Data And Insights

Recently updated on August 28th, 2024 at 10:05 am

Data-driven decision-making has been at heart of digital marketing since its inception but with recent advances in legislation strategic manoeuvring is required by organisations to maintain a healthy data-collecting capability. Is your business ready for a privacy-first future? The simplest way forward deals with the gathering of first-party data, that is, information that’s collected by an advertiser through a direct relationship with a consumer, rather than third-party data, ie. information that is collected by an entity that does not have a direct relationship with consumers.

Data and insights are vital to the sustained success of businesses that aim to operate in a digitally mature environment. It is important to note the difference between the two. Data is collected at a greater rate than ever before, and the insights that can be drawn from it must be used to inform decision-making. This simple methodology improves customer experiences and business outcomes.

Individuals are becoming more privacy conscious. Google searches for “online privacy” grew more than 50% from 2019-2020 [Read more: Privacy safe growth] . Along with legislative measures like GDPR and POPI, these factors serve to incentivise companies to depend less on third party data. So how do digitally mature companies move forward within this context? The answer lies in first-party data.

To ensure your company’s successful transition to a privacy-safe future there are three simple steps that can be followed regarding first-party data:

1. Collect first-party data such as email addresses and customer purchase history. Curate a list of people, known only to you, who you can be certain are interested in your product because you have interacted with them before. Tools that can be used to aid this objective include Google site tagging and an effective first-party data collection strategy.
2. Measure the data accurately. Correct tracking and measurement are requirements to provide a representative view of marketing performance across channels, which is the basis of drawing insights to optimise the marketing strategy going forward.
3. Activate with automation. Using tools like Google Analytics, and other software that enables automation of data-collecting activities, can significantly improve marketing performance. These tools do not replace the human element but rather enhance the user’s capabilities.

First-party data is highly relevant to your business. It helps you understand your customers while forging mutually beneficial relationships built on trust. Many marketers may know this to be true but may not have taken the necessary steps to master accessing and integrating first-party data across channels. Here are 5 tips to improve the value your business extracts from first-party data:

1. Tailor to customer experiences. Most brands don’t use data effectively because they do not have a coordinated plan that guides which data to collect, and how to analyse and activate it.
2. Offer value in exchange for data. Have you made it clear to your customers how it benefits them to share their data with you? 
3. Invest in technology and organisation enablers. Getting the most out of first-party data means putting the right people, tech and processes in place. The optimal organisational model occurs when a brand takes ownership of data and develops key capabilities for data analysis and activation internally, while working with a trusted partner to fill any gaps in expertise or knowledge.
4. Test and learn to determine direction. A test-and-learn approach to the level of personalisation needed for a given audience segment is an effective way to determine which activation type helps to achieve your marketing objectives.
5. Refine and validate with measurement. To optimise the overall marketing strategy of your organisation it is vital to measure the effectiveness of the data strategy.

If you are unsure of how your business can benefit from adopting a privacy-driven approach contact Digital Doorway today and find out how we can assist in developing your business’ first-party data strategy. 

Read more: The Fast Track to Digital Marketing Maturity