3 Reasons to Use First-Party Data to Regain Your Customers' Trust

Couldn't attend Transform 2022? Check out all the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Look here.

Marketing has undergone significant changes over the past decade. More recently, the disappearance of third-party cookies has caused marketers across industries to rethink their strategies and what to do once cookies are finally gone. But before we get to that, it's important to understand how we got here.

Third-party cookies were introduced to allow marketers to track what they thought customers wanted across different platforms. If a customer searched for an item on one website, ads for that item would appear on all other sites visited. While initially this might have been a good way to better understand consumer behavior, it actually caused customers to lose faith in the brands they loved while making it harder for brands to have a real idea of ​​what their customers actually wanted.

As a result, many brands began to adopt other methods of communication when they realized they were losing loyal customers and audiences. They started engaging with influencers and affiliate programs because these offered a more “authentic” relationship. However, such programs require significant time investments to be operational and high recurrent costs to maximize their reach. This approach has caused many marketers to overlook one of the most untapped resources they have access to: first-party data.

First-party data is data collected within a customer's ecosystem. Collected from email, social media subscribers, app usage, and website traffic (among other things), this data is usually what customers already choose to provide. As marketers and brands continue to search for alternative methods to personalize the customer experience while maintaining engagement, first-party data is the key that many are missing.

Event

MetaBeat 2022

MetaBeat will bring together thought leaders to advise on how metaverse technology will transform the way all industries communicate and do business on October 4 in San Francisco, CA.

register here

In 2021, a study found that 71% of consumers expected companies to offer personalized interactions. And 76% are frustrated when it doesn't happen. Additionally, the same research found that faster-growing companies derive 40% more of their revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts. Because COVID-19 has changed nearly every way marketers interact with customers, first-party data has the ability to create the personalized experiences that matter most.

First-party data takes personalization to a new level

With the increased need for personalization, we have to consider that third-party data is simply pulled from the cookies that follow you around the internet. It doesn't actually track the items you buy the way first-party data does. First-party data is the actual information from your devices, structured to match what you are looking for.

For example, let's say you're going on a trip and you're looking for the best suitcase to buy. By doing your own research, you find that the Away suitcase is the best to use for where you are going. With this you also book a trip to Italy. All confirmations are in your email, so you now receive recommendations for sightseeing in Italy, local restaurants, and cars you can rent. That's the power of first-party data: leveraging the information you've already provided to make intelligent recommendations about what to do and what to buy for it.

...