9 proprietary data strategies to increase customer engagement

Here you will find common personal data strategies you can use to collect data through your website, mobile app and other digital platforms.

Online advertising and marketing relies heavily on user data from websites, mobile applications, online educational content, blogs, e-books, newsletters, etc. Currently, there are user data collection and management agencies that collect consumer data using cookies.

However, Apple’s iOS allows users to opt out of data tracking, and Google’s plan to end cookies in Chrome by 2023 will end cookie-based data collection.

Before that happens, you need to change your user data collection strategy to your own. But how to put together such a strategy? Well, I’ll answer that below in this concise and easy-to-understand guide to data strategy.

What is custom data?

Own data means that the user shares their data directly with your company. When someone shares their email address to receive newsletters or receive discounts, this is called personal information. Here, data exchange took place directly and with the user’s consent.

The use of deep links to download applications and website visits are also considered personal data.

Companies use this data to understand and target advertising and marketing to their audience.

Own data vs. Third-Party Data in relation to Third-Party Data

There are some basic differences between first, second and third party data. Proprietary data is the information you collect directly from your audience through their interactions on your website, app, marketing emails, etc. When it comes to user consent, it has great value with minimal privacy concerns.

On the other hand, third-party data is collected by another non-competing and credible company before it is shared or sold to your company. Third-party data means information or data sets collected from multiple external sources before being shared with your company. In that case, you have to be careful with user consent.

Popular proprietary data strategies

You need to create a proprietary data strategy for your company, which should include a plan for collecting and using proprietary data collected directly from your opt-in audience through your own channels and with their express consent. Here are strategies you can use to collect your own data and monetize it.

Single login (login to Google/Facebook)

Single sign-on (SSO) is a win-win process for you and your customers. It allows interested users to sign in to your website with their Google or Facebook accounts. This saves users from filling out long registration forms on your site.

Instead, they can use their email address or Facebook account for a quick login. Moreover, it allows access to that user’s own data without causing interference.

Event-based tracking

If you want to collect detailed data about your customers’ behavior, event-based tracking is a great way to start collecting your own data. In this process, you collect data about your audience based on clicks, purchases, cart creation, etc.

To make event-based tracking simple and hassle-free, you can use a variety of analytics tools. Companies can easily implement these event tracking tools and collect their own data for their systems.

Surveys and polls

Everyone likes to conduct surveys and polls on topics that interest them. You can use these techniques to collect your own customer data. If you make beauty products, you can ask your audience to fill out a survey about their skin problems and the ingredients they prefer in a beauty product.

In addition to helping you collect user data, it will help you better understand their choices and allow you to categorize them based on their interests.

Content sharing

When your users share interesting content (blogs, photos, podcasts, videos) that you have published, your brand and company are exposed to a new audience. Now you can create viral content for your social channels and inspire users to share it on their accounts or channels.

With a solid content strategy, you can ensure that your content is shared with others and allows you to collect even more data about user interactions.

Custom reviews and feedback

As a business, you should always ask your customers to share their reviews and opinions about your business on your website or social media. Once they share their opinion, you can easily connect them to your company’s customer base.

In addition to collecting your own data, this process helps to detect defects in the products and services you offer. That way, you can use the reviews to optimize your future and existing products accordingly.

Registration of user products or warranty services

Did you know that by guaranteeing your products and allowing customers to register their purchases, you can collect your own data from them? This is correct.

Here are some effective ways to build relationships with new customers and, of course, collect your own data from them. You can always attach a QR code to your product or its packaging so they can easily access your database.

User profiling

This method goes beyond collecting basic customer contact information and tries to gather more information such as age, location, organization, industry, occupation, company size, etc.

The purpose of user profiling is to gather insights that will help you in marketing and promotion. But you should try to access additional information slowly, rather than asking for too much information at the initial stage.

Newsletters or e-books

One of the most attractive ways to collect your own data, such as email addresses, is to offer something useful in return, such as e-books and newsletters. However, the collection of data does not exclude your responsibility.

You need to let them download a useful e-book or newsletter so they don’t mark your email address as spam. At this stage, you can also perform customer segmentation by looking at customers who choose to receive newsletters on different topics.

Use lead generation campaigns

A lead-gen campaign is a useful method of collecting your own data from customers with their consent. You can add a pop-up window to your website for potential customers. Today, LinkedIn and Facebook have also become important sources of collecting their own data through ads and promotions that generate leads.

Proven third-party data collection methods

To properly use their own data and comply with data privacy standards, companies must ensure that they follow best practices:

# 1. Creating a consent management strategy

Data collection by a third party implies full responsibility for consent to data processing. Therefore, you need to have the right consent management strategy for your business.

This allows you to comply with all existing consumer data privacy laws and thereby manage consent, which is becoming more complicated every day.

#2. Choosing a data management platform

Once you collect user data, how do you store and manage it? You need to enlist the help of a reliable and efficient customer data platform. These platforms ensure the security of customer data and provide easy access to data for the marketing and sales team. Therefore, it is your responsibility to choose a data management platform that allows you to effectively manage your own data for a better return on investment.

#3. Provide cross-channel activation

Now that you have the right strategy and a robust data management platform in place, you should be able to categorize, analyze and model customer data and share it across multiple channels. For example, both social media and email marketing teams may need access to their own data for a variety of reasons. You can let both growth-focused teams help you grow your revenue by effectively freeing up customer data.

#4. Align your business goals with those of your customers

One of the main weaknesses of companies’ data collection strategies is the lack of a plan that coordinates data collection and how it is used. You can solve this problem by making sure that the client’s goal is aligned with the business goals. For that, you need to have measurable goals that will help you gather the right data to achieve your goal.

#5. Offer value by creating a transparent data usage policy

When you collect data from your users or potential customers, they need to know how you are using their data. For greater transparency, you must show them that you will handle their data responsibly. You can also offer them exclusive offers and loyalty programs to increase their interest in sharing information. You must also have a solid data management policy.

Abstract

Third-party data collection will help you maintain your marketing and advertising strategies when the third-party data collection ends. However, you shouldn’t wait until the last minute to build an affordable, robust and efficient user data collection system for your online services. Instead, act now by following the personal data strategies outlined here.

Now that you’ve collected a lot of user data for targeted advertising and marketing, take advantage of these top user data platforms to put your user data to good use.