Amid privacy concerns and regulatory laws, marketers who still want to deliver truly personalized experiences will need to embrace strategies that focus on first-party data, creating real and declared opt-in audiences. As strategy is adjusted to accommodate technology’s innovations and consumers’ shifting preferences, the challenge for brands is to figure out how to stay ahead of these changes.
According to Forrester, over 94% of purchase intent is informed through the ability to search for and consume content. Therefore, your approach to performance must be grounded in a deep understanding of your customers. And your strategy must blend this knowledge with insights informed by consumer behaviours to craft campaigns that can stop, hold and compel them.
The Online Marketing Landscape Is Shifting Quickly
Today’s consumers expect personalized experiences—but marketers have increasingly relied on big platforms and cookies-based targeting to deliver. Faced with the loss of intent data, brands that don’t have adequate first-party insights will find it increasingly difficult to deliver the experiences their customers demand.
Fortunately, a performance marketing strategy with a focus on first-party data confers a competitive advantage, providing clear insights into your customers and the types of products or services they ultimately want.
Collecting and leveraging first-party data in a transparent way to develop better online experiences provides value for your customers and builds trust, resulting in more conversions and a higher return on investment. Even better, these first-party conversion outcomes can be correlated directly to revenue, which ties marketing investment directly to your company’s financial growth.
Not Just What But Why
Your approach to content must be grounded in a deep understanding of your audience. You must encourage diversity in your data by building marketing experiments that help you to understand the core decision drivers of your audience—not just what they want, but why they want it. These learnings compound over time, forging real connections and creating more opportunities for sales.
Forward-thinking brands recognize that it’s time to take total control of their first-party data, ensuring that it is as complete, comprehensive and useful as possible. Those companies among us that are already preparing will be poised for market dominance, so there’s little time left to waste when it comes to addressing your first-party strategy. It’s the “First Party” you can’t afford to miss.
