Author: Franz Malten Buemann

 

Zero-party data is the best way to engage audience groups to interact with your brand. The information your customers give you about their preferences, interests, or demographics is the perfect foundation for marketing activities that will really matter to them. Here are 5 robust examples of how to turn zero-party data into marketing gold.

 

Currently, marketing efforts are an ongoing balancing act between irrelevance and invasion of privacy. As the Accenture Interactive Research showed, nearly 30% of consumers said a brand had become “too personal”—and 69% of these consumers would stop doing business with a brand or reconsider their relationship to the brand because of this. The same study brings top 5 creepiest advertising techniques as cited by consumers :

 

Receiving an ad for something you talked about near a voice assistant but never searched for (73%)
An ad that follows you across devices (69%)
A chatbot that has access to your past online shopping (not just purchases) (66%)
An ad on a social media site based on a recent shopping visit on another site (66%)
A chatbot that has access to your past customer service interactions (64%)

 

Events over the past few years, including the much-publicized Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018, have forced brands to examine their data ethics, and consumers to rethink the way they use the internet and question online security. Legislation like GDPR came into effect as a natural consequence, followed by a gradual shift away from third-party cookies that enabled such actions.

 

Challenges of a world without third-party cookies

 

Many ad publishers relied on third-party cookies to reach potential audiences on ad networks. However, those days are slowly coming to an end. Wild marketing based on not-quite-ethically-sourced information alienates customers from brands and causes a huge drop in trust. It may seem like a no big deal, but bear in mind that acquiring a new customer is incomparably more expensive than keeping an existing one. This is just the beginning of the changes that the future holds. What challenges will it bring?

 

Some 88% of marketers say collecting first-party data is their top priority for 2021, according to a Merkle study. The report also points to the need for marketers to increase zero-party data acquisition. (Merkle 2021 Customer Engagement Report)

 

What’s more, as many as 93% of consumers agree that it’s important that every interaction they have with a brand is excellent, whenever and wherever they make a purchase decision. (Accenture Interactive)

 

Other digital marketing challenges cited in the reports include:

 

transparency about how data is acquired and used,
providing a consistent digital experience,
maintaining a comfort level of interaction similar to that with an experienced salesperson.

 

Read 20 expert tips on marketing in a post-cookie world >>

 

What is zero-party data?

 

Zero-party data is a term coined by Forrester that refers to all information about oneself that a consumer knowingly, actively and voluntarily provides to a company. “’Zero’ party data is gold… When a customer trusts a brand enough to provide this really meaningful data, it means that the brand doesn’t have to go off and infer what the customer wants” – said Fatemeh Khatibloo, VP i main analyst in Forrester. The concept seems to have hit the bull’s eye!

 

Why does zero-party data allow you to better engage consumers?

 

The huge advantage of zero-party data is the certainty it gives brands about a consumer’s intentions for an interaction. If someone provides personal information, it means they are consciously interacting with a brand, and they want to find something that matches their preferences.

 

Gradually building up each consumer’s preference sets and modifying them in real time at their request strengthens the relationship with the brand.

 

Examples of zero-party data

 

When collecting zero-party data, you can ask your audience just about anything. Of course, the right thing to do is to make the information relevant to your business. Examples of data in this group include:

 

name,
gender,
pronouns,
language,
interests,
child’s age,
dog’s name,
favorite color
clothing size,
ailments,
company,
phone,
city,
favorite brick-and-mortar store,
preferred communication channel,
preferred frequency of communication,
product categories.

 

This is but the first step. The data will change depending on the industry or type of business. The bottom line is that the customer makes a conscious decision to share it.

 

5 examples of how to use zero-party data to create better relationships with your audience

 

Here are some examples of how you can strengthen the relationship with your audience using zero-party data.

 

#1 Campaign targeted at users who prefer Web Push channel

 

Target audience description: This group will include people who at any point in their relationship with the brand:

 

have agreed to receive Web Push notifications through a consent form,
have indicated Web Push as their preferred channel.

 

How to identify them: You can ask about one’ s preferred communication channel in a number of ways. A simple method is to prepare a survey, which can be displayed as a pop-up on a website or sent in an email campaign. The information obtained this way can be passed to SALESmanago as a detail or tag and then translated to a proper, detailed segmentation.

 

Why it works: Such segmentation allows you to prepare, for example, a special offer for a selected group of recipients and send information about it through the channel they find most convenient. It increases the chance that they will decide to use this opportunity. What’s more, it will strengthen their belief that you are listening to what they say without overstepping their boundaries.

 

#2 Campaign for users interested in kitesurfing

 

Target audience description: This group consists of users who indicated kitesurfing as an interest in surveys, or indicated the kitesurfing category as a product preference.

 

How to identify them: You can ask about interests during registration, for example, by attaching this question to the form.

 

Why it works: Particular sports are quite specific, as they require certain equipment and often show a certain seasonal character. Considering these factors in your recommendations, marketing calendar and layout allows your recipients to feel special. They will know that you recommend products just for them according to your best professional knowledge.  A campaign aimed at such a specialized group can and should be further personalized and stand out.  Prepare colors, banners, and content specifically with kitesurfing fans in mind. This personalized approach is reminiscent of a professional advisor in a sporting goods store. It will certainly translate into a good perception of the store by customers, followed by their loyalty and sales results.

 

#3 Campaign for Berlin-based entrepreneurs

 

Target audience description: To be in the group a contact should meet 2 conditions: 

 

working in your own company,
company location: Berlin.

 

How to identify them: You can ask about the company, city and other data in the progressive form on the website. Using SALESmanago filtering you can easily select a group of people that meet both conditions.Why it works: Extended waits for materials ordered for a company can impact its operational efficiency. A location-specific offer will allow you to target the right people with a campaign containing products that are available in the specified location and can be easily transported. In separate campaigns for other cities, you can present a regional offer linked to the stock of local stores.  This is beneficial for both the company and the recipients.

 

#4 Campaign for people with shoe size 35 interested in stilettos

 

Target audience description: Different people (not just women) can wear high heel shoes. So in this case, you can go by gender, shoe size and product preference, or preference and size alone.

 

How to identify them: You can ask the user about gender early in the relationship with the brand, and the size and favorite type of shoes can be asked in the progressive form. The actionable combination of all conditions is possible through the filtering available in SALESmanago (user with segment X, also having tag Y and detail with value Z).Why it works: Certain groups of items are harder to sell than others. This applies, for example, to shoes in unusual sizes. Items of this kind stay in stock, generating costs and taking up space. Prepare a special offer for such situations for people who may be interested in buying the unusual product. If you add some kind of gratification, users will surely react with great interest to the offer sent to them, at the same time having a feeling that someone is taking care of their needs.

 

#5 Campaign for new moms in Eindhoven interested in sleepwear, for 3-month-old babies

 

Target audience description: This is a fairly narrow audience. It will include women who have recently given birth/adopted an infant who is 3 months old at the time of the campaign and live in a particular city.

 

How to identify them: You can ask for information such as your child’s gender, city, age, and favorite category in a progressive form on the website, or a survey sent by email.

 

Why it works: A precisely targeted campaign to a narrow group of users will allow you to reach a smaller, but very interested audience. This will significantly increase the chances of conversion. Of course, in addition to the tailored offer, you can also personalize email content by, for example, including the age of the child and offering collection of the order in selected stores in the customer’s place of residence.

 

Engagement built with zero-party data: a few words at the end

 

The aforementioned Accenture Interactive report provides a simple summary of what clients are dreaming about:

 

What many consumers ultimately want is for digital advertising to have the same social intelligence as a familiar salesperson in their favorite store—one who can tell from the expression on their face that they’re in the mood to splurge or that they’re in a hurry because it’s a Tuesday night and they need to get home to dinner. That salesperson has the social intelligence to avoid certain missteps, such as suggesting the consumer might need a new bathing suit for an upcoming Hawaiian vacation that the salesperson overheard the consumer mention. The brands that approximate that human touch best (using automation) will stand out and win consumer loyalty. Brands that can’t pull it off will feel sterile.

 

Zero-party data allows you to achieve just this level of personalization. What’s more, they make all actions ethical and based on the informed consent of the customer. This is the right direction for marketing. As you can see, it provides very interesting and wide possibilities for personalizing the message that have a real impact on sales results. If you are interested in applying similar personalization in your eCommerce, be sure to reach out to your account manager at SALESmanago.

 

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What led you to make your most recent purchase? Were you wishing for something for a while and decided to just go for it? Were you casually browsing a store and saw something you liked? Or were you browsing and an advertisement from a business convinced you that you need to buy it right then and there?
If it was the latter, the business used a form of outbound marketing to convince you to take an immediate action after seeing one of their marketing materials. It can be a very effective strategy, especially if done correctly.  
In this post, learn how businesses can use direct response marketing to drive conversions, best practices for creating these types of campaigns, and examples from real companies to use as inspiration.

What is direct response marketing?
Direct response marketing, sometimes called push marketing, is when you present your target audience with an offer in an attempt to persuade them to take immediate action, like completing a lead gen form, downloading an ebook, or making a purchase.
This strategy is popular with marketers because it can drive quick results for time-sensitive campaigns.
What distinguishes direct response marketing from traditional marketing is that it desires an immediate response for immediate ROI rather than traditional brand awareness. Below we’ll discuss more elements of these ad campaigns.
Direct Response Marketing Strategies
Direct response marketing strategies are customer-centric, targeted, offer-centric, and urgent. Here’s what that means for your campaigns:
Customer-centric
To elicit a response, your direct response ads must be customer-centric and directly related to the value you can provide them if they follow through with your desired action. If your audiences can’t tell why your offer matters to them, they won’t take action.
Targeted
Not all of your customers have the same needs, so your ads must be hyper-targeted to specific audiences with personalized messages that speak to their pain points. Statistics show that this practice is worth it, as Epsilon found that 80% of consumers were more likely to purchase a brand that offers personalized experiences.
Offer-centric
Direct response ads prompt users to do something, so they usually feature an offer or CTA that tells the user what your desired action is, whether it’s signing up for your newsletter or making a purchase. When creating these offers, mind copywriting best practices to ensure they’re clear and concise, focused on one specific outcome, and personalized.
Urgent
These ads all present a sense of urgency in addition to a CTA to entice quick action, so leveraging language like “As supplies last” or “Buy one get one free” is common. For example, maybe you’ll send a direct response ad to remind consumers about an event before it happens, so they quickly decide to sign up for it instead of missing it.
Active voice and power words are well suited to direct response ads.
Direct Response Campaigns
Below we’ll go over some common direct response campaigns businesses use.

Social Media Ads: Social media is a powerful tool for running direct response campaigns due to the sheer number of users and the targeting options that many platforms offer marketers. On this platform, ads need to use short and to-the-point copy that displays urgency and a CTA that directs the action you want your audience to take.

Referral Programs: Referral programs are an excellent tool for direct marketing, especially since you can easily track their effectiveness. Consider giving your current users a promo code or URL and ask them to share it with a friend or family member in exchange for something, like a 10% discount. If they successfully refer someone, you’ll be able to track it through the unique code.

Email: Direct response campaigns run over email typically make users aware of flash sales, upcoming events filling up, or things like abandoned cart reminders. We’ll cover an example of a direct response email below.

Display Ads: Display ads, like banners, are in an area on a website or channel dedicated to paid ads. They usually contain short copy that shows a sense of urgency and a CTA to inspire action.

Direct Mail: While it may seem outdated, direct mail is a popular channel for direct advertisements. Things like brochures, coupons, digests, or newsletters are used for direct marketing, but be mindful of not having your assets seem like junk mail.  

Direct Response Marketing Examples
Let’s go over some high-quality examples of direct response marketing that you can use to guide your own strategy.
New York Times
The New York Times, a newspaper, used Instagram to run a direct ad campaign to promote a limited discount for unlimited access to the newspaper.

Grailed
Grailed is an online marketplace where individual users can resell different products, from clothing to collectible items. Their form of direct response marketing is via email, where they notify users when an item they have favorited has dropped in price.

Scribd
Scribd is an online ebook and audiobook subscription platform. Like The New York Times, it uses social media, Facebook specifically, to run direct marketing campaigns to notify audiences about a limited-time discount offer.

UberEats
UberEats is an online food delivery service that uses email for direct marketing campaigns to prompt users to follow through with a purchase after they have abandoned their cart.

Direct Response Marketing Metrics and Tools
Below we’ll discuss critical metrics that will help you understand your direct response marketing success and the tools that help you collect this data.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is an essential marketing metric for direct response ads as it tracks the number of users that have taken the action you want them to take, a.k.a converted.
You’ll get a sense of how successful you were, helping you learn about the effectiveness of your copy and the content you offer when it comes to providing value and prompting action. Let’s go over some specific tools that will help you track these conversions.
1. Promotional Codes
Promo codes can be unique per user or unique per campaign, so you can see how specific ads successfully prompt action. Make sure that you track the number of codes you give out so you can get an exact sense of how many people converted based on how many you gave out.
2. QR Codes

QR codes are similar to promotional codes as they’re unique to the specific campaign you use them on, helping you see how many users actually converted from that specific ad. QR codes also typically lead to landing pages, so you can further track if customers took action on your landing pages or simply landed on them and bounced.
3. UTM Codes

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) codes are snippets of text placed at the end of a URL that helps you track where website traffic comes from. For direct response marketing, you can attribute your specific site traffic to your direct ads, like those who visited your site and made a purchase after receiving a promo code.
Here’s what a sample UTM code could look like for this use case: utm_campaign=20percentpromocode.
All-in-all, direct response ads have similar outcomes as regular marketing ads, but they want a user to take action right now. Be mindful of being customer-centric and use concise, urgent, and compelling copy, and you’ll find ads driving conversions.

See the list of 17 best real estate marketing tools of 2021, including contact management and lead generation software.