Collecting First Party Data – The Future Of Marketing

While most people would agree that in order to succeed as a business, you need to grow your customer base, how you actually grow and monetize is a different story. This leads us to the concept of first-party data and how important it is for businesses of all shapes and sizes. First-party data is a term that refers to the specific data you need to acquire from your customers in order for them to become valuable. For example, if you run an online store and a customer buys something from you, they have just given you their email address. This is what we call first-party data. Let’s dive in. 

Blog Overview: 

• First-Party Data is the Future of Marketing
• Digital Advertising Ecosystem
• Advertisers are in Charge but Have No Control
• Consumers Control Their Own Data
• First-Party Data Will Reignite Digital Advertising

First-Party Data is the Future of Marketing

The sooner you start thinking about collecting first-party data, the better. The reason is simple: You need to grow your customer base to make money from them later on down the line. This means you will want to collect information from anyone visiting your store or website. If someone visits your online store and places an order, they have given you their email address. 

This is a great way to start gathering first-party data. You can use this email address to send out promotional emails in the future, allowing you to keep your customers in the loop about new products and available promotions. This will also help with customer retention because it allows them to feel like they are getting something special from you as a business owner. 

Pro Tip: Leverage your content to give value + promotions.

Digital Advertising Ecosystem

Created over 20 years ago, digital advertising was based on a model. The goal of this model was to help advertisers target their audiences and sell more products. This worked well when only a few companies were competing for ad space, but now thousands of digital ad networks have flooded the market with low-quality ads that annoy users. The current model also doesn’t correctly reward publishers for their content. But that is quickly changing. There are a few different ways that publishers can monetize their sites:

• Banner Ads—Banner ads are the most common form of advertising on websites, but they’re also the least effective because users ignore them.
• Display Ads—Display ads are more interactive than banner ads but still don’t provide much value to either side because they aren’t targeted or personalized.
• Native Ads—Native ads are designed to look like real content on a website and therefore avoid being ignored by users. However, these ads are also less effective because they don’t incentivize users to click through.

Schedule a call with me today if you need help figuring out where to start with your paid digital marketing. With over a decade of experience, I know a thing or two and can set your paid marketing plan in the right direction.

Advertisers are in Charge but Have No Control

Advertisers are in charge of what ads are displayed on their sites and have no control over how users respond to them, which is a significant catch-22 in running paid advertising. And the entire point behind paid advertising is to collect first-party data. So what’s the catch? Advertisers can’t learn from their mistakes and improve the quality of their ads. To put it simply, the paid advertising industry is broken. It’s not just a problem for advertisers but publishers as well. Publishers can’t monetize their inventory at scale because they lack first-party data, which means they don’t know who their users are or what they want to see when visiting their sites.

Resource: How to Use Our Digital Marketing Team to Grow Your Business and Get Your Life Back

Small businesses, even the most successful ones, often don’t have a big enough budget to hire an entire team of people. Sometimes it’s just two or three employees doing the job of ten (or even worse, it’s just YOU). This is both stressful and unsustainable. So, one of the best solutions is to hire a virtual team to back up your in-office workers. In this workbook, I will tell you exactly what you want to look for from a virtual assistant to make sure you pick the best to work at your small business.

Consumers Control Their Own Data

Consumers have the power to control their own data. If they don’t want their information used for a particular purpose, then they can decline consent and opt-out of certain services. This turned the marketing world upside down when IOS 14 was released. Consumers look for these options now more than ever. So do it. Every company should make it easy for people to manage their personal data, so they don’t feel pressured into sharing information. Companies should be transparent about how they process data and provide full access to their algorithms so that consumers can understand what information is being collected and used.

First-Party Data Will Reignite Digital Advertising

The future of digital advertising is in first-party data, and companies need to start investing now. Through their customer interactions, they can gain valuable insight into what people are doing and how they interact with the brand. This will help them better target their ads, leading to more relevant messaging that drives engagement and sales. In the future, data will become more transparent and easier to understand. Which is what consumers have been asking for. Consumers will be able to see what information is being collected about them, how it’s being used, and who has access to it. Digital marketing has already taken a massive turn in this direction.

Thus, this level of transparency will help consumers make informed decisions about what kind of products they purchase and which brands they support with their time and money. So, as the internet continues to grow and become more sophisticated, marketers will be able to understand their customers better and provide them with more relevant content. Thus this will allow businesses to better connected with potential clients and increase revenue.

So What Did We Learn:

• The sooner you start thinking about collecting first-party data, the better.
• Created over 20 years ago, digital advertising was based on a model.
• Advertisers are in charge of what ads are displayed on their sites. They have no control over how users respond to them, which is a significant catch-22.
• Consumers have the power to control their own data
• The future of digital advertising is in first-party data, and companies need to start investing now

Bottom line:
Takeaway number one; First-Party data will be key for digital marketers and advertisers. The more data collected, the better we can understand our customers and deliver them the content they want.

Takeaway number two; The second takeaway is that consumers are becoming more active participants in marketing. Instead of just passively watching ads, consumers seek content that helps them make better decisions about what to buy and where to spend their money.

Takeaway number three; The third takeaway is that consumers want more control over their privacy. They want to be able to choose whether or not they want to participate in marketing campaigns. Which companies have access to their data.

Takeaway number 4. The fourth takeaway is that the industry needs better standards for measuring performance across channels. So we can accurately assess what works best for each brand.

Get ready for Q1 and be prepared for 2023 with success. Schedule a call with me today. 

Links for this episode: 

• How to Use Our Digital Marketing Team to Grow Your Business & Get Your Life Back!
• Schedule a free call with Jennie today!

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