Building a solid relationship with the public is one of the foremost responsibilities of marketers in the modern world. Marketers have used a variety of tactics in the past to combat this, including freebie marketing, social media marketing, trade show marketing, and niche marketing. However, the “zero party data” technique is the most talked about strategy recommended by most marketers.
What is Zero Party Data?
Any information that a client voluntarily gives to a business. It may include purchase intents, personal context, preference centre data, and how the customer wants to be recognized by the company.
For example, zero-party data can be the comments made on your latest Facebook post, the product review they left on your website, or the survey they answered as part of their sweepstakes entry.
This phrase, which Forrester Research came up with, is also known as “Explicit Data.”
Before going further, let’s understand the difference between Zero, first, second, and third-party data:
First-party data: Information that companies collect about customers through their behaviour. This includes how customers interact across a company’s website or app, their purchase history, where they click, spend their time, the transactions they make, and even what they download. It’s a form of behavioral data to understand purchase intentions.
Second-party data: Second-party data is data that an organization collects straight from its audience and then sells directly to another company. Second-party data is another organization’s first-party data, as they gather it now from their audience. It may include data from website activity, apps, social media, in-store purchase history, survey responses, etc.
Third-party data: Customer information is collected from various sources and aggregated together. This data type usually includes demographic information, interests, and purchasing signals. One of the most common examples of third-party data is Consumer Demographic Data. This information can be sourced from government census records, marketing research firms, or online surveys. It can provide valuable insights into a company’s target market’s age, gender, education level, income level, and family size.
Why should brands focus on “zero party data”?
Brands still have access to the first and second-party data. So, What justifies focusing on Zero Party Data, then?
Zero Party Data brands are significantly diminishing their dependence on third-party advertisers and building meaningful relationships based on personalization and trust.
Knowing each customer’s preferences is essential to developing relationships with them. This goes beyond simply gathering their phone numbers and email addresses.
In fact, according to the ‘customer behaviour report’, 71% of customers are inclined to share this information if it means getting personalized recommendations from brands.
Zero Party Data offers many advantages:
Builds transparency and trust
Today’s customers are increasingly concerned about data ownership and privacy. They want to know who can access their home address, phone number, and financial details.
With zero-party data, companies and consumers can feel secure knowing that the information they share is explicitly given.
Secures accuracy and compliance
Other types of data, particularly those from third parties, may include errors that result in inaccurate information. Brands could poorly interpret the information gathered about consumers’ interests and actions if, for instance, users mistakenly click on a banner advertisement or unintentionally visit the incorrect product page.
Through polls, surveys, and other forms of zero-party data, it is guaranteed that the information is authentic and originates directly from the source.
Fosters personalization and loyalty
Zero-party data, like first-party data, can help the brand personalize its goods and services. It is simpler to customize the client’s experience with the brand.
For example, soda companies may survey consumers about their preferred flavours and send them coupons for their preferred beverages. Design applications can survey users about how they use their software and send them customized email newsletters for photographers, logo designers, and other professionals.
Conclusion
Therefore, this method is useful for giving brands a more personalized marketing approach. A customized system is essential for brands to offer a customer experience that builds long-term consumer relationships.