We all know that data plays an important role in creating success in marketing, right? We can measure and understand the value of what we’re doing. But one thing that has become apparent recently is the unsung value of using first-party data in marketing. First-party data, when used for research to better understand an audience, an industry, or other important elements of business in marketing strategy can increase the effectiveness of your back-end data results.
So, what if you could understand your audiences or personas at a deeper level? What if you could target better because you have the right messaging, and you’re delivering it on the right data platforms?
All marketers have basic demographics on their target audience. But to make any headway in today’s competitive market—where zillions of messages are competing for people’s attention—marketing teams need deeper insights. And the ability to turn those insights into action.
This blog discusses using first-party data to get those insights and ways to put them into action.
The Data
In a digital landscape flooded with undifferentiated data, first-party audience insights are the best for crafting impactful marketing strategies.
First-party data is information that businesses collect directly from their audiences through surveys, website analytics, and interviews (or hire someone to do it on their behalf). Unlike third-party (purchased) data, first-party insights are proprietary and directly tied to an audience’s real motivations, behaviors, and preferences.
First-party matters because:
- It’s self-reported. When people self-report, you get a deeper look into their motivators and beliefs, yielding actionable insights for strategies and messaging.
- You own it. By collecting your own data, you bypass reliance on third-party data, ensuring greater control and accuracy.
- It offers deeper insights. These insights enable businesses to carve out unique market niches and align more closely with audience needs.
- You can tailor your campaigns. Tailored marketing campaigns are more precise, leading to better engagement and ROI.
First-party data can come from various sources. You can leverage your existing touchpoints, like email and website analytics to see how people are interacting with your content. But it doesn’t tell you much beyond that.
Research-driven first-party data—when you conduct your own surveys or focus groups (or hire someone to do it for you)—will help you answer specific questions you have about your customers or prospects. Before you begin, make sure your goals are clear. Undertaking a research project can be expensive and time-consuming, but you’ll get some incredibly useful information.
Our preferred way of learning about audiences is with platform-driven first-party data. Our data partner, GWI, regularly conducts surveys of its 2.5 billion customers on 250K profiling points, meaning they always have fresh data on current trends and topics directly from the minds of real people. This allows us to get deep insights into an audience’s attitudes, behaviors, motivators, preferences, trusted resources, assumptions, and awareness on any given topic.
Turning Insights into Action
Gathering your data is just the first step in creating effective marketing. Once you have it, you need to find actionable insights that will make your campaign work. This can be tricky. We joke that it takes someone with a psychology degree to do this kind of work. But we’re not entirely kidding. The data needs to be viewed through the lens of experience, intuition, human creativity, and behavior to make it actionable.
For example, let’s say you’re the marketing manager at a vocational school that offers specialized training for adults seeking a career change, and you want to find more students to fill your classes.
First, you look at the data you already have about your typical students, and you find they are 30-50 years old and currently employed in low- or mid-level positions in customer service, retail, or manual labor with an income of $15K-$70K.
Next, you go to a data platform like GWI and start building your audience with the basic information you already have. Then you ask it to find people in that group who are likely to look for a new job in the next few months. The platform then churns out all kinds of data on your audience, like their purchasing behaviors, online activities, device and social media usage, sports and exercise interests, lifestyle patterns, gaming habits, and so much more.
The insights that stand out the most to you are that 1) salary will play the biggest role in their job choice, 2) they’re bored with their current job, 3) they are prone to anxiety, 4) they have some post-secondary education, and 5) they’re likely to use video when researching new jobs.
Now it’s time to put on your psychology hat and think about ideas for getting them interested in your school. In your messaging, you’ll want to highlight earnings potential and the idea of learning new skills. Given their anxious tendencies, you could include information about the advisor support and post-graduation job placement your school offers. Knowing they’ve already taken some higher-education classes, you don’t need to convince them of its benefits—instead your content could discuss advanced skill-related and trade topics specific to your school. And you’d better deliver your messages in video form on video platforms like YouTube to be seen.
This example is just scratching the surface.
You can imagine how much more relevant and effective your messaging and content can be when you can get inside the heads of your audience at this level. It’s a better experience for your audience and a better way of marketing for your brand.
By investing in first-party data, you can elevate your messaging, target the right audiences, and foster connections. If you want access to a data platform like GWI or need help turning insights into action, we’ve got you covered. Shoot us an email or see if our Custom Audience Profile could be right for you.
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