Zero-Party Data, the new Holy Grail of your marketing strategy

To maintain a relevant marketing strategy for your clients and prospects, nothing beats Zero-Party Data. Provided directly by your users, it offers excellent relevance in understanding their expectations. It is essential as Third-Party Data is losing ground. Now surveying your clients and prospects also has many advantages. We reveal all in our product news of the day.

Why should you be interested in Zero-Party Data?

For several years now, the marketing sector has been in turmoil. The practice of enriching its databases with third-party data, data from third-party suppliers, is widely challenged:

• The GDPR and CNIL guidelines have imposed permission marketing, mainly to be able to deposit cookies and collect audience data. This is the end of soft opt-in. The user will now play an active role in managing their data by brands.
• Internet browsers are sealing the fate of third-party cookies. App stores require the consent of mobile users to access data. iOS 14 is a good example. The market is pushing in the same direction as the law.

For a long time, data brokers were a must-have asset for any marketing player determined to obtain the most comprehensive knowledge possible of their clients and prospects.

This has now lost its appeal.

So it’s logical that brands have turned to value their information assets, starting with First-Party Data:

• customer references;
• transaction history;
• browsing data on websites and mobile applications;
• data related to loyalty programs.

This is indeed essential. And yet, it is not enough:

• Internal or third-party cookies necessary to collect your visitors’ browsing data are also subject to prior consent;
• First-party data is primarily probabilistic, requiring deductions from past behaviors (purchases and navigation). In this sense, you only have a partial view of your target audience’s needs, expectations, and intentions.

In other words, with such data, brands still need to gain a more general knowledge of their customers. This can make their marketing campaigns lose relevance.

We need to think of something else, and that something else is Zero-Party Data.

What is Zero-Party Data?

The increasing distrust of advertising reinforced concern for personal data protection, the context of the fight against Covid… all of this invites us to do things differently.

Choose marketing. Be more attentive to the expectations and concerns of your customers. And if you base your marketing campaigns on data exploitation, why not give the user an active and even central role?

Zero-Party Data refers to data provided directly by customers and prospects on an entirely voluntary basis.

You already do this punctually; your brand dialogues directly with its audience:

• The customer relationship center manages dissatisfaction. It also provides reassuring answers to simple questions.
• Your company sends satisfaction surveys to customers, particularly on the quality of a service or a phone conversation with an advisor.

A marketing department can also directly solicit prospects. For example, by conducting satisfaction surveys. Or by including optional questions in questionnaires for participation in a contest.

Challenged in this way, the user intentionally provides precious information—for example, data related to the relationship with the brand or future purchasing intentions.

Of course, you won’t subject your prospects to a fifty-page questionnaire. It’s about building a casual relationship over time and soliciting your users in a relevant way.

This is inbound marketing: we make content or services available that the audience is free to use or not.

Axeptio is precisely in this approach when it comes to managing cookies. Our Consent Management Platform is designed as a feature a publisher makes available to their audience. And because we don’t like to force visitors’ choices, we don’t like the cookie wall.

Similarly, you will create opportunities for speaking out that your audience will decide whether or not to use.

Become better thanks to Zero-Party Data

The benefits of using this type of data are considerable:

1. Unstructured data, such as customer feedback, still needs to be utilized by companies. This is a way to take advantage of this wealth of knowledge.
2. Your users feel much more involved. They know that their data will be used to personalize the offers presented to them better.
3. The data is relevant and directly exploitable. You are not working from generic probabilities or deductions but from immediate feedback on needs, state of mind, and brand sentiment.
4. No more data leaks. You do not allow third-party subcontractors to collect data for you without knowing if they will exploit it themselves.
5. By ending data collection with implicit consent, you significantly improve your GDPR compliance. Your collection points are now clear and will be based on active support from your audience. You can also afford total transparency about your practices.
6. Personalizing marketing communications becomes an absolute service if the prospect/client thinks they’re playing a fundamental role. You can hope for better targeting and a better ROI on your campaigns.

Conclusion: Ready to leverage your Zero-Party Data?

Zero-Party Data is an ideal opportunity to launch truly virtuous and conversational marketing.

Your prospects and clients know what you collect and why you do it. This moves your brand away from a “black box” logic, likely fostering more trust and buy-in. You also ensure the compliance of your website.

They also feel more heard. They try to answer your questions, for example, by telling you if they are in a buying phase and for which product. This effort should be rewarded by taking this beneficial feedback into account.