Strategies to persuade customers to share their data

As the scope of targeted online advertising narrows, marketing heads must persuade consumers to share their data willingly. Additionally, they must efficiently handle acquiring and managing this first-party data.

Google has issued salvation to digital advertisers, saying it won't scrap technology that tracks web-browsing habits. However, this relief could be fleeting and doesn't reduce the immediate need for your organisation to persuade potential and current customers to voluntarily share their data on preferences and behaviour (first-party data).

To thrive in consent-based advertising, all digital leaders must expedite collecting, consolidating, and utilising first-party data. Furthermore, they will need top-tier strategies to encourage customers to contribute their first-party data and robust data and analytics management skills to manage this data effectively.

The demise of third-party cookies

Initially, third-party cookies were developed to save data under end users' oversight anonymously. However, ad tech providers appropriated them to accumulate and connect datasets for targeting and measuring ads.

Consequently, Google and Apple have declared plans to enhance user control over their data, highlighting privacy issues. This leads to several challenges that digital marketing leaders will have to confront. Ad targeting, purchasing, and optimisation strategies will significantly change, particularly for performance-focused campaigns and personalised audiences. Methods for attribution and optimisation are continuously evolving, progressively testing and refining app-to-web tracking.

The actions to prepare for first-party data capture

In the long run, digital leaders will need to persuade customers to divulge their preferences by creating engaging interaction points for data collection as customers navigate towards purchases on company-owned channels.

First-party data will bolster customer relationships, allowing businesses to offer highly personalised and relevant experiences. The methods you use to collect and manage first-party data will be essential. Here are three key areas that digital marketers should concentrate on immediately.

Establish a foundation for customer data management

Before ramping up your customer data collection efforts, assessing your organisational structure and capabilities is essential to pinpoint efficiencies and fill gaps.

In a B2B environment, data management, integration, and formatting should be among the top three most time-intensive activities.

The issue of successfully integrating and applying customer data is growing more urgent as regulations surrounding third-party sources tighten.

B2B companies must grapple with skills and technologies, including the optimal use of customer data platforms and the most efficient data collection, storage, and organisation processes. They must also gauge the sophistication of their advanced analytics and understand what constitutes best practices and how to implement them.

Tailor data collection for current conditions

Customers increasingly worry about who is gathering their data, how their behaviour is being tracked, and what becomes of their information and data. So, please be ready to customise your data collection methods to ensure customers are comfortable sharing their data.

It's essential to adhere to data privacy best practices and formulate a clear strategy—potentially drawing on insights gained by your peers—to encourage account sign-ups and leverage first-party data to enhance the customer experience across all websites, apps, and emails.

Create compelling touchpoints for the data collection on owned channels

It's a good idea to encourage customers to share personal information.

Common strategies encompass loyalty programs that request data in exchange for transactional and experiential rewards. Nevertheless, there are possibilities to motivate account creation or data collection beyond the realm of traditional loyalty programs.

Several instances help you learn more about your customers after a purchase. For example, if you engage with your customers post-delivery, you can act on their feedback to refine your processes. Furthermore, retargeting initiatives and direct communication through email and social media persistently capture valuable data for marketers.

All businesses need to become more adept at utilising data from loyalty programs to amplify engagement on their owned channels, thereby bolstering customer retention efforts. They should also view friction or churn within the post-purchase experience as opportunities to gather valuable data and feedback.

For more insights into how to work with your data and your CRM, check out our in-depth guide on the topic. If your company needs to get its data in order, and if you're interested in actually getting something out of it, feel free to book a meeting with me, and we can discuss it further.