Marketers plan to use more first-party data

In a recent survey, Econsultancy found that 82% plan to increase their usage of first-party data over the next year.

  1. chevron left iconMarketers plan to use more first-party data
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censhare Editorial TeamJuly 16, 2015
  • Digital Marketing
  • Technology

In a recent survey of more than 300 senior marketers, Econsultancy found that 82% plan to increase their usage of first-party data over the next year; and that the majority think first-party data is the way to "win the battle for customer understanding and engagement".

The value of first-party data

74% of survey respondents said that first-party data (i.e. data collected directly by brands) gives the greatest insight into customers, while 64% said it gives the highest increase to customer lifetime value. Why?

For starters, first-party data is free. It’s also unique to your business. This means it has huge value in clarifying relationships and informing customer journeys, particularly through marketing attribution.

It’s also a gold mine of insight for content personalisation; a crucial part of tailoring customer experience, which is only becoming more important as mobile device usage increases.

Scale and depth

While first-party data has been identified as a focus for the majority of marketers, 60% still plan to use more second-party data and 44% plan to increase third-party data spending over the next year.

As part of the survey, Econsultancy divided their data sample into marketers with high-performing (strong ROI), data-driven initiatives and their mainstream counterparts. Results found a 10% gap between the best and the rest when it came to 'regular' first-party data usage, a wider 29% gap on regular second-party data usage, and a mere 5% gap on regular third-party data usage.

These results highlight the importance of building a complete picture by adding breadth, scale and depth to data initiatives.

Competitive advantage

As well as utilising a range of data more regularly, marketers with high ROI initiatives were more likely to have plotted a long-term data strategy (44% vs. 16%), with agreed and implemented measurement processes (44% vs. 16%) and sufficient staff to do the job (37% vs. 11%). In short, they invest time and resource into data, and yield better results as a consequence.

In this context, it's clear how important it is to not simply collect first-party data, and supplement it with second and third-party data, but also to develop a clear strategy, powered by the right level of resource, and enabled by efficient tech automation. Find out more about how censhare can help you make the most of your first-party data, in real time, with our our Advanced Analytics and Data Extraction solutions.

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censhare Editorial Team

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