Staying compliant with privacy laws while delivering a seamless online user experience is paramount. Enter the Staging feature – a powerful tool within your consentmanager dashboard that allows you to refine, test and perfect your consent mechanisms before rolling them out live to your audience.
With the consentmanager you always have this tool at hand. Learn how you can use it to maximize your consent rates and create a seamless user experience for your business.
What is is the Staging Feature from consentmanager?
The consentmanager Staging feature acts as a virtual lab where you, as a marketer or publisher, can carefully draft, test and validate changes to your consent settings and cookie banners before they go live.
consentmanager‘s Staging feature allows you to make and evaluate changes without affecting the live environment. This ensures that each customization is thoroughly tested, minimizing the risk of bugs and potential compliance violations.
Not only does this capability make it easy to adapt to changing privacy regulations, it also helps your organization create seamless, user-focused experiences that resonate with your audience, whether you’re refining consent processes or conducting A/B experiments.
How to use the Staging feature + examples
1. Test new functions
When you introduce new features or functionality to your CMP, you can test them thoroughly with a sample of users before rolling them out to the entire audience. This allows you to spot and fix potential problems or errors before they impact your entire audience.
Example: Many website operators change their “Preference Center” function over time. Here, users can usually select the types of cookies they want to accept. Test this feature in the Staging area with a sample of users to get feedback on functionality, usability, and adoption. Your audience may prefer a different level of transparency, which in turn affects how granular and detailed your preference center is.
2. Change consent flow
Staging allows you to test and change how consent is collected, presented and managed on your website. You can refine the consent process and ensure it meets your specific legal needs and user expectations. Additionally, you can review all consent mechanisms with your legal and compliance teams to ensure they comply with current data protection laws and internal policies.
Example: Change the consent process by adding an additional step that explains the purpose of each type of cookie or why you collect certain personal data. You can test this new process in Staging to see how users react to the additional information and whether adjustments are needed. The level of transparency around privacy can vary from industry to industry.
3. Localization and Translation Testing
Especially if you have an international audience, you can use the Staging feature to review new translations and localized versions of your CMP. This will ensure that the notices are accurate and culturally appropriate to the region.
Example: You launch your CMP in a new market with a different language. Test the translated banners and make sure they convey the same information as the original banners.
🔥Tip: You can choose from more than 30 languages in the consentmanager, but of course you always have the option of adapting the text yourself. That’s why we recommend you use our Staging feature before going live! You don’t want anything to get lost in translation.
4. Sudden and Urgent Changes in Privacy Laws
When new privacy laws or regulations are introduced, staging can help you test changes to your CMP to ensure you remain compliant. You can then verify that the updated mechanisms meet the requirements of the new regulations.
Example: Adapting your CMP to the requirements of a newly introduced data protection legislation such as the GDPR, CCPA or TCF. Staging updated consent mechanisms and data handling processes to ensure requirements are met before going live.
5. Emergency Reverts
And finally, if a change to your live CMP causes unexpected problems, having a staged version allows you to quickly revert to the previous version while you diagnose and fix the problem.
Example: After deploying a new version of your CMP in the live environment, if users report problems with consent collection, you can quickly revert to the previous version in Staging while you investigate the problem.
How To Activate The Staging Feature
To enable the staging feature in your consentmanager dashboard, simply follow the steps below. Note that for all users of the Basic (Free) plan, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan in order to purchase any of the add-on features. You can find an overview of our free and paid plans here .
For Basic plan users:
Step 1: On your dashboard, click the “Upgrade now!” in the top right corner of your page.
Step 2: Click on the “Upgrade now” button of your desired package.
Step 3: Choose the Staging feature under the Package and Addons section.
For users with a paid plan:
Make sure Staging is enabled on your dashboard. To do this, follow our step-by-step guide here .
Or just go to your dashboard> Other> Staging, and click the “Enable” button.
The staging feature is a helpful tool for businesses of all sizes. Take advantage of the opportunity to test before going live and prepare for a future where consent management is a strategic asset, not just a requirement.
