 Your new post is loading...
“In-app, web push, and mobile push notifications are the only channels marketers plan to use more frequently in 2021 than they have previously. This tells us that the sudden boost in consumers’ mobile usage in 2020 pushed marketers to overhaul their customer engagement strategies with a stronger focus on the mobile experience,” says Iterable’s Alyssa Jarrett. “Now that marketers are more comfortable with harnessing mobile channels, we anticipate that more of them will leverage AI-driven tools and zero-party data in 2021 to better personalize their messages and build a more cohesive brand experience.”
There will also be a continued shift away from data collected by third party cookies in 2021. Back in January – when the term ‘coronavirus’ was starting to be thrown around – Google revealed its plans to deprecate third party cookies on Chrome. This jump started the race for businesses and advertisers to find new ways to collect actionable data. Offline data is the current frontrunner, with a particular premium on genuine purchase transactions that can be aggregated to an extent that balances consumer privacy.
While first party data has been an essential part of data strategies in recent times, zero party data could very well have its moment in 2021. Zero party is data that is owned by the customer that is proactively shared with a brand. It is not data that is ever sold or transacted, rather, it is all about improving customer experiences through self reporting. This might include preference data or purchase intentions. The difference between first party data and zero party data is that while an organisation technically owns its customer’s first party data, they do not own zero party data.
The rise of zero party data will come as customers continue to demand better experiences and expect brands to manage their data in an ethical and compliant way. Businesses should start thinking of ways to collect this zero party data to be prepared for this coming change.
"In addition to unlocking first-party data through enterprise data platforms and CDPs, brands also feel the need to increase zero-party data acquisition. Zero-party data is that which a customer intentionally and proactively shares with the company. It can include transaction intentions, preference data, personal context, and what the customer thinks about the company. Zero-party data will become increasingly important as third-party data sources become less relied upon to complete private identity graphs. Ideally, zero-party data can be some of the most valuable data acquired. Marketers don’t have to infer customer preferences or behavior through secondary behavior but are instead explicitly told, straight from the source. The best zero-party data is when the customers trust the brand and are willing to volunteer their data with the understanding that it will improve their experience. Gathering zero-party data is a capability in itself, and new programs and capture methods have to be built and deployed. The data can be gathered through transactions, during conversations with the customer in person or online, or requested directly through forms or surveys. While volunteered information for its own sake might be preferred, marketers may also offer incentive programs in exchange for personal information, such as a coupon or discount. This could include offering a quote, useful information, a newsletter, or exclusive content in exchange. It could be in exchange for early or preferred access to special or limited products or services. The data request might be part of a loyalty program with rewards or points. It might be a contest or use gamification tactics. Marketers can get quite creative in how they approach these programs."
Outside of pandemic demands, marketers made one item a top priority in 2020: first-party data. As cookies and mainstay methods of in-app tracking go the way of the dinosaur, forging a personal connection with consumers has become essential, but will prove more challenging than conducting digital marketing the old way.
"It was definitely simpler to collect that [third-party] data," said Raphael Ravilla, partner, media and connections planning at Marcus Thomas. "It's going to be harder to collect first-party data that's authenticated and whatnot, but it's going to: 1.) make marketers try harder to get that data, but 2.) it's also going to be cleaner data than what we were using."
Rob Fagnani, Head of Business Development, Formation.ai
“Unprecedented shifts in consumer behavior due to the pandemic have left many companies scrambling to figure out effective ways to connect with their customers to build trust and remain top of mind. Marketers have increasingly leveraged their first- and zero-party data to glean insights, and the need to generate insights at the individual level vs. segment level has become all the more important.”
“The pandemic threw a wrench in traditional segmentation models that measure recency, frequency, and spend. Marketers have realized that they need tools that allow them to more nimbly respond to changes in customer behavior. Expect that marketers will increasingly partner with their analytics teams and leverage tools that more dynamically build segments and customer audiences based on more granular criteria that informs customer context.”
Cheetah Digital VP go-to-market APAC, Billy Loizou questions if the industry got it wrong, with trust at an all-time low and consumer data security issues at an all-time high following data breaches and new regulations. He imagines a world where the consumer owns their data and has a single brand view, where they can store all the different data points brands have about them in one place.
SlickText CRO, Brian Wilson, sees this leading to permission-based campaigns becoming more normalised throughout all marketing channels. “You know customers actually want those notifications and touchpoints because they opt in for them, creating a greater marketing ROI while connecting you with your core audience, says Wilson.
Given this trend, brands are expanding their mobile and in-app channel messaging capabilities. By the end of 2021, 92% of U.K. B2C brands plan to have a mobile app – 66% businesses currently have an app in place and 26% plan to build one in 2021. Brands are also keen to ramp up their use of data to enhance their offering to customers. Next year, 78% of U.K. marketing leaders expect to use zero-party data more (defined as information customers freely and intentionally provide to a brand) to personalise messaging experiences.
Vocell concluded: “With marketers heavily investing in zero-party data and elevating the importance of mobile, 2021 will solidify mobile apps as a marketing standard as companies aim to create a truly personalised customer experience based on data of what consumers really want.”
The respondents expect to add platforms in these areas: automation, data warehouse/customer data and data analytics, all of which would facilitate personalized email marketing. Indeed, email deliverability technologies also make this list, although they are fifth.
In line with this, 78% will use zero-party data — data provided by customers themselves — to drive personalization.
This could also denote a turn from third-party data, a move that would reduce their compliance concerns.
78% of marketers also plan to use zero-party data—data given explicitly to a brand by customers—to better personalize messaging experiences in 2021.
Zero-party data is also ready for a big jump in utilization as brands identify new customer data sources to leverage in place of third-party cookies, which Google plans to eliminate by 2022. And even though consumers consider data privacy to be important, they still expect an individualized experience from brands.
Marketers can navigate this challenge with zero-party data by collecting data from consumers transparently and directly. Additionally, zero-party data gives marketers a chance to welcome consumers into a conversation with their brand as well as give them a share of voice and sense of partnership.
In 2020, the new focus for brands is gaining a real, direct relationship with audiences.
If they don’t already have those records, they need to gather them – and that’s going to mean providing attractive value in return for signals like email addresses. Some are coming to call this voluntarily-supplied information “zero-party” data.
“You really want to personalise and make those experiences most relevant for consumers,” Sandra Swindle, SVP, CRM Technology Delivery Lead at Merkle says. “But, in order, to do that brands need that data back.
“And so, giving an exchange of value for that data, is something that a lot of brands are working on right now in order to keep that consumer profile or understand how to make their products work for consumers and drive what consumers are looking for. Tomorrow is going to continue to be relevant as we move into this compliance era.”
“The inevitable death of the third-party cookie and the growing regulatory scrutiny of digital advertising ecosystems will force CMOs and their marketing teams to reengineer the way they obtain and manage consumers’ personal data.
“In 2021, one in four CMOs will seek the support of comprehensive consent management solutions that enable contextually relevant, zero-party data collection and allow marketing teams to manage consent, including opt-out and do not sell, and customers’ preferences.
“If implemented properly, these solutions provide marketing teams with increased data granularity and accuracy. They can also deliver CX improvements. CMOs who lack these tools or rely on solutions that focus solely on cookie management and measurements must start evaluating alternative options now.”
I believe the future of marketing is the trust economy. The Stop Hate for Profit campaign, the invasion of privacy and shifting attitudes and behaviors of consumers point to the end of an era where marketers relied upon third-party data. Trust is now the most impactful economic power, not data. We conducted research earlier this year with eConsultancy, and our findings revealed that 39% of U.S. consumers don’t like personal ads driven from cookie data. People don’t want to be tracked and targeted as they click around the web. Ad tech’s roof is caving in and marketers must adjust.
The old methods of marketing won’t carry you through into the era of the trust economy. It is time to look to new channels and revisit old channels. We have to shift back to the channels where we own what is being said. Advertising on social platforms should be focused on driving consumers to owned channels where you can capture their permissions and data to connect with them directly. Consider email as a channel to focus on.
Don’t worry — it works. That same eConsultancy report found nearly three out of four consumers made a purchase in the last 12 months from an email sent by a brand or retailer and massively outperformed social ads when it came to driving sales. Similarly nine times as many U.S. consumers want to increase their participation in loyalty programs in 2020 than those that want to reduce their involvement. You have to ensure you are owning your data and loyalty programs are a treasure trove of consumer data you own. Emily Collins from Forrester does a good job of explaining why you can achieve this with a true loyalty strategy, not just a rewards program.
As the media ecosystem continues to evolve, achieving a single customer view across all channels will no longer be the holy grail for marketers. As the walls of the walled gardens continue to get higher, we’re seeing platforms wanting to own the entire user journey and experience. This in turn means that brands will not be owning data in quite the same way.
With data privacy and the death of the cookie being front of mind for many marketers, brands will be looking carefully at how they gather and utilise customer data. We’re heading towards a zero-party data approach, where brands collect data from consumers either directly through their in-house marketing teams or via their agency partners.
Historical data is no longer as helpful as it once was. Consumer behavior has fundamentally changed almost overnight, as people are suddenly shopping more online, even for essentials, and embracing new habits, such as contactless delivery. Many of these changes are likely to be permanent, and more will continue to evolve, requiring companies to rely on fluid data points and employ new tools and strategies to better engage and understand customers.
Marketers are key players in helping their companies capture, integrate, and use this type of first-party data — such as user profiles, preferences, traits, and channel engagement — to monitor in real time how customer habits are changing. Second-party data might also be useful, especially if delivered in a timely manner. Collaboration with business and supply chain partners, for instance, can yield valuable, real-time customer information.
Third-party data and associated predictive models can also play a role in unearthing actionable customer insights, as can activating marketing efforts in response to new demand triggers, such as footfall traffic patterns, recent category purchase data, competitor purchase behaviors, location data, and other data points that can increase customer acquisition and engagement.
Scaling campaigns in the past seemed easy due to the plethora of third-party data available for traders to liberally sprinkle into campaigns to meet budget and performance goals. Yet as we continue to see more data providers repeal their third-party data taxonomies, brands expect to see scalability affected, but they might not realise the hidden use cases where third-party data is a foundational element, like, for instance, audience insights. And with insights being a key criteria for better personalisation, it’s time for brands to concentrate on the substance of the data they can collect themselves.
One impactful way to derive insights without reliance on external providers is through zero-party data. Whereas first-party data relies on a consumer’s behaviours or inputted information, such as their name, email address, date of birth, home address, purchases etc, zero-party data covers areas that cannot be inferred and that no third-party provider could capture independently. For example, a beauty brand might ask your hair type (curly, wavy, straight, fine, thick or frizzy), or an FMCG brand might want to know your preferred snack flavor (sweet, salty or crunchy).
By working with a technology provider that can help deploy zero-party data collection strategies at scale, brands can have richer, more distinctive ways of understanding their audience, and an even clearer value exchange for consumers: more personalised messaging. All without relying on third-party data.
55% of consumers would happily share data directly to a brand in return for value. Moreover, users are happy to get personalized messages, ads and services when they explicitly give their permission. So the key is to turn the unknown consumer into known by collecting opt-ins and then profiling consumers by collecting zero party data, which powers responsive advertising and engagement.
Fatemeh Khatibloo VP and principal analyst at Forrester gave three guiding principles as the starting points to facilitate mutually beneficial engagements that really encourage consumers to willingly provide zero party data: - Transparency: Customers want clear expectations of the data that’s collected and how it’s to be used. That means not letting the legal team or compliance teams create ‘how we use your data’ pages. Experiences have to be human-understandable and human-readable.
- Contextually appropriate: Aiming for data minimization that doesn’t break, but adds to the experience means asking only for data that helps organizations genuinely provide a better experience. It’s better to have a beautiful, clean data pond than a giant, polluted data lake.
- Fair value exchange: Value is subjective. Making sure the trade-off is balanced and fair is absolutely vital. Exchanges must be simple and meaningful. It’s also about passing the ‘reasonable expectation test’. If the average person, who isn’t a marketer, would be shocked or dismayed by how the data is being used, then it’s probably not the right thing to be doing.
In a recent report, The State of Publishing: Monetizing inventory without third-party cookies — conducted with Digiday — we surveyed 52 global publishers ranging from traditional news organizations to community sites. Of those surveyed, 71 percent said they had already started planning for a future without cookies, and 100 percent said transacting on first-party data will play an important role in building their post-cookies strategies.
These findings highlight publishers’ growing appetite to leverage data to get closer to their customers. Furthermore, the growing discussion around zero-party data and first-party data is a strong indication that publishers are doubling down on building consumer experiences based on trusted value exchanges.
In 2020, consumers were empathetic to brands trying to adjust. By 2021, we shouldn't be surprised when consumers become frustrated at businesses that haven't adapted. According to that CMO survey, 84% of consumers are placing an increased value on digital experiences. With the disruption at retail, e-commerce is a digital experience that has likely seen a permanent shift. This means many brands will be competing head-to-head with robust marketplaces like Amazon, Target and Walmart.
This is a challenging feat and highlights the importance of developing relationships beyond transactional behavior. Brand-owned communities offer a world of digital experiences to consumers. From content to discussions to personalized offers and messages, a brand-owned community elevates all other digital experiences and provides an advantage unique just to you.
Communities offer brands access to zero-party data — data that is proactively given and explores things like values, preferences and lifestyle. Capturing zero-party data is the first step to creating experiences that resonate. Often times personalization efforts can cross the line into being viewed as a little creepy. However, when a consumer shares something about themselves proactively, and the brand, in turn, offers an experience aligned with that information, it's not creepy — it's helpful and responsive.
Three privacy-related trends will underpin this transition: 1) an ever-increasing appetite to collect, process, and share sensitive personal data from consumers and employees; 2) despite the recessionary economy, values-based consumers will increasingly prefer to engage with and entrust their data to ethical businesses; and 3) regulatory and compliance complexity in relation to data privacy will increase further.
Against this scenario, for 2021, Forrester predicts that:
Regulatory and legal activity related to employee privacy will increase 100%.
One in four CMOs will invest more in technology to collect zero-party data.
CCPA 2.0 will pass and spur the introduction of federal privacy legislation in the US.
A quick Google search of "pizza chain data breach" will bring up numerous articles about brands that have faced or are now facing privacy scandals. Because data breaches are more commonplace than ever, consumers are also more protective of their own data.
Brands must put the right privacy policies in place that allow for the responsible management of customer data and request consent for data usage.
Once customers are interested in what a pizza brand is offering digitally, zero-party data can be collected. This is done by offering value in exchange for data, such as preferences, interests or intent.
In a 2020 survey, nearly 90% of consumers said they would be willing to share their data with a brand in exchange for discounts, coupons, loyalty points or rewards. With this data in hand, personalized content can be created for customers that will help build connections that result in lifelong loyalty.
Zero-party data collection will provide marketing opportunities
With third-party cookies falling out of favour, 25% of CMOs will look to invest in consent and preference management in 2021.
This will allow for contextually relevant, zero-party data collection, and allow marketing teams to manage consent, including opt-out and do not sell, and customers’ preferences.
Additionally, this kind of technology could improve data insights and help to enhance customer experience (CX).
Organisations will invest more on technology to collect zero-party data. Digital advertising is on the brink of major, systematic changes. Values-based customers increasingly look to share their data with companies that embrace privacy as a value and treat data ethically. On top of it, the death of the third-party cookie forces companies to focus more on collecting data directly from customers and rely less on more risky third party data. In 2021, CMOs will start to make strategic revisions to their ecosystem and will increase their capabilities to collect zero-party data. CMOs must partner with their security, risk, and privacy peers to select the right technology and craft processes that adequately support their objectives.
Amazon.com wants greater insights into what its customers are purchasing and it is willing to pay for the information.
The e-tailing and technology giant has launched Amazon Shopper Panel, an invitation-only program that allows participants to earn monthly rewards by sharing receipts of purchases made outside of its website and retail stores.
Participants in the program are asked to upload photos of 10 eligible receipts per month taken with the Shopper Panel app. Alternatively, they can forward email receipts to Amazon. Additional rewards are available when participants fill out short surveys. Amazon customers can earn up to $10 a month that can be applied to their balance on the site or donated to charity.
"The survey found that while some marketers are proactively making the switch to post-cookie data strategies, the majority are still relying on third-party data, and many need new resources and content to help them create the authentic relationships that produce first-party data.
- 50 percent expect to be more reliant on first-party data in the coming year, and 49 percent will use more zero-party data
- While 50 percent are using newsletter sign-ups to boost engagement, 29 percent are exploring a subscription offering
- 52 percent saw difficulty in creating content that appeals to their audience as a roadblock to improving direct engagement.
- 78 percent said they will adapt to using other types of data, but don’t need to make any changes yet, putting them at risk of missing Google’s 2022 deadline for cookie deprecation.
You can find the study here: https://info.piano.io/state-of-direct-brand-engagement"
|
|
Or you can push out messages directly from the Marteq application, from where you collect zero party data and run queries against it, then send your notifications.
Collect zero party data from your consumers NOW through marteq.io's FREE pilot program. Contact joe@marteq.io to qualify. #martech #marketing