Not so Fast, Marketers: Don’t Get Too Comfortable Relying on Third-Party Data
Now that Google has scrapped its years-long effort to eliminate third-party cookies, marketers are collectively breathing a sigh of relief knowing they still have access to large pools of third-party data. While an unpopular decision for consumers and their privacy, it’s positive and lucrative for Google’s business and marketers looking to leverage online activity data to target consumers.
However, this doesn’t change the fact that users are able to disable cookies on their own accord, and will most likely do so, as they prefer privacy when given the choice. Google will now prompt users to set their cookies preferences across Google browsing experiences, and awareness is spreading among the public to protect their privacy and disable cookies. Other web browsers, including Safari and Firefox, have taken similar steps in allowing consumers the choice of disabling cookies.
As consumers have become increasingly hesitant to share data with organizations in their everyday interactions, B2B leaders must also keep pace with evolving expectations. Brands are expected to develop a better understanding of their audiences’ preferences and interests for more targeted and relevant marketing. This makes it extremely important to deliver value throughout each exchange with their audience.
This leads to marketers leaning into zero- and first-party data. Utilizing zero- and first-party data more heavily for marketing efforts, in replacement of or in tandem with third-party data, should be a priority for marketers to ensure accuracy as the industry moves toward a more cookieless place. This strategy is the only way to balance personalization with security concerns, find a middle ground with the consumer, and still produce effective campaigns.
Gathering Reliable Zero- and First-Party Data
As third-party data becomes less reliable, marketing tools that help gather zero- and first-party data are crucial. These tools should interact with the subject directly, creating more reliable sets of data. There are a variety of platforms that help businesses collect this kind of data and analytics directly from their websites, all with different offerings and price points.
For example, certain tools can analyze website visitors or app users through their interactions with the brand, such as clicks, purchase history, time spent on webpages, and more. This can lead marketers to conclusions about specific demographics, buyer interests, preferences, and behaviors. By leveraging this data, businesses can build relationships and personalize content for both existing and potential customers. Tools with machine learning algorithms can help businesses understand the data, identify trends, and make real-time decisions, further enhancing customer engagement and acquisition.
Before looking to another platform to gather data, there are also a few simple ways to gather incredibly valuable zero- and first-party data directly from in-person, mobile, and web experiences. This can include detailed registration forms with questions that provide insight into user preferences, interests, and professional needs, or session-attendance details to understand what topics interest customers most. This information helps tailor future experiences with the brand and ensure more effective and timely follow-up communications. In addition to registration forms, it’s important to provide multiple opportunities for users to offer feedback through surveys, polls, and forms at various touchpoints. This continuous feedback loop helps in understanding attendee and customer preferences in real-time throughout their customer journey. There are also opportunities to consider gamifying data collection by offering credits or points toward purchase for participation in quizzes and interactive surveys.
A Mutually Beneficial Strategy
Data gathered from zero- and first-party interactions benefit both the organization and the customer. Allowing organizations to provide tailored experiences and create custom content that will be helpful for them results in stronger customer loyalty.
In order to make this larger transformation and turn strategy into action, it has to begin with the organization on the back end. This can ensure that the data captured is valuable, accessible, and put to use. If they don’t have one already, it’s critical that marketing teams invest in a customer data platform (CDP), which is a designated place to store customer data profiles and subsets of data. CDPs offer a multitude of strategies to locate and ensure data is being collected and utilized.
Marketers can work to eliminate data silos, where data is stored within its own platform and leveraged as a stand-alone source. Instead, they can integrate different data sources and sets to be seamlessly connected to CDPs and marketing automation systems. It’s also vital that processes are put in place up front for consistent and systematic data collection, to ensure data does not get lost amid the moving parts of a marketing campaign or activity. These processes should account for multiple data formats that apply to a specific campaign, such as registrations, mobile engagement, chats, meetings, engagement with the brand, and more.
A smart marketing (and business) strategy embraces the potential to deliver authentic and trustworthy interactions with current and prospective customers. The adoption of zero- and first-party data strategies has not just been a reaction to the deterioration of cookies; it represents a broader movement toward genuine, transparent, and personalized audience engagement from marketing organizations.
Ashleigh Cook is chief marketing officer at RainFocus. Cook is a data-driven B2B marketing leader with a passion for helping high-growth companies establish and scale marketing functions, and with a strong track record of developing and executing successful global marketing programs that contribute to bookings and revenue.
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