The marketing landscape is always changing, and the last three months have been no different. Back in early September, we talked about California signing new privacy laws into effect, how that could affect your marketing, and the future of marketing. The new marketing laws surrounded marketing to children and gathering information about them, children being anyone 17 or younger.
We originally reported that due to California’s new laws, social media companies could not “profile minors or use a minor’s personal information in a way that can harm the child’s physical or mental health.” This included geolocation tracking first and foremost, and also required that companies disclose privacy policies that children could easily understand. Many had an issue with children digitally signing agreements that they did not have the reading comprehension skills to understand.
Due to recent events, these new marketing laws have become relevant to talk about again in regard to our marketing strategies.
Why Talk About These New Marketing Laws Now?
We bring this up again because since September and into October, several more states have begun signing similar laws into legislation, following California’s example. Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah have all followed in California’s footsteps. California even updated its original privacy laws with the California Consumer Privacy Act which is supposed to:
- Provide consumers with better information about how their data is used
- More control over their data
- Impose additional requirements on companies to protect the personal information of consumers
Before, when it was just California, it was one state that national brands and storefronts needed to change their marketing for. With several new states creating new legislation and more on the way, this can mean one important thing: there’s a new trend.
The New Trend to Upend Marketing Strategies
The trend of signing new marketing legislation into law can lead to a number of things, but there are two options we expect to be the most likely. Based on how the different states and ways of life that populate this country, this trend will either wash over the United States until most of the country follows a similar legislature, potentially leading to a federal law, or lead to a place where a portion of the country passes the legislation and the other doesn’t.
Between these two likely–though definitely not certain options–one is more beneficial to marketing in the long run.
A New National Marketing Standard
Data is an important aspect of marketing. It informs all proper marketing strategies. If you don’t use data to inform how you make your marketing ads and target audiences, your marketing is likely to fail. These new laws affect how you can collect data and retain it.
If all states, or even just most, were to adopt California’s standard for online privacy, that would mean there is a new rulebook all marketing has to abide by. Currently, with only a handful of states having such strong privacy laws, the businesses in those states and those targeting those states are at a disadvantage. A business that is trying to market to California will struggle to compete with a competitor that provides the same services in New York. The business in New York will grow and expand its reach before the one in California has a chance to do the same. When having national audiences are becoming necessary for businesses to survive, this advantage can seem unfair.
Even if competition isn’t a serious factor, having to develop separate marketing systems and strategies for specific states is a technical pain in the butt. It gets in the way of marketing’s creativity, by taking away marketers’ time to be creative. If there were a new standard, things would become fair again across most, if not all of the states and U.S. markets. You would have as much to deal with as your potential competitors.
A Split In Marketing Laws
The other likely option is that only a portion of the country adopts these new laws. This would be to the detriment of any business whose services or products extend beyond one state. In this situation, you would have to change marketing strategies to fit the laws across the different markets.
You should always have different marketing strategies for different markets, but the differences should be based on what works for that audience. Not what works for that audience and what’s legal for that audience. This means your marketing strategies will have even more restrictions on them.
While there is truth to the belief that restrictions can be constructive limits on creativity, that’s when the restrictions are in moderation, based on things like budgets and audience preferences. Those restrictions are natural and things that work hand-in-hand with the creative process. Multiple different laws are roadblocks that you have to avoid to meet your real goals.
What Will Happen to Marketing Strategies in the U.S.?
There’s no way to tell for sure what is going to happen. For all we know, the most recent states to adopt this policy could be the last ones, or a national law could be introduced tomorrow. For now, if your law firm or business’s brand has audiences across multiple states, you should prepare your marketers for potential changes. You should also tell them to be on the lookout for any new legislation in your audiences’ regions.
For many law firms and businesses, this can be a tall ask, so we do offer a solution.
How to Choose a Social Media Marketing Agency
A social media marketing agency can help. Rather than attempt to worry about all of these issues yourself, you can work with an agency. A social media marketing agency will handle writing, planning, and targeting your social media posts and ads for you, so you don’t have to worry about it yourself.
But how do you choose a social media marketing agency? You need to find that has experience marketing in your field, and a proven track record to show success. For example, ENX2 Marketing has received multiple awards for its social media marketing strategies that brought our law firm clients new quality leads. You know then that our marketing agency knows how to garner success for social media for law firms.
So, to answer the question of, “how to choose a social media marketing agency,” you pick one that others in your industry trust. We worked to earn the trust of many of our clients, and they rewarded us by referring us to other businesses we have been able to help.
Contact ENX2 Marketing For Help With Your Social Media
ENX2 Marketing lives and breathes social media marketing, with our specialists being well-versed with all of the important online platforms. If your business’s social media is struggling or might struggle with future changes, talk to a team who has experience handling them.
We have clients across the country, and each state has its own different rules for law marketing. If we can keep all of these different legal marketing rules straight, we can keep up with new marketing rules as well. For more information on how we can help you, contact us today.
