Shaping Your Digital Future Part 2: Leveraging Engagement to Generate Zero-Party Data

As a cookieless world approaches, marketing teams continue to search ways to collect data without breaching compliance regulations. Becoming inventive in their pursuits, many are turning to interactive data, leveraging tools such as quizzes, polls and competitions to generate engagement and entice new audiences.

In part one of Shaping Your Digital Future, we looked at how brands can use interactive content to attract new audiences and create an unmatched level of customer experience from the very first interaction a consumer has with a brand.

Now, part two considers how brands can make the most of the zero- and first-party data collected from utilizing such technology.

The Importance of Zero-Party Data

In a world heavily concerned with consumer privacy, zero-party data provides brands with a reliable solution that doesn’t rely on cookies or information collected by third parties. Instead, zero-party data is that which is offered directly to brands by consumers themselves. 

So what does this mean?

It benefits both brand and consumer.

From the consumer’s perspective, they are giving away small amounts of information, such as certain preferences over specific interests and purchase intentions. Seemingly insignificant data while safe in the knowledge that more personal information isn’t being exploited. Yet for a brand, this has the potential to be the beginning of a long-term relationship.

Using this data provided directly from the consumer, a brand can better understand them. It can begin to segment and target them based on their preferences, promoting further engagement – and even potentially rewarding that engagement before any sale is ever made.

From here, a brand can create a bond with the consumer, who sees that they are now being rewarded by the company with discounts and offers for little effort on their end – such as sharing specific preferences. This encourages loyalty, and according to the book Marketing Metrics, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, whereas the probability for selling to someone new is 5-20%. Suddenly, by continuing this level of interaction with the consumer, zero-party data – and the actions generated by that data – can convert someone who might never have even heard of the brand into a loyal customer.

Adapt Now for Future Success

The brands that implement these solutions into their marketing campaigns will be the ones that thrive, both now and into the long term. Removing the reliance on third-party cookies now will provide brands a competitive advantage once they are removed completely. Their zero-party data approach will be well established, enabling them to better target consumers while other brands scramble for new solutions.

Once cookies are officially gone, the combination of interactive content and data collection will  not only be helping brands to attract new audiences through interactivity and engagement, but the technology will also be promoting a much more loyal customer base. Those that invest early can gain a competitive advantage over the laggards who cling onto cookies right until death.

Zero-party data is based on trust and exchange. Consumers share their details with the expectation of getting something in return – whether that is a physical prize or something less tangible, such as a better user experience. Through interactive marketing and first- and zero-party data collection, brands can know their audience and build trust with ease while developing loyalty. The future of digital marketing lies in collecting first- and zero-party data.

[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]