Making your marketing more memorable is an uphill climb with the potential to send most people running for the hills. But creating more impactful marketing collateral can be a breeze if you know how to leverage your data. One of your best assets in your journey to attracting new lifelong customers is the data you collect while interacting with leads. First party data in particular is one of the most powerful resources available for strengthening your connection with leads and prospects. If you’re unaware of the many different ways you can use it to spruce up your marketing efforts, stay tuned. You’ll likely be blown away when you find out about the impact it can have when it comes to making your marketing messaging more effective.
What is First Party Data?
Unlike data that you may purchase from third parties, or a source you trust, first party data is information that you collect directly from the leads you communicate with. So when you speak with a potential customer on the phone, or when they fill out the required fields in a contact form, they’re providing you with valuable first party data. Collecting first party data provides you with the information necessary to make your marketing messaging personalized. That can make all the difference in the world when it comes to developing a marketing strategy that delivers results.
If you’re doubtful about the impact that personalization could have on your marketing efforts, you probably aren’t alone. So let’s pretend that you’ve received two postcards in your mailbox from two different nearby businesses. One is addressed to “current resident”, while the other is addressed to you personally. It’s probably a fair assumption to say that you’d be more likely to respond to the first postcard than the second. That, in a nutshell, is the power of first party data.
How Do You Know If Your Data is Usable?
Before you can begin using the first party data that you collect, you need to make sure that it’s accurate and up to date. Not doing so can lead to some embarrassing mishaps. Fortunately, there are a variety of tools that allow you to check the accuracy of the data you collect before you use it. For instance, when running direct mail campaigns with Direct Mail Manager, you can easily verify the accuracy of the addresses on your mailing list. This is instrumental in avoiding wasted postage costs caused by misspellings or typos.
Another key facet in making sure that your first party data is usable is keeping track of when it was collected. That’s because if you don’t, you may wind up incorporating outdated information into your marketing campaigns. In order to keep your customer information up to date, it can be helpful to simply check in and ask lapsed customers if the info you have on file has changed at all.
The Role of Your CRM in Helping You Leverage Your First Party Data
When it comes to making the most of your first party data, your CRM is essential. That’s because it serves as the central location where your customer data is collected and stored. Additionally, a reliable CRM can help you increase your marketing ROI by providing you with the ability to create more impactful marketing campaigns. Having a CRM that can be integrated with programs like Direct Mail Manager opens up a variety of new possibilities for ways you can craft marketing messages that resonate with your audience. That’s because they allow you to take advantage of merge tags, variable fields and other special features that add personalization to your marketing messaging.
A CRM that allows you to collect and store valuable customer insights can also be essential in helping you win over potential customers that left your site without converting. One of the biggest benefits of CRM integrations with Direct Mail Manager is that you can easily set up highly personalized retargeting campaigns. Without CRM data, creating messaging that stands apart from the crowd can seem nearly impossible. And that can mean that your message gets lost in the shuffle among dozens of others.
Examples of How You Can Leverage Your First-Party Data
The use cases for first party data may surprise you. That’s especially the case if you don’t collect first-party data currently. Some ways you can maximize the first party data that you collect include:
- By providing loyal shoppers with promotions and updates about your best-selling products, or products that they’ve bought from you in the past.
- A company that provides landscaping services could use first party data to segment members of a certain zip code, and target them with a one-time offer. This could increase inquiries in services especially ahead of peak seasons like the summer and fall.
- By identifying your highest-performing marketing strategies with specific campaigns based on where your leads originated from. If one campaign outperforms the other, you know that there are benefits to investing more resources into that particular method.
- A family dentist sends postcards to patients with young kids below the age of 12 with a back-to-school promotion for free teeth cleaning if you make an appointment before a certain date.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the possibilities that come with collecting first party data. Leveraging the benefits of first-party data is likely easier than you think, too.
Start Using Direct Mail Manager to Leverage Your First Party Data Today!
One of the best resources for leveraging the first-party data that you collect is direct mail. Combining it with the valuable information that customers share with you is a great way to make your marketing efforts stand apart from the crowd. The first step to using direct mail to maximize your first-party data is partnering with a direct mail automation platform that easily integrates with your CRM. To start making the most of the customer data that you collect with personalized direct mail campaigns, sign up for a free account and upload your first list today!
