What Is First Party Data & How to Use It in Marketing Reports
First-party data and CRM (customer relationship management) data are valuable sources of information that can provide insights into customer behavior and preferences. When used effectively, these data sources can be integrated into marketing reports to provide a more holistic view of marketing performance and customer interactions.
But what exactly is first-party data? How do you collect it? And how do you use it? In this article, we explore everything there is to know about first-party data.
What Is First-Party Data?
First-party data is information that is collected by your company directly from your audience, including customers, social media followers, or website visitors. The data is collected when these customers interact with your company channels.
There’s a huge amount of information that can be collected from these seemingly brief interactions, which can inform your marketing strategies, including:
Demographic information, like age, gender, and location
Behavioral information, like purchases made, pages visited, and time spent on each page
Other information, like CRM data, social media conversations, survey data, and online chat transcripts
In short, any interactions you have with users online can be used to build a sharper profile of your customer base.
Why Is First-Party Data Important?
As third-party cookie collection is being increasingly phased out to protect users’ privacy, the ability to collect first-party data is essential for brands to succeed online.
First-party data allows you to:
Better understand your customers to target them efficiently with your marketing. Get a clear idea of your audience’s needs then speak to those wants with your campaigns.
Build deeper relationships with customers with personalized marketing efforts. These bonds will continue well after the campaign has ended, providing you with even more data.
Strengthen your brand by creating content that will resonate with your audience and increase your social media engagement.
Increase revenue as you can grow your brand without the need for paid ads. Personalized experiences drive conversions without spending.
How to Collect First-Party Data
Collecting first-party data isn’t as complicated as it looks. Simply follow the 3 steps below.
STEP 1: IDENTIFY YOUR KEY METRICS
Before collecting your first-party data and CRM data and adding it to your marketing reports, it's important to identify the key metrics that will be tracked. These could include metrics like whether a customer is new or returning, customer lifetime value, customer acquisition cost, conversion rates, and average order value. You may even want to group customers into different segments (high, mid, low value or loyal, lapsed, etc)
STEP 2: COLLECT THE DATA
First-party data is collected directly from customers and can include data like website behavior, purchase history, and demographic information. This data can be collected using website analytics tools like Google Analytics, lead generation forms hosted on your website like contact forms, free quote forms, or newsletter sign-ups, surveys like polls on social media or customer reviews, and other sources like online chats and customer service interactions.
STEP 3: INTEGRATE THE DATA
For a deeper analysis and understanding of your first-party data, integrate it into a report with your CRM data too. This includes customer interactions and transactions, and can be integrated into marketing reports using tools like customer data platforms (CDPs) and marketing automation software.
Creating a First-Party Data Strategy
With your data collected, it’s time to analyze it and use the information to create a data-led strategy that will impact and benefit your marketing.
ANALYZE THE DATA
Once first-party data and CRM data have been integrated into marketing reports, it's important to analyze the data to identify trends and patterns. This analysis can help to identify opportunities for improving marketing performance and customer engagement.
CREATE ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS
The insights gained from analyzing first-party data and CRM data can be used to create actionable insights that inform marketing strategy and tactics. For example, insights could be used to optimize marketing or email campaigns or improve website design.
USE VISUALIZATION TOOLS
To make it easier to understand and communicate insights from first-party data and CRM data, it can be helpful to use visualization tools like charts and graphs. These can be incorporated into marketing reports to provide a clear picture of marketing performance and customer behavior.
How to Use First-Party Data in Marketing
First-party data can unlock a lot of doors in the world of marketing. Here are some examples of effective ways to use your first-party data to its full potential.
OPTIMIZE LANDING PAGES FOR PEAK USER EXPERIENCE
Tailor your landing pages to suit your audience, aiming to keep them engaged and on the page for as long as possible. For example, if first-party data shows that users are consistently bouncing off the page at a certain point, you can identify what needs to be fixed to stop that from happening.
Similarly, if you see that 90% of users are navigating to your site via mobile, you can prioritize the mobile browsing experience.
RUN TARGETED PAID AND SOCIAL MEDIA ADS
Making effective targeted advertising is a lot easier when you know all the ins and outs of your audience. Create ads that speak directly to your potential customers and address their needs.
CREATE RELEVANT ORGANIC CONTENT
Creating content can sometimes feel like you’re throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. But with first-party data, it’s a lot easier to see exactly what resonates with your audience.
From videos and social posts to blogs and digital guides, determine exactly what makes your audience stop and click. Then, deliver it.
SEND MORE ENGAGING EMAILS
Emails are still one of the most successful marketing formats, with a significant ROI when done right. First-party data can help you craft more engaging and entertaining emails. Your audience can be segmented into different groups, like gender, location, or age, and sent personalized, relevant messages based on this.
START LOYALTY PROGRAMS
Different audience groups may respond differently to various loyalty program offerings - some may prefer a discount and some covet early-bird access to sales. With first-party data, you can figure out exactly what it is that your customers will engage with most and offer it to them in return for their data.
Collect & Analyze First-Party Data With Block & Tam
Block & Tam’s custom reporting service provides a fast, cost-effective, and painless way to import, centralize, and gain actionable insights from any of your digital marketing data - be it first-party, CRM, or compliant third-party data.
Our multi-skilled data, analytics, and marketing experts will:
Import your current data sources and reporting platform into a central location
Assess and clean up tagging issues, data inaccuracies, or incorrect mapping
Sync the data so that it loads in near-real time within your desired reporting platform
Design a suite of custom tabular and visual reports that provide actionable insights for every role and team within your company
By working with a first-party data and reporting expert like Block & Tam, you can benefit from:
No more heavy data lifting - combining and centralizing different reports
No more pivoting data to find insights - just action crystal clear risks or opportunities
No more building detailed PowerPoints - automated report generation in custom branding
Overall, by integrating first-party data and CRM data into marketing reports, brands can gain a deeper understanding of their customers and make more informed decisions about marketing strategy and tactics. To find out how Block & Tam could help you to achieve this, contact us today.
