A New Era of Digital Marketing: How Will B2B Approaches Change in the Cookieless Era? | Blog

The New Era of Digital Marketing: How Will B2B Approaches Change in the Cookieless Age?

Last Updated: May 15, 2024

Promoting Data Utilization in a Cookieless B2B Marketing Environment

Cookie-based marketing has long played a vital role in digital marketing for both B2C and B2B sectors.
However, in recent years, due to the development of legal regulations and advancements in technology, marketing methods that do not rely on cookies have been gaining attention.
This article summarizes the methods and benefits of cookie-based B2B marketing, while also explaining the challenges associated with their use and the emerging concept of a "cookieless" approach.

What Is Cookie-Based B2B Marketing?

B2B marketing utilizing cookies has long been considered a strategy for strengthening customer relationships and implementing effective approaches. Examples include the following:

Content Personalization

Strategy Details

Customize content based on the past behavior and interests of website visitors. For example, present relevant content to visitors who have shown interest in specific products or services.

Strategy Impact and Value

High levels of personalization tailored to individual customers make it easier to capture their interest, increase engagement within your website, and facilitate customer decision-making.

ABM Advertising

Strategy Details

Enhance customer acquisition effectiveness by executing individual marketing campaigns for key accounts (Account-Based Marketing).
By focusing on targets with deeper insights and displaying advertisements tailored to their characteristics, you can reach potential customers who are closer to the active consideration stage.

Strategy Impact and Value

Not only does this maintain interest even when visitors are not on your website, but by narrowing your target, you can increase ad click-through rates, reduce wasted advertising spend, and improve ROI.
Furthermore, because you can visualize trends in content consumption and search behavior as potential leads become active, you can identify keywords that are critical for sales activities and explore directions for expanding your own content.

Email Marketing

Strategy Details

We implement personalized email campaigns for individual recipients based on cookie data.

Strategy Impact and Value

Personalized experiences increase customer satisfaction, improve open and click-through rates, and generate continuous information exchange with customers.
By increasing the probability that visitors will return to the site, customer engagement is enhanced, contributing to the building of long-term customer relationships.

Identifying targets and personalizing experiences using cookies provides value in many aspects of B2B marketing.

Challenges of Using Cookies

While B2B marketing using cookies is an effective strategy, several challenges and issues have been pointed out in recent years.

Compliance with Privacy Regulations

As an international trend, the strengthening of privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA has led to the application of strict rules regarding the collection and use of cookie data, making compliance with these constraints and laws a significant challenge.
Specifically, there is a stronger requirement to disclose to users the reasons for data collection (purpose of use) and the methods employed.

Data Security

In addition to preparing for data breaches caused by cyberattacks, companies are now required to disclose to users the measures taken against risks that may arise when collecting data.
If a company cannot explain the potential risks and how they are addressed with sufficient transparency in exchange for the convenience provided, it may damage user trust.

Cookie Lifespan and Accuracy

Because some cookies are deleted after a session ends, long-term tracking can be difficult, making them hard to use for the purpose of building long-term relationships with users.
Additionally, when information is collected based on cookies from users who use different devices or browsers, data consistency may be lacking, potentially reducing the accuracy of information when forming customer profiles.

Elimination of Third-Party Cookies

Major platformers such as Google have indicated moves to phase out the use of third-party cookies. This has brought about a major transformation in the digital advertising industry, creating a need to explore new targeting methods.

Companies have begun to explore strategies to provide more beneficial experiential value to customers than ever before, while simultaneously implementing measures for privacy protection and data security.
In digital marketing, the recognition that building trust with users and adopting a privacy-respecting approach is the key to success has become stronger.
Specifically, movements are gaining attention to acquire data that reveals customer insights and context by linking it to identifiers other than cookies or to first-party data, and utilizing this for message delivery, including advertising.

Cookie-less Marketing in B2B

Overall, while B2B marketing using cookies remains a powerful strategy, taking a cookie-less approach has begun to attract attention as a way to adapt to new privacy regulations and technological evolution.
Below are some examples of cookie-less B2B digital marketing.

Example: Utilizing Identifiers Other Than Cookies

Contextual Targeting

A method of displaying information or advertisements highly relevant to visitors based on the content or keywords on a webpage.

IP Address Targeting

A method of identifying IP addresses held by companies rather than individuals, linking them to corporate information for analysis, and performing targeting.

Utilizing Email Addresses

A method of collecting email addresses and deploying content or promotions tailored to the interests of customers who have provided consent.

Example: Consent Management for Cookie Usage

Utilizing First-Party Data with Obtained Consent

A method of providing personalized content or proposals based on information provided by visitors when they have consented to share it within the website.

In conjunction with the above, regardless of the differences between B2C and B2B, an increasing number of companies are introducing Consent Management Platforms (CMP) on their websites to acquire user consent information and manage the scope of consent.

Example: Utilizing Media That Does Not Require Cookies

Social Media Advertising

A method of reaching a target audience by utilizing business-oriented social media.

SNS ad targeting does not inherently require cookies, and it is possible to display ads based on the platform's unique user data and interests.

Content Marketing

A method of providing high-quality, useful content to increase website visitors and build trust with them through that content.

As a specific example, an increasing number of companies are utilizing content distribution media such as note to increase brand awareness.

These approaches are said to be effective methods for maximizing reach to target audiences and enhancing the results of B2B digital marketing while responding to cookie restrictions and user privacy regulations.

Author

uSonar Editorial Department

MX Group, Editor-in-Chief

We are the uSonar Editorial Department.
We provide information on data utilization and digital technologies useful for companies primarily engaged in B2B operations to rethink their future business practices.