dig into your marketing and go further with SEO, or digital ads, there are very specific tools that we can use that will help you collect just the absolute necessary pieces of data, store them in a way that is respectful of data privacy, and take some of that stress and confusion off so you know that you only have the bare minimum for what you need to get done.

Kevin: So Emily, what should people do? Where should they reach out to learn more about this? Because obviously, this is an important topic for everyone watching.

Emily: Yes, absolutely. I love talking to people about how they can better utilize data and potentially reduce some of the data that they're collecting. So, you can find me on LinkedIn, just search for my name Emily Gertenbach. Same thing. If you search on Google, I'll come up. You can also visit a stressfreeseostrategy.com. That'll take you to a page that has information on how I help people figure out exactly what kinds of marketing activities you need to be doing to target the right users. And as part of that, we make sure that you're only collecting the necessary data.