With the shift towards a privacy-first digital landscape and increasingly limited third-party cookie reach due to consent requirements, marketers need innovative ways to collect customer data. While cookie-based retargeting remains effective when users opt in, marketers must innovate how they collect customer data. Gartner reports that a whopping 76% of marketing leaders are concerned about the impact of these changes on their digital strategy.

First-party data – gathered directly from your audience – is now more valuable than ever. But how can you collect it effectively while maintaining trust and compliance? The key is to create meaningful exchanges where customers willingly share information. This article outlines six marketing strategies to maximize first-party data collection, providing actionable insights for maximizing personalization.

  1. Leverage Interactive Content for Data Collection

Interactive content serves a dual role: engaging customers and gathering valuable insights. Quizzes, assessments and product finders draw attention and encourage users to provide preference information in exchange for personalized results.

Interactive content offers a value exchange. When customers complete a quiz or survey, they receive a personalized recommendation, report or insight in return, making the data collection worthwhile to the customer. For example, a brand uses a skin assessment tool to collect data on customer skin concerns. The collected responses elevate accuracy, and the brand provides customized product recommendations, increasing engagement opportunities.

How Experiture Supports Interactive Content:

  • Drag-and-Drop Builder: Easily create interactive landing pages with quizzes, assessments and forms without complex technical know-how.
  • Real-Time Data Capture: Automatically sync captured data to the Experiture solution’s Customer Data Platform (CDP) for immediate use in segmentation and campaign triggers.
  • Dynamic Personalization: Tailor content on landing pages in real time based on user responses to enhance relevance and connection.

  1. Incentivize Data Sharing Through Gated Content

Gated content, such as eBooks, webinars and whitepapers, provides a trade of value: users exchange their data (like an email address) for exclusive content. The key is to make the gated content appealing and valuable enough that it’s worth the interaction.

Gated content helps assure customers who share their information receive a fair and beneficial trade-off. This method is particularly effective for collecting contact information for future engagement. For instance, a finance company offers an in-depth “Guide to Debt Consolidation” as a gated download. Customers provide their contact details to access the practical resource guide, allowing the company to further segment its audience data by financial product interest.

How Experiture Supports This:

  • Gated Content Integration: Set up gated assets to seamlessly capture customer data and sync it to the Experiture CDP.
  • Segmentation: Automatically organize leads based on the type of content accessed for personalized follow-up.
  • Automated Nurture Campaigns: Trigger targeted email sequences based on the type of gated content consumed. For example, if users download an eBook about a specific topic, they can enter a relevant email nurturing sequence that provides additional relevant content.

  1. Turn Loyalty Programs into Data Powerhouses

Loyalty programs encourage repeat interactions and collect first-party data at multiple touchpoints. By rewarding customers for specific actions – such as completing their profile, referring friends or sharing preferences – brands deepen customer insights while boosting loyalty.

Loyalty programs incentivize customers to share more data about themselves, resulting in richer customer profiles that drive personalized marketing. For example, a casino’s loyalty program gathers data on VIP player preferences, such as preferred games or dining choices. The casino then sends personalized offers and incentives for when they stroll the floor, such as a comped dinner at their favorite restaurant, driving in-property visits.

  1. Maximize Mobile App Integrations for Real-Time Insights

Mobile apps present a unique opportunity for collecting first-party data through in-app interactions, push notifications and geofencing. They enable brands to gather real-time insights about user behaviors, locations and preferences.

Mobile apps can capture in-the-moment data that reflects the user’s immediate needs and context, enabling timely and relevant engagement. For example, a travel company’s app collects data on customer preferences, such as favorite destinations and booking history. The company sends tailored travel offers and recommendations using this data, increasing the likelihood of conversions.

How Experiture Supports This:

  • Loyalty Program Integration: Unify information across systems, connect loyalty data with marketing efforts and create personalized rewards. This includes behavioral, transactional and demographic data from sources like POS and casino management systems. Data points also include point balance, membership tier, purchase history and earned rewards.
  • Omnichannel Synchronization: Keep loyalty data updated across email, SMS, direct mail and other channels. The platform syncs information in real time, ensuring all customer communications are accurate and current.
  • Behavioral Triggers: Automate personalized offers based on loyalty program actions, like reaching a new tier or reward milestone.

  1. Use QR Codes and Personalized URLs for Physical-to-Digital Data Collection

QR codes and PURLs seamlessly connect offline channels like direct mail to online experiences, enabling marketers to capture valuable interaction data. When customers engage with a postcard, flyer or other physical media by scanning a QR code or inputting a PURL, they’re instantly taken online. There, they can interact further and provide additional insights.

Once these interactions are tracked, marketers can:

  1. Segment Audiences: Use interaction data to segment customers based on behavior (e.g., click a link, scan a QR code), helping to tailor future campaigns more effectively.
  2. Automate Marketing Actions: Based on these interactions, trigger automated follow-up emails, SMS or push notifications to nurture customers at the optimal time.
  3. Personalize Future Campaigns: Leverage the data gathered to create personalized offers or content, enhancing relevance and engagement in subsequent interactions.

By bridging physical and digital experiences with QR codes and PURLs, marketers can create a holistic customer journey, deepen engagement and drive data-informed marketing actions. For this use case, we’ll present two scenarios:

QR Code: The new owner receives a QR code linking to a discounted maintenance offer after purchasing a car. Scanning the code encourages customers to share additional details, such as maintenance location preferences, to access the discount.

PURL: Prospective students receive direct mail pieces with PURLs that lead to personalized online portals. These pages provide university information and feature videos tailored to the student’s intended major. The landing page lets students submit information about their interests or campus visit preferences. This data helps universities craft personalized follow-up communications and enrollment strategies.

How Experiture Supports Physical-to-Digital Data Collection:

  • QR Code and PURL Tracking: Monitor offline interactions and direct users to personalized digital experiences.
  • Data Integration: Automatically update customer profiles based on the information submitted via PURLs or QR codes.
  • Advanced Reporting: Measure the effectiveness of offline-to-online campaigns through detailed tracking metrics.

  1. Implement Surveys and Feedback Forms Strategically

Surveys and feedback forms are traditional, yet effective ways to collect first-party data. By strategically placing these tools at key customer journey touchpoints – post-purchase or after a support interaction – brands can gather detailed customer feedback.

Surveys and forms can provide in-depth insights into customer satisfaction, preferences and pain points, which are crucial for improving products, services and marketing efforts. For example, an airline sends a post-travel survey to capture feedback on the customer experience. Marketers then use the data to segment the customer and send targeted promotions, deepening their relationship with the airline.

How Experiture Supports Survey and Feedback Deployment:

  • Drag and Drop Survey Builder: Use the Experiture drag-and-drop survey builder to quickly create and customize forms, making it easy to collect feedback at essential stages of the customer journey.
  • Customer Feedback Integration: Feed survey results into the CDP for segmentation and personalized follow-up.
  • Response-Triggered Campaigns: Launch automated follow-up messages based on survey feedback.

Future-Proofing Marketing Strategies with First-Party Data

As privacy regulations evolve and third-party data becomes more dependent on user consent, first-party data collection is critical for future-proofing your marketing strategy. While cookie-based solutions outperform alternatives when available, the significantly reduced reach due to opt-in requirements makes first-party data increasingly valuable. Organizations that build robust first-party data strategies while utilizing available third-party data will be best positioned for success.

See how Experiture can help you harness the power of first-party data while maximizing the impact of your available third-party data. Our platform makes it easy to create, manage and measure personalized omnichannel experiences. Schedule a demo with a product expert today.