If you haven’t begun to consider privacy beyond the GDPR checkbox, take ten minutes to read this before you smugly announce you’ve “done that already”. These five reasons could not only save you the hassle of being oh-so-very-wrong, when treasured like a secret weapon they will become your competitive advantage.
Navigating privacy can be daunting, but the bottom line is this: if you let the ball drop, you have more than just vague fines to worry about. All the companies taking this seriously already recognize it’s a bargaining chip and have no problem flaunting it.
Clients naturally find this irresistible. They like knowing they’re worth more than the data they provide and that you wouldn’t dream of putting their sensitive information at risk.
And if you prove them wrong? One of your competitors will snap them up before you can find another word for sorry.
Welcome to a new age of doing business.
Privacy is part of our DNA.
Forget the business stuff for just a second and think about it. Privacy is a basic human right we feel entitled to. If you share sensitive personal information about yourself and believe it will stay between us, and I then share this with your neighbors, the elderly couple on the bus, and anyone who offers me a few coins for it, I bet you’d be pretty angry. In fact, you’d probably regret trusting me in the first place, and be reluctant to do so again.
The very same thing holds true for how you handle the information your customers share with you to engage with your products. Think they won’t find out? Eventually someone will gossip or drop a glove where they shouldn’t. Do yourself a favor early on and bank on something you naturally feel good about.
Do more than the bare minimum.
When in life is this not the case?
Being ahead of the ever evolving privacy laws and the minimum standard requirements is always going to be sweeter than being behind. It means being seen as a thought leader and an innovator in your field. It means the chance to corner the market in your niche because you’re being proactive.
And being behind? Shifty eyes. Excuses. Lost opportunities. Maybe even jail time, depending on how crooked your path becomes.
Looking to get ahead but don’t know where to begin? I’m glad you’re here. Keep reading or bookmark this for later when you’ve got more time to spare. You’ve got this.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Can you get still get away with it? Maybe. But if your customer expects xyz and you give them x followed by p and q just because it makes your life easier, they’re going to start raising eyebrows. Wouldn’t you?
Rather than trying to sneak something by, take time to brainstorm another way to get it done. This is where brilliant deviations are born. These are kind of ideas that will set you apart and become practices you’re proud to share with your clients and your following, rather than praying they never pay enough attention to see how well you’ve really got it together.
Make it a core value of your brand.
Think about what kind of data you’ll be collecting and who you’re targeting. That’s not so hard, right? Now take this information and put it into a Privacy Impact Assessment which will ensure that you’ve got all your i’s dotted and t’s crossed.
If you work privacy into the foundation of what you’re offering, when you have something new to launch, you’ll have all the pieces in place to be able to do so right away. And if you don’t? Think mad dash to bring your marketing, privacy policy, and staff training in line at the last minute, and delays which could give your competitor time to take the lead.
Be Transparent.
Once you clean up any messes going on behind the scenes, give your copy a makeover as well to reflect the changes you’ve made. Don’t hide behind vague words like the shy kid who doesn’t want to be called on in class. You aren’t that kid anymore. You’ve got something to say and a reason to be loud about it.
Be bold. Raise your hand. Use a larger font. Your clients are going to love the chance to get to know you better, especially when it shows just how much you value them and what you’ve gone through to prove it.
Wondering how solid your privacy program really is? Need some solid tips to figure out how to create one?
Get yourself a complimentary evaluation. It’s privacy’s equivalent of several deep breaths. No matter where you’re at, it’s not as hard as you think it is to get to where you need to be. We’ll do it together.
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