What is first-party data and why is it so important?

Discover the power of first-party data and how it can transform your marketing efforts.

Firstly, what is first-party data?

Every interaction a customer has with your business, whether it's through your website, app, phone, or store, presents an opportunity to learn more about them and how you can meet their needs. When customers choose to share data with you during these direct interactions, it’s called first-party data.

First-party data is unique to your business and provides deep insights that can help you understand and serve your customers better.

Finding the right value exchange to encourage customer buy-in.

When customers see the value in their relationship with your brand, they are more likely to share their data. Properly managed first-party data creates a feedback loop that benefits both customers and brands.

To encourage customers to share their data, consider offering something of value in exchange for this permission. Depending on your customers, value might come in the form of:

- Curated, personalised content or product recommendations based on how they interact with your website or app

- The convenience of being notified when their favourite item is back in stock

- Special deals in exchange for email sign-ups

- Invitation to receive exclusive benefits and rewards by joining your loyalty program

These tactics can help you build trust with your customers and ultimately improve their experience with your brand.

Communicating the benefits of your privacy practice to your customers.

Remember, the goal of getting customer information is to deliver better experiences to those very customers. So you need to be clear with users about what data is being used, what value they’ll get back when granting data permissions, and how they can change those permissions whenever they want.

Google has some top tips for how to go about this:

Make it memorable
Create clear privacy policies and help users feel in control of their data decisions when they’re interacting with your brand.

Make it meaningful
When people see value in an exchange, they are more likely to engage and share the data that brands need to make future exchanges more valuable.

Make it manageable
Users should be given full control of settings and features so they can decide how their information is used and when it’s deleted. Make it easy for them to find and adjust their privacy settings. And once a user has made a choice, it absolutely must be honoured.

Building out insightful first-party data.

To collect insightful first-party data, it's crucial to have the right tools and permissions in place when direct interactions take place. Here are some ways you can build your first-party data:

For site visitors, investing in a strong tagging infrastructure is key to building a privacy-safe measurement strategy. This will allow you to set first-party cookies to measure conversions and make the most of the data.

For app users, adding a software development kit (SDK) to your mobile app can help you gather information on the actions people take when they download and engage with your app. Google Analytics for Firebase SDK is available for Android and iOS apps.

For offline touchpoints, investing in a customer relationship management (CRM) tool can help you collect and organize information shared during offline interactions, such as meetings or phone calls. This information can be imported to measure campaign performance with Google's advertising and measurement tools, including Google Ads and Google Analytics

And if going direct-to-consumer isn't an option, consider working with partners who can help you connect directly and build up your first-party data. For example, a food company could partner with home meal kit makers to develop recipes using its food brands, and a beverage company could acquire an at-home soda maker brand that allows consumers to connect directly with the company's soda brands.

Summary

Utilising first-party data effectively is more crucial than ever for marketers.  These are some initial tactics to help you collect insightful first-party data that will help you better understand your customers and improve their experience with your brand.

If you’re keen to learn more or want some guidance around transforming your customer experience, check out our purpose-built Future CX Workshop. With the rise of first-party data policies, AI technology and customer uncertainty, we’ve created a workshop to help brands navigate their way through it all and come out on top. We’d love to hear from you.