With the rapidly approaching cookie-less world and the inability to access 3rd party data, obtaining 1st party data is critical for an organisation’s ongoing success. But it’s not as bad as it sounds - the benefit of 1st party data being unique to your business and your customers/audiences are that it opens up highly specific and better targeting opportunities for marketers to deliver more personalised messages than ever before.
Whilst 1st party data generally comes with fewer privacy challenges and allows you to really talk to your existing and potential customer’s needs, it’s data that’s often the hardest to obtain, as it involves your audience’s willingness to share their information with you.
Could you give us your details… please?
So how do you entice your audience to part with their details (or currently, accept cookies on your website)?
By providing value when they interact with you.
Depending on the product or service you are trying to sell, and the customer type, the perception of what constitutes a value exchange will differ. However there are common, overarching areas for marketers to focus on when planning their 1st party data strategy:
- Be transparent in demonstrating how data will be used and the benefits of users sharing their data
- Create an engaging UX with compelling touchpoints on owned channels to encourage users to provide their information
What does value look like?
As mentioned, the perceived value and therefore motivation/incentive to share 1st party data will vary across audience segments.
Some of the current methods actually engage with a user prior to, or irrespective of, any purchase taking place. These can include:
- Firstly, ease of sign-on and creating an account. Time is valuable too (as is not having to remember passwords!) - being able to sign on using Google or Facebook credentials, and then saving account information details for future visits starts the interaction process on a positive note.
- ‘Permission Marketing’ is the traditional term for gathering information on a user in exchange for something. One of the most common applications today is a discount or offer for registering/subscribing e.g. a percentage off the next purchase when they subscribe to a newsletter or join a loyalty club
- A follow-on from this is to give loyalty ‘points’ for various types on interactions (log-in, follow on social media, share with a friend etc), all of which can then be put towards future purchases
- In a B2B setting, this usually involves providing gated content such as a white-paper, or offering a free trial, in return for contact information
- Running lead generation competitions/giveaways that don’t require a purchase - again giving value in return for gaining data (similar to earlier point, competitions quite often give ‘extra entries’ when entrants engage further across channels).
- Tiered loyalty with curated discounts or ‘better’ gifts with purchase - often associated with amount spent over a given period of time, this tactic still requires exchange of information (and generally more detailed data once a customer is engaged in this level of loyalty)
- ‘VIP’ style notifications (e.g. early access to sales etc) via email and SMS.
How do we know what will work for our audience?
Build trust, ask, and test.
- Take a look at your brand and UX/CX. People are more likely to give their data to a brand or organisation they trust and feel understands their needs - does your messaging and content reflect that?
- Depending on the kind of relationship you have with your customers, you could go out and literally ask them. Find out how they like to engage with your organisation and, probably more importantly, other brands they purchase from. Try to delve into what really motivates them to consent to giving out their information, as well as what turns them off.
- Now would also be a good time to test different marketing channels beyond your website and see where you get the best response from users. Depending on budget, you could also look at A/B testing lead generation landing pages and advertising.
A 1st party data strategy isn’t static. It requires marketers to continually measure and refine what is working and for whom - much like the campaigns that will come out of gathering this unique data. Without cookies and 3rd party data, organisations have to focus on how to develop a strong value proposition in order to reach new, as well as nurture and retain existing, customers going into the future. And it’s a strategy that if done well, will become one of, if not the, powerful tool in their kit.
The Wondaris cloud platform allows you to link all of your business and marketing data sources so you can better understand what’s driving people to your brand and how you can ensure they stay loyal to you long-term. Connect with the Wondaris team today.
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