As I have observed, many users are becoming increasingly aware of the risks associated with cookies, which collect personal information, such as browsing history and login credentials, which can be used for tracking users across different websites. The rise of ad-blocking technology and increased regulation around data privacy has made it more challenging for advertisers and marketers to rely on cookies for data collection and targeting. Many users opt out of cookie tracking or use ad-blocking software to prevent their data from being collected.
As a result, there’s a shift toward alternative methods of data collection that don’t rely on cookies and provide more accurate and privacy-friendly data collection, which aims to generate zero party data. In this article, I’ll share my expert insights about zero party data and the reason why it is “The New Throne of Intent Data.”
What Is Zero Party Data?
As you may know, zero party data is a type of data that online users voluntarily provide to businesses or organizations. This data is shared to improve the customer experience, personalization, or other benefits for the user. But before we distinguish that, we need to understand what intent data is fundamentally.
Intent data refers to data that indicates a user’s interest or intent to purchase a product or service. While intent data has traditionally been collected through third-party sources, such as search data and website behavior, zero party data provides B2B businesses with a direct line to their customers and a clearer understanding of their intentions.
Unlike first-party data, which is collected by the organization directly from the user’s interactions with their website or app, zero party data is actively shared by the user. This data can include information such as personal preferences, purchase intent, interests, and other data that the user is willing to share.
Zero party data is often considered to be high-quality data, as it’s based on the user’s own input. Therefore, it’s likely to be accurate and relevant. It can also help businesses to build stronger relationships with their customers by providing a more personalized experience based on their preferences and needs.
Examples of zero party data include surveys, polls, preference centers, and user-generated content. Zero party data can be collected through various channels, including email, social media, website forms, in-person interactions, and through gamification.
The New Throne of Intent Data
I’ve been working in the B2B marketing industry for many years, and I observed recently that zero party data is taking over this new throne of intent data. Have you recently searched for a general term or word or sentence on google, and you started seeing targeted ads in your browsing experience? The beauty here is that the marketing effort is always closely targeted at you (Not 100% accurate yet!) and always on demand without the need for a physical presence.
Zero party data provides B2B businesses with valuable insights into their customers’ preferences, interests, and needs. Because data is collected directly from customers, based on their own input, zero part data is more accurate and reliable than inferred or third-party intent data. Most companies that possess their own database of first party data are usually collected through organic means, such as in-person events, website CTA and etc.
However, by obtaining zero party data through active engagement, businesses can gain valuable insights into customer preferences and purchase intent, which provides the following B2B business benefits:
Boost Customer Experience
Zero party data can help to reduce friction in the customer experience by providing businesses with valuable information that can streamline the customer journey. For example, a customer might provide their preferred communication channels, preferred payment methods, or delivery preferences, making the entire purchasing experience faster and easier.
By collecting zero party data, businesses can gain insights into the most common customer service issues and address them proactively. For example, if a business discovers that a high percentage of customers are struggling with a particular aspect of their product or service, they can take steps to address the issue and improve the overall customer experience.
Increase Customer Loyalty
Zero party data is valuable in building trust with customers by providing transparency around data collection and usage. By understanding a customer’s preferences and purchase history, businesses can recommend products and services that are more likely to be of interest to them, increasing the likelihood of a purchase and driving customer loyalty.
Tailor Marketing Efforts
Zero party data capturing has been a huge challenge for me and I’m sure other B2B marketers can relate. It took me a while to think of the best strategies to implement zero party data in actual practice. One of the most profound methods that I have utilized is gamification.
Zero party data can help tailor marketing efforts by providing businesses with valuable insights into customer preferences, interests, and behavior. B2B marketers can personalize marketing messages to each customer’s specific interests and preferences. By understanding what each customer is looking for, businesses can deliver targeted and relevant marketing messages that resonate with each customer.
Implementing zero party data collection through gamification for the past couple of years, I observed that segmenting customers into groups based on their preferences and behavior is possible with zero party data. By understanding when each customer is most likely to engage with marketing messages, B2B businesses can deliver messages at the optimal time, increasing the likelihood of a conversion.
Zero Party Data and Gamification
In my expert opinion, gamification is a top contender for zero party data collection. By incorporating game mechanics in your B2B marketing, you can encourage customers to share more data and increase the accuracy and relevance of the data collected. Moreover, customers like to spend more time on your website or app, increasing the likelihood of data collection.
Gamification motivates customers to share more data because of the rewards or incentives, increasing the accuracy and relevance of the data that marketers can collect. You can provide clear instructions on what information online users must provide to reduce the likelihood of errors or incomplete data. Hence, you will be able to ensure the data is high-quality, relevant, and aligned with your business goals and objectives.
I have helped many of my clients create gamification marketing campaigns designed to appeal to their target audiences’ specific interests and needs using zero party data. I teach them to determine the best time to deliver marketing messages to their B2B customers and how to implement the right marketing approach for each stage of the sales funnel.
Conclusion
Zero party data is the new throne of intent data because it provides businesses with accurate and reliable insights into customer preferences and intent, which can be used to improve the customer experience and build stronger relationships with customers. I am sure in the next era of marketing, the race to collect and analyze zero party data would be a number one priority for most marketing teams. This will help bridge the gaps in their organization and enhance their sales enablement efforts with prospective leads.
Disclaimer note:
The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ThinkLogic Media Group or any company and their associates.
You can follow me on my socials:
Facebook (A spark of B2B) https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089042254709
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LinkedIn (a-spark-of-b2b) https://www.linkedin.com/company/a-spark-of-b2b
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