The Importance of First-Party Data

With so many tools and platforms available to help marketers and businesses reach their customers, third-party data has been an effective way to target consumers—but that’s all going to change. Due to an increased focus on consumer privacy legislation, the scale and efficacy of third-party data will begin to diminish over the coming years as more marketers rely on effective first-party data to reach current and prospective customers. First-party data is more than just the contact information you have on file; it also includes information about what your customers buy from you and how often they return for more products or services. By leveraging first-party data effectively through a customer data platform (CDP), companies can streamline marketing campaigns, reduce costs associated with third-party data providers and develop deep insights into their customers' preferences that help drive sales results from every marketing dollar spent.

Why is first-party data so valuable? 

First-party data is one of the most valuable types of information you can obtain. Customers will often opt in to loyalty programs or communications with your brand if there are two components: trust and value exchange. This exchange gives consumers incentive to provide their personal information such as email, name or phone number. These components help foster a healthy relationship with your customer base, which builds loyalty and advocacy for your brand. 

• Consumers need to trust how you use their data; reassure them that there is a valid reason for the data being collected and explain how it will be used. 
• Give consumers a reason to opt in to some form of data collection, whether that’s an email subscription list, a website login or form submission. This can come in the form of tailored, personalized experiences to incentive-based coupons.

Why do you need a customer data platform? 

The mechanism to collect consumer data is the CDP or Customer Data Platform. The CDP helps you track and understand consumer behavior and preferences in a secure environment and pass back valuable audience data to platforms like Facebook or an email provider in real-time to leverage for marketing purposes like Lookalike or Suppression. Advantages of leveraging a CDP can include: 

• Consumer journey tracking – From first-time visitors to returning shoppers and even those who are considering an account with your company. 
• Personalized experiences – Since you have a complete view of each customer's history, it’s easier for marketers and sales teams to target relevant messages at the right time in order to drive sales or increase spend per customer. 
• Optimized marketing spend across all channels – The CDP helps with segmentation based on past purchases and preferences so that each campaign can be made relevant throughout the customer lifecycle, from acquisition through retention, repeat purchase and loyalty programs.

First-party data is crucial to success. 

Whether from a manufacturer that sells product through a retailer or a brand selling direct to consumer, first-party data is an asset to your business. As privacy-related changes will impact the advertising industry and more restrictions are placed on utilizing external data partners, first-party data will be the conduit to deliver tailored experiences at scale. 

• First-party data is generally more accurate, which means that you're more likely to deliver a better customer experience and reach the right prospective consumers. 
• First-party data can help generate strong advertising results while reducing third-party data provider fees. 
• Real-time activation will help drive ad frequency and message sequencing control. 
• Since first-party data is more specific to your company, it's easier for your team to share relevant insights across departments (such as sales or marketing). This leads to better business intelligence and stronger decisions overall.
• Rich insights and customer analysis allow you to truly understand marketing effectiveness across platforms.

So, what does this all mean? 

There’s no denying it: your company should invest in first-party data. From building your customer base to leveraging advanced measurement capabilities, your business should examine how its developing customer relationships to collect first party data in privacy compliant ways. 

Connect your customer data to the moments that matter. 

 At Blue Chip, we set out to counter the rising tide of changes related to increased consumer privacy by developing a robust tool to help our clients manage, understand and leverage their customer data. harmonic™ is an audience management solution that enables the collection, curation and activation of customer data, harmonizing disparate touchpoints throughout an organization and advertising ecosystem.

Harmonic™ includes: 

• Collection, stewardship and management of customer data into a secure customer data platform 
• A unified customer database, which provides a 360-degree view of the customer
• Audience activation in real time across media platforms and lookalike modeling
• Personalized digital experience services that deliver real-time personalization based on customers' preferences, behaviors and interactions with marketing campaigns and brand or product assets 
• Robust customer analysis, media overlap and incrementality for reach, consumer profiling and segmentation, and household purchase analysis across key retailers

Are you ready to chat about developing your first-party data strategy? Reach out to us at Blue Chip to connect with experts who can help you manage your customer data and create the experiences that build relationships with your customers.