By Vlad Gozman, serial entrepreneur and the founder & CEO of involve.me. Follow @vladgozman on Twitter.
getty
When the saying “data is the new oil” first came about, it was largely an intangible thought. But now, data is becoming more and more of a commodity with real value. Google, who’s revenue comes almost solely from advertising, is worth over three times more than ExxonMobil, thanks to its vast pool of data on users.
The world’s biggest firms aside, data is becoming increasingly relevant for marketing and sales teams of all sizes. Not all types of data, however, are created equal. In order to create a meaningful and valuable customer profile, teams should seek out “zero-party data.”
Why Zero-Party Data Beats Third-Party Data
Zero-party data is customer data that is given to a company directly by the customer, rather than being observed or gathered from a third-party source. Because this data is given willingly and with full understanding of how it will be used, it tends to be both more accurate and of higher quality than third-party data.
Third-party data, on the other hand, is often observed or gathered without the customer’s knowledge or consent. This data can be less accurate, and even when it is accurate, it doesn’t always reflect the customer’s current preferences or situation.
Cookies are perhaps the best-known example of third-party data. They allow companies to track a user’s online activity, even across different devices, in order to serve them targeted ads. But cookies have become increasingly controversial in recent years, with many users now actively blocking them.
It’s no wonder, then, that browsers like Safari and Firefox have begun to crack down on cookies. In the near future, it’s likely that third-party data will become even less accurate and reliable. In addition, botnets, which are networks of computers controlled by hackers, can be used to generate fake third-party data.
How Marketing And Sales Teams Can Collect High-Quality Zero-Party Data
Just as not all data is created equal, not all forms of data collection are equal either. In order to collect high-quality zero-party data, there are a few things that marketing and sales teams should keep in mind.
One of the biggest keys is email validation. By including email validation in your forms, you can prevent duplicate emails, block disposable email addresses and avoid accepting personal email providers like Gmail and Yahoo. When it comes to phone numbers, you can do similar things to prevent duplicate entries and lock to a certain country or phone type.
Another important consideration is the geographic location of your customers. If your customers are not in the European Union, you could automatically block access to your forms for EU users. This can help ensure that the data you collect is GDPR-compliant.
Finally, you can enrich contact profiles by incorporating quizzes and surveys into your forms. This way, you can collect data on a customer’s preferences around different topics and tag them with different attributes according to their responses.
For instance, an investment bank could use a quiz to gather data on a potential client’s investment goals. The results of the quiz could then be used to automatically generate a customized portfolio for the client based on their risk tolerance and investment timeframe.
On a simpler level, a retailer could use a quiz to understand a customer’s style preferences, in order to make personalized recommendations on future purchases. A fashion brand, for example, could use quiz data to send a subscriber weekly email updates on the latest trends that match their taste.
You’ve almost definitely seen quizzes like these before, but what you may not have realized is that they’re also a powerful way to collect customer data. Another popular approach is using calculators, which can be used to estimate things like the carbon footprint of a household, the potential savings from switching to solar energy or the value of a customer’s loyalty program points.
Zero-party data is becoming increasingly important as we move into a world where data is more valuable than ever. By following the tips in this article, you can ensure that your marketing and sales teams are collecting high-quality data that can help you better understand and serve your customers.
