Anyone who has used the internet between 1994 and today has encountered cookies — small bits of data that carry information about you and your web activity between the sites you visit and your device. Cookies have been an integral part of gathering marketing data for companies since their inception, but that’s all about to change.
If you have a balanced life science company marketing plan that isn’t heavily driven by cookies, this shift likely won’t be as challenging for your business. If your marketing success relies on information from cookies however, the time to make a change is now, before you have to.
Cookies Are Going Away
With privacy prioritization at the heart of this initiative, Apple and Google are leading the charge to pull the plug on cookies. The timeline for when Google will complete the phase out of third-party cookie support is something of a moving target, but as of the writing of this article we are looking at late 2023. Apple implemented a major shift in April 2021.
Cookie-based marketing might be simple, but it’s invasive. The public is vetoing it, and big business is following suit.
What This Means for Life Science Companies
The growing public understanding that data privacy is an option is fueling this movement, and the privacy push across all industries is undeniable and inevitable. That’s why we are actively working with our clients in drug and device development services, biopharmaceutical and device, and health care and health tech to reorient and empower future marketing efforts now.
Here’s how we’re helping you make the shift:
- Switching from third-party data tracking to database marketing
- Examining each piece of the marketing technology you are using to fuel your marketing engine
- Identifying which of your marketing elements are sustainable in a cookie-less marketing landscape and which are not
- Creating a proactive marketing strategy that does not rely on cookies
In reality, cookies will still technically exist for the foreseeable future; they’ll just be entirely optional for online users. This means that any marketing strategy that leans too heavily on cookies will lose the lion’s share of its data, as most people will opt out of sharing.
The moral of the story is that third-party data can still exist to a degree within your marketing plan, but your overall strategy should be set up to thrive without it. No one knows where regulations will ultimately land and what the end result will be for the existence of cookies, but the movement toward cookie-less marketing is happening, and it’s happening now.
To set your company up for success, it’s time to recalibrate with a smarter marketing plan that is built on first-party data. How? By sparking conversations with your customers and capturing data through inspired engagement, i.e.:
- Lead nurturing campaigns
- An omni-channel marketing approach using social media, email, and SMS messaging tailored to your target audience
- Brand messaging that inspires user loyalty
- Smart, customized content planning that is meaningful to your database
- Customer journey mapping
Success in the cookie-less future depends on creating marketing that matters. SCORR is here to help you ensure your marketing strategy is proactively evolving to meet the needs of tomorrow’s customers as well as today’s.
About the Author
Haley Steinhardt