A marketer’s guide to mastering cookieless personalization

These policies signify a seismic shift in the way brands must now collect and leverage user data, posing both challenges and opportunities for marketers, product owners, and businesses who want to deliver tailored experiences even for anonymous visitors. Looking forward, marketers need to prioritize cookieless personalization. 

In this blog, we take a look inside the cookieless era to provide marketers with insights and actionable strategies to succeed moving forward when personalization via cookies is no longer an option.

3 steps to prepare for the cookie phase-out

To prepare for a future without cross-site user tracking, it is crucial for brands to adopt a proactive approach. We’ve broken this down into three key steps and strategies that marketers and product owners should start prioritizing to craft a marketing strategy that is aligned with the latest privacy regulations while preserving the essence of personalized marketing.

1. Audit your third-party cookie usage

Begin by identifying the third-party cookies your website relies on to kickstart conversations with your developers. Inspect your website code in incognito mode to spot instances of cookies being set and sent on requests. For an in-depth look at cookie-related issues, head to the DevTools Issues Tab in the Chrome DevTools application panel. Under the Storage section, check out the ‘Cookies’ section to browse through the ones stored for your site and accessed during the page load. You can also preview which ones will be potentially affected after the phase-out with a definitive prompt, “Cookie sent in cross-site context will be blocked in future Chrome versions.”

This audit will serve as a foundation to build your data-led marketing strategy for the privacy-centric future. Marketers as well as product owners should use this as a baseline to start aligning with technical teams.

2. Future-proof your road to personalization with zero-party data

Zero-party data has been called ‘the new oil’ by Forbes because of its huge potential for new kinds of cookieless personalization. The stringent new regulations and announcements don’t apply to zero-party data, making it a promising data-driven route marketers can take to shape their personalization strategy. 

But how do you go about collecting and using zero-party data?

 Insider empowers marketers to integrate zero-party data strategy with their multi-channel marketing stack seamlessly by enabling them to:Collect preference data within emails with interactive AMP elements to tailor future experiences. Trigger use cases like post-purchase replenishment, personalize future recommendations, and reinitiate conversations based on accurate user data.

• Increase engagement while collecting user insights with onsite surveys. Use interactive emoji sliders, short answer surveys, and more to collect customer intel and feedback.
  

• Leverage modern channels like WhatsApp and SMS to kickstart 2-way conversations and record customer inputs.

3. Turn to the right signals that fuel cookieless personalization

Pivot your strategy to leverage meaningful and contextual data points that do not rely on cookies to understand behavior and intent. 

Define condition groups that do not rely on third-party data to trigger campaigns, for example:

• Rely on your website architecture to drive personalization. For example, you can trigger campaigns based on Page Type or URL.
• Bank on your product catalog details like Product Name, Category, or Price to deliver offers, announcements, and messages on your website.
• Leverage cookieless data points like Device Type, Browser, or Operator information to tailor experiences for your website visitors.
• Make the most of in-session information to trigger experiences in real-time for your users. Deliver experiences based on the Number of Items in the Cart or upon Exit Intent.

Innovative personalization: Embracing change for a privacy-first internet

Despite the sunsetting of third-party cookies, one thing remains unchanged: Customer expectations for personalized experiences. The demand for tailored interactions persists, which means personalization is here to stay. 

However, without traditional tracking methods, it’s essential for brands to explore cookieless personalization solutions that resonate throughout the customer lifecycle, ensuring maximum lifetime value. 

Here are some ideas for cookieless personalization that you could get started with:

• Boost product discovery with pre-built templates to showcase the top-searched keywords on your website.

• Deliver contextual recommendations by leveraging 10+ algorithms like Trending Products, Highest Discounted Products, New Arrivals, Viewed/Purchased Together, and many more.

• Deliver a frictionless browsing experience by launching dynamic navigation on your website with pre-built hamburger, radial, sticky navigation widgets, plus back-to-top buttons to enhance your UX.

• Maximize conversions with a suite of powerful tools in Insider’s Web Suite:
  • Simplify cart management with Floating Carts.
  • Enhance basket building speed with Slide-to-Add-to-Cart widgets.
  • Increase checkout rates with just-in-time Cart Reminders. 
  • Capture attention and boost your top line with eye-catching features like Hellobar, Page Curl, and Tab Talk. 

• Ensure continuous engagement by proactively supporting your website visitors on their preferred channels. Make it easy for users to connect with you on WhatsApp or via Direct Calling from your website.

Preparation is key to mastering personalization without cookies

The true measure of success in the cookieless era lies in the ability to foster loyalty. The road ahead involves compliance and a proactive commitment to user trust. Brands mustdeliver high-quality, personalized experiences without relying on traditional cookies. 

Insider empowers brands to go beyond the constraints of traditional personalization methodologies to build lasting connections with users who appreciate the brand’s commitment to privacy. Brands partnering with Insider are at the forefront of this transformative journey into the cookieless world. 

If you’d like to learn more about how Insider’s cookieless personalization solution can help you build better experiences for your customers, we’d love to chat. Book a demo with us today.