The bar is constantly being raised on how businesses are able to capture, analyse and utilise their customer data. We live in a digital world where consumer empowerment increasingly dominates the customer-brand relationship, and there is the demand for personalised experiences which meet their needs at any given time. And of course GDPR gave more of this power to the consumers, letting them be in direct control of the data that businesses hold on them and what they use it for. However, these two points together have renewed and increased the importance for collecting and utilising first-party data.
First-party data is simply the data that your business collects directly from your users, members or subscribers. Unlike third-party data which is generally purchased from an outside source or generated by ads using website cookies (with no explicit consent to use it), first-party data comes willingly straight from the source and therefore costs very little to acquire. This makes this type of data invaluable to businesses as its likely to be highly accurate, up-to-date and most importantly carries consent to use, so it complies with the EU privacy regulations.
With this being the essential foundation for understanding who your audience is, collecting first-party data can be done seamlessly with the actual interactions the customer has with your brand across numerous touchpoints. Some examples include:
- Registration forms
- Web behaviour tracking
- E-Commerce transactions
- Email newsletter sign-up forms
- Email opens and clicks
- Feedback surveys
Businesses that are able to leverage first-party data are in a better position to provide the personalised experience their customers want today by delivering highly targeted content, marketing messages, product recommendations and advertising to their audience at the right place and time. This helps to build engagement and trust over time driving conversion, retention and loyalty rates. And when it comes to your advertisers, first-party data provides the model to diversify away from traditional volume-based banner ad targeting into more strategic qualified ad targeting through display and native content-based advertising.
To learn how our platforms can help your organisation employ different techniques to compliantly capture first-party data and deliver a highly personalised experience that provides value to your customers, whilst driving revenue for you and your brand partners, please get in touch.
