The Headache of Privacy Regulations and the Importance of First, Second and Zero Party Data

It's no secret that the world of privacy is becoming more and more complex as regulations are tightened up. Businesses are finding it harder and harder to get information about their customers, which is making it difficult to market effectively. One of the most important aspects of marketing is understanding your customer base, and this can be very difficult when you can't access the data you need. In this blog post, we discuss the importance of collecting customer data, and how you can effectively utilise it to power your customer retention strategy.

What is Third Party Data?

Third-party data is information that is collected about an individual by a company other than the individual. This could be things like demographic information, purchase history, or even web browsing behaviour. This type of data has been used by businesses for many years to target their marketing efforts, but recent changes in privacy regulations have made it much harder to access this type of data.

The Importance of First Party Data

First-party data is information that is collected directly from the customer by the business itself. This could be things like; opting in for newsletter communication, contact information, survey responses, or transaction history. First-party data is extremely valuable because it gives you a direct connection to your customers and allows you to understand them better. Additionally, first-party data is the customer's choice, making it a more viable option for businesses.

The Importance of Zero Party Data

Zero-party data is information that is voluntarily provided by the customer to the business. This could be things like preferences, interests, or contact information. Zero-party data is extremely valuable because it allows you to build a relationship with your customers and understand their needs better. Additionally, zero-party data is much easier to access than third-party data, making it a more viable option for businesses.

Power your retention strategy with your customer data

With the rising costs of acquisition channels and recent privacy updates making it more difficult to attract new customers, now is the time to be focussing on your retention strategies.

Building customer loyalty is key to driving revenue from existing customers and referring new customers.

It’s crucial you connect your customer data to your retention efforts to see your valuable customers returning to your store.

Why? Research shows that 72% of shoppers only engage with brands that deliver personalised communication.

To offer that all-important personalised content, and make your loyal customers feel seen by you, you need to encourage them to share their personal information.

How? You’ve got to motivate them to want to.

The folks over at LoyaltyLion nail this in their "How to succeed in the opt-out era" article. They’ll show you how to keep shoppers opted into your brand and how to build trust with your most loyal customers to keep them returning to you time and time again.

Conclusion

New privacy regulations have rightly been introduced to protect people, making it difficult for businesses to get the information they want about their customers. This is why first-party data and zero-party data are still extremely valuable and should be worked on all the time. However, it's customer loyalty that is going to provide you with the highest return on investment.

More where that came from.

Thank you to the kind folks at LoyaltyLion. To chat about loyalty drop us a line.

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