Customers are concerned about the security and misuse of their personal data, yet they continue to expect high-level personalized experiences. With the enforcement of governing regulations and laws like GDPR and the newly implemented California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which adds GDPR-like consumer rights to the existing California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), collecting customer data in 2022 has become much more difficult. Because of these changes, the collection of zero-party data has become increasingly important to marketers who want to continue providing quality customer experiences. In contrast to first-party, second-party, and third-party data, which are indirectly (and often covertly) collected from customers, zero-party data is data that a customer voluntarily shares with your company. In this article, we’ll discuss zero-party data and why it’s important in 2022.

What is zero-party data?

Zero-party data is data that comes directly from customers. The term was first used by Forrester Research in 2018, who defined it as, “data that a customer intentionally and proactively shares with a brand, which can include preference center data, purchase intentions, personal context, and how the individual wants the brand to recognize [them].”Marketers can use quizzes, surveys, etc. to collect zero-party data and offer rewards and incentives to encourage customers to volunteer their information. Zero-party data gives you specialized, unique information that you can use to build more personalized product suggestions and interactive customer experiences.

Why is zero-party data important?

A zero-party data strategy is the best response to an increasingly privacy-centric world, where data privacy regulations like the GDPR and CPRA define how consumer data can be collected, managed, and used. Sites are now required to inform visitors of their use of third-party cookies, and customers often opt out. When given the choice, many people don’t want to hand over their data to a third party. Big tech companies like Apple have also made privacy changes that prevent app creators for iPads and iPhones from collecting data without explicit user permission via pop-ups or user settings. As of September 2021, only 21% of mobile users worldwide using iOS 14.5 had consented to app tracking. Google is moving in the same direction, committing to phasing out third-party tracking cookies from its browser by 2023. With these changes, marketers are beginning to recognize the value of zero-party data. It gives customers control over whom they share their information with and how much of it they share, and it creates transparency about why a brand is collecting that data and what they intend to do with it.This strengthens customer relationships, making people feel valued and increasing the likelihood that they’ll share insightful information with marketers who can use it to improve customer experiences and drive more sales.

Difference between first-party and zero-party data

The major difference between first-party and zero-party data is that first-party data is data collected passively from customers using cookies and other tracking technologies, while zero-party data is data customers give you directly.First-party data includes data about customer interests and behaviors such as personal information, purchase history, time spent on a page, and frequency of clicks, and it is owned by the company. Zero-party data is requested and collected by the company and provided directly by customers. The customer owns their own zero-party data and it cannot be sold without their consent.

Benefits of zero-party data

Regulatory compliance

A zero-party data strategy allows you to collect customer data without going against data privacy laws and regulations. It respects your customers’ right to data privacy while allowing marketers to continue providing true personalization amidst the increase in government data use restrictions and browser privacy features.

Greater customer trust

Zero-party data allows you to be more transparent about the data you’re collecting and the value that customers receive in exchange for their data. Privacy concerns are reduced, making customers feel more at ease and creating trust between you that leads to better, longer-lasting relationships.

Higher-quality data

While second- and third-party data are available to you and your competitors alike, zero-party data is unique to your business. Because this is data you have specifically asked your customers for, it is more precise than the data you might receive from other sources. A zero-party data strategy allows you to collect data that directly relates to your business and products. By allowing your customers to share unique information with your business exclusively, you gain a significant advantage over your competitors.

Lower acquisition costs

Focusing on zero-party data eliminates the cost of purchasing information from second- and third-party data sellers. In addition, it doesn’t require the same level of mining and analysis to gain insights, since you are directly requesting the information you need. This saves both time and money.

Zero-party data examples

Quizzes and questionnaires

Quizzes are a simple and fun way to collect zero-party data and help you determine what customers are looking for or what they prefer. With the help of a quiz, customers can figure out what products best fit their needs to make better purchasing decisions, while giving you valuable data to refine your marketing strategies. Beauty and skincare companies like Fenty Beauty and The Ordinary use questionnaires to collect zero-party data. Fenty Beauty’s Shade Finder allows customers to find the perfect foundation shade for their skin tone. And with The Ordinary’s Regimen Builder, customers can find products to create a skincare routine that addresses their specific concerns. These tools lead to more purchases and satisfied customers, while providing the companies with data to better market to their customers’ specific needs.

Polls

Polls are a fast and effective way to get feedback from customers, prospects, fans, and followers. By asking customers questions such as, “What are you looking for today?” at strategic points of the customer’s journey on your website, you can learn more about their interests and use their answers to direct them to specific product pages on your site.Social media polls are also a great way to gather customer thoughts and opinions on specific products. A simple poll asking customers to choose between two options, e.g., “Which do you prefer?” allows them to give you direct feedback that can support product recommendations.

Pre- and post-purchase surveys

Pre- and post-purchase surveys can help your company learn more about customer expectations before and after a purchase. Pre-purchase surveys can help you discover which products visitors are looking for, while post-purchase surveys help you better understand their purchase experience. Subscription pet brand and Simon Data client, The Farmer’s Dog, offers 20% off to first-time visitors, who are presented with a pre-purchase survey that asks questions about their dog’s weight, age, activity level, medications, and the foods they eat. At the end of the survey, The Farmer’s Dog makes suggestions for two weeks worth of meals that the visitor can add to their cart with the promised 20% discount.

Subscription, loyalty, and membership programs

Customer loyalty, membership, and subscription programs allow customers to share information about themselves in exchange for benefits like loyalty points or exclusive discounts. You can ask customers for information such as their birthday, skin type, style, or other preferences when they sign up. Starbucks uses its loyalty program to reward members with a free drink on their birthday, while craft retailer Michaels offers exclusive discounts through their rewards program.

Preference centers

Preference centers allow customers to choose how they are marketed to. Brands such as Apple and Spotify use this method to allow users to share their interests. First-time users choose their preferred artists and types of music so the apps can make personalized recommendations.

Limitations of zero-party data

The major challenge with zero-party data lies in its collection. Even with greater protections in place, some customers are still concerned about data privacy and the misuse of their data. Though zero-party data collection is more transparent, people may still be hesitant to share information—or at least too much of it. If you ask customers for too much information, they may become overwhelmed and stop responding. Marketers must ensure that data is collected ethically, and customers must clearly understand that their information is being collected and could be used for marketing campaigns. Maintaining transparency with your customers is the best way to build trust so you can continue to offer them personalized experiences.

Optimize your zero-party data with a CDP

Companies using a zero-party data strategy will not only learn more about their customers, leading to an improved customer experience, but they will also be seen as more trustworthy with customer data. And that trust will ultimately translate to more sales. Zero-party data can be collected across a wide variety of channels, and it’s crucial that you can easily access and activate this data in one location to build better pictures of your customers. Simon Data’s customer data platform (CDP) gives you one tool that you can use to combine and consolidate your zero-party data, manage your customer data profiles, and create unique, personalized experiences based on zero-party data attributes. Discover how Simon Data can help your organization maximize the value of zero-party data by requesting a customized demo today.

Just because you can call someone, text them, or drive by their house doesn’t mean you should. Am I right? The same is true of cross-channel marketing. Everyone’s doing cross-channel – but how do you know if you’re really nailing it?

You’ve likely heard of the five P’s of marketing. Check out the five C’s of Cross-Channel Marketing –  brought to you by Ragnarok and Simon Data.

1. Cues from Data

More information than ever is available to marketers: take advantage of that bounty! No high-growth company can wait weeks for reports to be delivered to make decisions. Enable your teams to act on results quickly and confidently by leveraging tools like Simon that not only synthesize your results but can also push highly segmented cross-channel messages directly to your customers.

2. Consider What You Really Need

Now, let’s think about what data you actually need to power the experiences you’re trying to enable. Steven, one of the Ragnarok Co-CEOs, says, “many teams have built a model where they’re collecting everything but then find after an audit that nobody was using most of it.” Use case gathering is an essential part of data set up to ensure you’re capturing what you need and forming actionable dashboards. While a deluge of data is at our fingertips, it’s important not to get lost in the flood and focus on what’s essential. This episode of Data Unlocked Podcast can be a big help in fine-tuning your data and turning learnings into actions.

3. Choose the Correct KPI

Do not obsess over the wrong metrics. If your business needs to drive more repeat purchases, open rates aren’t where you should be focused. Yes, opens are one part of the funnel, but it’s not the whole story. We recommend ensuring your channel owners have a view of the entire funnel and where drop-offs occur. Ultimately, all efforts should be traced back to a mission-critical KPI they’re supporting. To ensure you’re learning along the way, create structured learning agendas to focus on how and where you are proving your biggest growth hypotheses.

4. Cross-Team Communication

Don’t silo your squads- Foster collaboration by building cross-functional pods responsible for achieving shared goals. Create an environment where sharing ideas and acting on them is encouraged by hosting weekly focused brainstorming sessions. Be sure to celebrate wins and even share losses in team forums where everyone can learn together. Simon Data has put together a great post about cross-functional collaboration.

5. Customer-Focused Mindset

Bolster your data-driven insights and intuition with the voice of the customer! How can you do this quickly? Here are a few tips:

1. Have a representative from your Customer Success team help steer all big company initiatives. They should be involved early on – not just as a last look before initiatives go live!
2. Use surveys to contextualize the data and dig deeper into the drivers of behaviors when you understand the what but not the why.
3. Leverage your social channels for quick gut checks! You’ll find out in a matter of seconds what they really think.

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Byline by Aaron Smith, CEO and Co-founder at Sageflo.

In the last decade, many companies have transformed their digital presence and evolved from a multichannel strategy to an omnichannel strategy. One of the most important differences between the two is that multichannel focuses on engaging customers, while omnichannel focuses on improving customer experience. With multichannel marketing, the goal is to cast the net as wide as possible to make sure more people are aware of a business. With omnichannel marketing, the goal is to create a consistent customer experience for people who are already aware of and engaging with a business. At the core, data is what drives both strategies. The key to shifting from simply engaging customers to truly enhancing the customer experience lies in how that data is leveraged across each channel.  

“When a company makes customers feel appreciated, 76% indicate they’ll keep their business with the brand, 80% say they will spend more with the brand, and 87% will recommend the brand to friends and family members.” (Forrester)

During the pandemic, companies that were digitally ready prevailed. In a report from Forrester, e‑commerce in the U.S. grew 30% in 2020, its fastest growth rate since 2002. But the research firm also projects that 72% of retail will still take place offline in 2024. Bearing that in mind, as companies move through the many phases of digital transformation, it’s imperative for them to consider not only what data they’re using across channels, but how the data is being used and who is provided with access.

Marketers have primarily used data across online marketing channels like web, email, social, and mobile to engage customers wherever they’re engaging with a brand. However, when it comes to offline marketing channels, like interactions with customer care or in-store service, these associates are rarely, if ever, empowered with customer data that can truly impact their conversations with customers.

With customer data being collected at every interaction, customers know and expect companies to be aware of their likes, status, engagement, and purchase history. In fact, 74% of consumers think knowledgeable in-store staff is important to their brand experience. (Oracle)

Brands are evolving and seeing the impact of having fewer data silos and more access to customer data. How that data is then shared across teams and made readily accessible is what makes the difference between an average and highly personalized, dynamic customer experience.

Consider these two examples:

1) The Farmer’s Dog utilized Simon Data’s customer data platform to organize and activate data, saving the marketing team 80 hours a month and increasing the rate of email experimentation by 10x. Faster path to personalization by allowing the marketing team to execute quicky and efficiently without IT slowing things down

2) Vivino utilized Simon Data to deliver highly personalized recommendations while simultaneously optimizing message cadence, channel mix and lifecycle specific content for each customer. Not only did this lead to a 3x increase in revenue per email, but overall engagement increased 2.4x.

Taking Customer Experience to the Next Level

Having a holistic view of all customer activity, purchases, and messaging is imperative and starts with enabling brands to listen, think, and speak to customers from one, centralized platform. Simon Data + Sageflo Archiver, captures all that data along with a visual timeline of every customer’s messaging journey and engagement, so that customer service and in-store teams can begin to understand customer interests and intent, and engage with customers in more individualized and meaningful ways that drive customer experience.

Brands that are focused on CX holistically are leveraging data in ways that drive higher customer engagement not only via digital touchpoints but across all channels where customers interact with that brand, including in-store and call center support.

Sageflo Radiate and Simon Data partner to give brands even more detailed insight into customer messaging and engagement, so that brands can utilize this data in real-time with customers and uncover an additional layer of interest and intent.

Looking ahead to 2022, customers will continue to expect hyper-personalization and demand a more holistic customer experience. As brands continue to compete for customer attention and share of wallet, focusing not only on having the right data, but using that data more effectively will need to be top of mind. Companies that can offer customers the most seamless experience between both the digital and physical shopping worlds will be the ones that grow their business and expand market share.

Learn more about Sageflo Archiver here
Learn more about Simon Data here

Author Bio

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In the newest installment of the Data Unlocked Podcast, Jason Davis, Simon Data’s co-founder, and CEO, links up with Brad Jakeman, Co-Founder at Rethink Food and Senior Adviser at Boston Consulting Group.

The focus of this episode is consumer intentionality, a topic that came to light from Brad’s recent experience. He was tasked with helping a close friend find a good deal on a new car. Following several visits to an array of car dealership websites, Brad was now the target of aggressive marketing. His intention was never to purchase a car, and had more data been strung together, these sites would have known that Brad just bought two cars and is not in the market. He also has never purchased a car like the one his friend is shopping for.

In many, many instances, personalization in marketing, if not done correctly, is not adding to my relationship with the brand. In fact, it is being creepy. – Brad Jakeman

The goal of marketer’s campaigns should be to add value to consumers’ lives. As Jason notes, when used effectively to connect to consumer intentions, data can really entice behavior. But when not thoughtful, it can be a turnoff and a nuisance.

During the episode, Jason asks Brad what his recommendation is on measuring the success of personalized context. Brad mentions that many marketers solely think about what the sales outcome is. But, when a brand makes contact with you, whether it be by TV commercial, website pop-up, email or text, that brand is trying to be your “friend”. And we only keep around friends who add value to our lives. So next time you get one of these messages, ask yourself if it makes you smile or makes you feel closer to the brand. That’s an easy test.

This conversation about consumer intentionality and more on marketing continue throughout the remainder of this episode. You can check it out by clicking the button below.

LISTEN TO THE DATA UNLOCKED PODCAST

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For the third consecutive quarter, Simon ranks as a “Leader” (top rating) in the G2 Fall Rankings for Customer Data Platforms (CDP).G2’s quarterly CDP Grid® ranks products based on customer satisfaction and market presence. This cycle, we held our spots as overall Leader, Momentum Leader, Enterprise Grid® Leader Mid-Market Leader and Best Support Mid-Market.

“At Simon, we continue to innovate, iterate and deliver solutions that help customer-centric brands be more successful and drive their business forward. We are thrilled to see this reflected by direct customer feedback from the latest G2 report.

The quarterly G2 rankings demonstrate Simon’s strength in leveraging data to deliver next-generation customer experiences. I’m proud to see Simon as a Leader for three consecutive quarters, and especially excited to celebrate our streak of receiving “Best Support” again.

–Jason Davis, CEO, and co-founder of Simon Data

G2 rankings depend on how verified users evaluate customer satisfaction, as well as data from online sources and social networks. Below are a few key testimonials from our fall reviewers. Highlights include Simon’s exceptional support, ease of use, and flexibility of the product.

Simon Data reviews sourced by G2

In short, these are only a few of the ratings that helped us qualify for these recognitions this fall. Check out the rest of our G2 reviews submitted by customers here:

This post serves as a summary of the live webinar from October 15th hosted by Snowflake and Simon Data with Travel & Leisure Co.

Everyone wants to be data-driven, but often there are mountains of challenges like siloed data or old methodology causing roadblocks. An important goal for brands is using data to deliver personalized experiences that customers expect and businesses need to drive growth.Many executives say they’re going to activate on their data, but teams need to be given the proper tools to do so. Many don’t have a strategy to unlock the value of data that combines business needs with technology. Often, an IT or business team may tackle this on their own, which keeps others in the dark.The solution at hand is to have a 360-degree view of customers upon which we can drive personalized messaging to any channel. So, the question becomes, how do we build this foundation of customer knowledge and activate it effectively?

Snowflake as the Foundation for Personalization

Thousands of organizations are sharing data constantly with their ecosystem. Snowflake serves as a central point to aggregate all customer data and create a unified customer profile. They also ensure all data is compliant with current GDPR standards and can drive analytics and personalization. Of utmost importance, they work with partners like Simon Data to ensure data is being utilized to its fullest potential.Snowflake can take a unified customer profile and send it to Simon to create rich segmentations that activate across all channels at scale.

Simon Unlocks Data

When using data, the goal is to apply it to drive business outcomes and speak to the customer about what they care about. Customer Data Platforms (CDP) span data collection, data modeling, and marketing activation; Simon falls into the last category as an Orchestration CDP helping brands leverage data they already have in their funnel. An effective CDP is about more than just spitting out analytics, it’s connecting data to drive business processes. Ultimately, it’s about putting data in the hands of marketers, enabling marketers to make better and quicker decisions.The Simon team also strongly believes in empowering marketers to work closely with engineering or product teams. We encourage brands to think about crafting marketing strategies where reporting is seamlessly and consistently accessible. As a result, we can continue to iterate and learn from what’s been done. This is why people who own the creation of customer experiences need to be able to have an understanding of data and personalization.Simon’s CEO, Jason Davis, describes the three pillars for data-driven marketing as:

• Invest centrally in data - leverage the data you have and build on top of your data strategy
• Democratize access - enable access to data for strategic insights and iterative execution
• Learn cross-functionally - Refine marketing strategies by ensuring data continuity

Travel & Leisure Leverages Both for Personalization at Scale

Travel and Leisure Co. initially started with channels that were separate from one another; attempts to orchestrate fell short because their legacy data provider couldn’t bring everything together. Their goals were to centralize data, connect central data repositories, and deploy models.After introducing Simon and Snowflake to their backend, Travel and Leisure Co. was able to connect channels and create a flawless consumer experience. Their ability to personalize cross-channel marketing for customers now means that wherever they go they get a consistent message. An example of this is Travel and Leisure Co.’s “vacation recommendations” which combines data about transaction history, inventory, demographics, and web activity to make suggestions to customers. Utilizing these data points, they were able to inspire members with destinations they will likely enjoy. As they see intent toward a destination, their recommendations become more granular. Of course, this personalization boosts performance across channels through more relevant and consistent messagingA central orchestration platform such as Simon allows Travel & Leisure Co. to maintain a history of cross-channel messages. Using the campaign history, they’re able to build a fractional attribution model based upon engagement quality and its time from conversion. Through this process, they have determined that their personalized comms far exceed generic messaging.Their teams are also now able to work on more interesting problems due to data automation and model integration from Simon, yielding time to launch even more marketing campaigns. Subsequently, teams are more data-driven as they introduce capabilities to measure the incrementality of their efforts.

The Three Takeaways

1. Break down data silos and unleash the full power of first-party data
2. Develop models to form the basis of communication - models won’t solve everything, but they’ll be able to serve as a construct
3. Measure and evolve tactics using a holistic view of performance - make sure attribution approaches align to the measure of success

Launch of Innovative New Capabilities and Extension of Market-Leading CDP Empowers Brands to Bring Dynamic Customer Experiences to Market Faster and Drive Business Results

Today, we announced the launch of two new products and a major expansion of Simon’s industry-leading CDP. These enhancements will help digitally native and growth-minded companies deliver next-generation customer experiences. This expands upon our core focus of enabling hyper-personalized and omnichannel customer marketing. Above all, this product fully unlocks customer data for the needs of today's modern marketing team. There are many complex data challenges faced by customer-focused, growth-oriented brands. Consequently, Simon’s new suite of capabilities expedite a marketer's time to value. It seamlessly integrates real-time and historical first-party data across its numerous tools and sources into a unified, comprehensive platform. Simon’s cross-channel marketing platform enables CMOs and CTOs to have deeper aligned partnerships, eliminating the blocks between engineers, data analysts and scientists, and those in operational marketing roles. As a result, this next-generation technology helps marketing leaders transform AI and data investments into results and outcomes. Furthermore, it enables marketing teams to affect highly personalized interactions through advanced experimentation, iterative workflows, and a powerful optimization toolkit.[caption id="attachment_9767" align="aligncenter" width="600"]

Simon Data's CDP architecture was created to make omnichannel marketing simple for all.[/caption]“Simon Data is charging forward to enable marketers to fully activate their data. This is what we believe to be the future of marketing systems and CDP. We are bridging technology, workflows, and data science to automate processes that drive better results,” said Jason Davis, CEO & co-founder of Simon Data. The CDP features two new products and enhanced capabilities within Simon Predict for its market-leading CDP product. [caption id="attachment_9768" align="aligncenter" width="600"]

The new Simon Mail makes email campaigns easy for marketers from design to execution and everything in between.[/caption]

The latest edition includes:

• Simon Journeys - The newly redesigned Simon Journeys helps marketers quickly brainstorm, build, and version customer experiences. In addition, it features tools that target and personalize content across channels, using Simon’s deep data to optimize content delivery.

• Simon Mail - This ESP is differentiated from legacy email tools that require marketers to manage everything from data integrations to personalization. Moreover, Simon Mail automates processes to help email marketers boost revenue per email, build eye-popping dynamic content, and access world-class campaign metrics and deliverability reporting.

• Simon Predict - Delivering predictive models for every marketer to build better messaging and campaigns, it integrates machine learning capabilities. Subsequently, it delivers transparent customer insights and injects predictive intelligence directly into the workflows of CRM, cross-channel, lifecycle, and end-channel marketers. As a result, this makes every interaction more relevant while boosting sales and revenue.

New supporting CDP features include:

• Audience API - A highly personalized way for marketers to create unique customer experiences across channels.

• Real-Time Content - An external API that enables relevant, up-to-the-minute data personalization for relevant messaging.

• Snowflake Data Share - An easy way to flexibly export data from Simon to BI tools for additional analysis outside of Simon.

• Smart Segments, Journeys, and Insights - Designed to empower marketers to deploy strategies quickly, leverage best practices and deliver better performance.

“By investing in developing these next-generation tools and CDP features, we’re providing our clients with powerful solutions. They speed up the delivery of unique and effective messaging to reduce churn, increase revenue, and discover new audiences,” said DavisTo learn more, register for the Turn Data into Outcomes - Think Smarter. Act Faster. Be More Effective. webinar on November 4 at 1pm ET / 10am PT.

Why You Don’t Need Third-Party Data for Your Personalized Marketing

CDP Institute recently teamed up with Simon Data to release a white paper that examines the future of data in our increasingly privacy-centric world. Over the last few years, a few things have happened to make gathering customer data more difficult- GDPR, CCPA, Apple’s blocking third party cookies, and app tracking transparency have all culminated in the most recent announcement by Google regarding third party cookies.

via GIPHYThe prospect of a cookieless future has been worrisome for many companies, but just because you’re losing access to third-party data doesn’t mean you have to be dataless. Conversely, it just means you have to rely on the other types of data to do the heavy lifting. Simply put, the future of customer data is first-party and zero-party data.

What is the Difference Between Zero- and First-Party Data?

Let’s start with the basics:

What is First-Party Data?

First-party data is information your business collects about its customers. While some is provided directly, for the most part, first-party data is captured from observed customer behavior. Common examples of this may include products viewed, videos streamed, or purchase history.And although consumers consent to this data being collected, they often don’t realize it is being stored for future company use. This paradox is one of the critical differences between first-party and zero-party data.

What is Zero-Party Data?

In contrast, zero-party data is information a customer intentionally provides. Ways we typically see this data collected is by responding to a survey, making a request, or answering a quiz.Because this customers give this information voluntarily, you can get more accurate information that customers want you to improve their experience. An additional benefit is because your company is the one that dictated the question, the answers can directly relate to information you want to know. For example, which products a customer is interested in buying or feel about a recent experience.

How to Leverage First- and Zero-Party Data in a Post-Cookies World

The benefit of using first and zero-party data over third-party data is the accuracy of information. Because this information comes directly from the customer, the data is more reliable and adds more value to the customer experience. First-party data allows you to anticipate customer needs. One such example is making recommendations based on past purchases or likes. Zero-party data can make recommendations, but goes a step further than first-party data. Because zero-party data comes from questioning your customer base, it can account for switching tastes and lifestyle changes.

How to Optimize Your Personalized Marketing with Simon Data’s Customer Data Platform

Although losing access to third-party cookies may seem like a massive shift, most companies are already collecting some of first-party and zero-party data. What a CDP helps make cookieless futures not have to be dataless futures.Optimization is possible by identifying critical data points as a starting block and then adding, subtracting, and iterating via advanced experimentation. In this process, prioritize first-party and zero-party data. However, this data can live in several different places. It is crucial to make sure you can easily access and activate all data in one place using the right tools. Make sure you have one tool that can get you the data you need, turn it into the data you want, and use it where it matters.

Why a CDP?

A CDP allows you to see all of your data in one place. This accessibility means you can test, learn, and iterate customer experiences based on past data. Noting points such as where dropoff is occurring in the collection process can be vital to optimizing your customer journey. Some ways of optimizing include:

• Segment: identity and purposefully target the right customer
• Content: tailor your communications in a way that delivers the value promised
• Results: Test and iterate on segments and content to deliver the promised impact

The first step is collecting data you own, such as first-party and zero-party data. The second step is syncing relevant data in one location to create unique and tailored experiences. This tailoring is made possible through advanced experimentation and continual iteration on the experiences for continued optimization and impact.For more information on how a CDP helps optimize your use of customer data, watch our video on The 5 Secret Powers of a CDP.

In a recent interview by CIO, Mihir Shah, Head of Data Architecture for Fidelity Investments, and Jason Davis, CEO and Founder of Simon Data, sat down to discuss the evolution of Fidelity's data strategy. Central to this discussion is a vision known as "the next-generation data pipeline." Foundational expanding the scope and impact of data beyond traditional lines of engineering ownership and reporting applications. Fidelity's next generation of data applications involves fully unlocking the power of data across the enterprise. This starts with transforming traditional ownership outside of core data and engineering functions to enable business stakeholders including marketing to drive core processes forward with measurable results.In moving towards this vision, Fidelity embarked on a journey consisting of three core steps. The first step was centralizing their data into a scalable cloud data environment. Next, Fidelity aimed to democratize data to permit access across the organization. Finally, they sought to enable business functions with the right applications to transform processes to be fully data-driven.While Fidelity’s steps are simple, the idea is quite ambitious and requires complex execution. Yet, the difficulty level did not deter the team from the goal of transforming the data pipeline, making data available and utilized by everyone.

Step One: Data Centralization

Historically, Fidelity's data existed in disparate systems and databases that were developed over many years as their capabilities matured. The business had a myriad of data across the organization but no centralized way of maintaining, cataloging, and joining disparate sources.Before investing in a cloud data warehouse, data lived in silos across various departments - and Shah clearly understood the limitations of their fragmented architecture. However, he had a strong vision of how centralized architecture would solve this problem and drive business outcomes.

Step Two: Data Democratization

With a centralized data model, the next obstacle towards Fidelity's core vision was one of access. While accessibility starts with data in a centralized place, it also involves active data management and providing views into data that are purposeful and domain-specific.To illustrate this point, let’s kick-off with an abbreviated quote from Mihir demonstrating the value of centralized data:

“...All data sets are in one place and are managed by the data owners. There is a full catalog, everybody knows where the data is <and> it's easily accessible. And then there are products <that> are working on leveraging the datasets..” -Mihir Shah

Jason adds on to this point by expressing the value in combining datasets :

“ <The> data becomes richer as you pull in third-party, supplier, and partner sources. 15 years ago you had an on-prem data warehouse with a star schema, and you'd never think about any transformations outside... We've fully outgrown that model today. When you look at the richness of data, there's a notion that we call the last mile data transformations...you take two datasets and you can have a third. When you start to have access to a whole new world of data..<then you can> really look at the complexity of the applications and the opportunities that now exist from a marketing perspective.”-Jason Davis

The idea here is - while there is value in combining datasets to get a third and more encompassing dataset, there is also value in getting these datasets into the hands of the data owners creates opportunities to drive desired outcomes.

Step Three: Data Enablement

Ultimately, the power of data is how you use it - Shah and Davis go on to discuss "the next-generation data pipeline" in more detail. The first tenet of data usage starts with the level of effort required to build, modify, and iterate data pipes that drive business processes:

When data operations become easier, capabilities can transcend to a more strategic level:

“I think so many of the existing use cases for either are getting migrated off of on-prem data warehouses or data marts...And those are important use cases...<that> can certainly be enabled with the cloud and centralization...But really, the vision we're driving towards is this next tranche of how data is used outside of just the analytics, modeling, and insights.”

Circling back to our opening clip of Shah, he discusses wanting to target every aspect of the business to make Fidelity more data-driven as a whole. The power of an enhanced data pipeline is touching every aspect of the business.

“Whether it's procurement or somebody who's looking at expense reports for fraud. So, if you look around your enterprise, there are so many different processes that can just be simple... It may not be a complex model, just the availability of data. They can actually enhance... The job becomes much easier or better.” -Mihir Shah

Conclusion

While a successful data strategy starts with centralizing data from across an organization, fully affecting the strategy requires enabling teams outside of data & technology. As Fidelity looks forward, developing the people, processes, and systems required to affect this is critical. This “next-generation data pipeline” is about re-thinking how data is used & deployed through the organization - for not just reporting or insights purposes but to drive forward core business processes within marketing and beyond.

In September 2021, Apple released iOS 15, the much-anticipated rollout of their new Privacy Protection features. With these privacy updates, marketers are seeing an impact on their data collection. Possibly the most significant impact marketers face from the iOS 15 privacy update is a decrease in the accuracy of open rates. Going forward, email opens will no longer be an indicator that a human has opened a message. And while open events have not been an accurate measure of human interest, they have been the most accessible metric for marketers to utilize for making deliverability decisions. With this additional layer of inaccuracy, marketers must shift how they look at recipient engagement to be less focused on open events and more focused on other data points. This additional context could more accurately indicate a genuine interest from the human receiving the message.

Short Term Impact of iOS 15 Privacy Updates

While the email industry doesn’t fully know how these changes will impact senders, what we do know is that Apple’s Privacy Protection will:

• Increase the number of open events regardless of whether or not users opened the message
• Impact the accuracy of this data for recipients across all domains- iOS15 Mail app users that opt-in will utilize email addresses at all mailbox providers
• Decrease the accuracy of timestamp, device, and location information

Using More Data in Email Deliverability

Traditionally, marketers rely on open events to identify potential inboxing problems and to identify unengaged subscribers. Therefore, marketers will need to adjust how they look for this kind of information moving forward to make the most accurate decisions on deliverability. To identify potential inbox problems, senders will need to expand their view of data and trends to be more accurate in their assumptions. Senders will still look to open rates as a factor but will need to include more data points in their calculations. For example, by comparing changes in open rates to other datasets like click rates and conversions, senders can understand how mailbox providers process their messages. Similarly, when senders decide who to target to protect or repair their deliverability results, metrics like last opened or messages since last opened won’t be as effective moving forward. Thus, senders will need to also adjust the logic of their sunset and frequency to utilize metrics like clicks and conversions to supplement what open data tells them.

iOS 15 Privacy Updates Effect on Email Marketing Decisions

Marketers certainly utilize open event data for more than making deliverability decisions. Modern marketers have become experts at crafting compelling marketing journeys that walk recipients through curated experiences engaging with particular messages. Losing this visibility poses a challenge to marketers.Similarly, it will also be critical to shift what metrics are considered in determining what is not a likely human interaction with email messaging. Again, looking at other metrics like clicks and conversions will be most helpful. Additionally, marketers who can craft email experiences that drive the engagements that are more quickly and accurately measured will have the easiest time adjusting to the new reality of iOS 15’s privacy updates. Relying on the email to deliver the entirety of the message and fully convert a recipient to a call to action will become harder to measure. Marketers should use the email body to quickly move the recipient to the next journey or conversion. This transition provides more accurate first or zero-party data, giving marketers more substantial insight into how their content performs with recipients. Finally, marketers will also have to deal with how these privacy changes impact the use of things like dynamic content or location data to enhance the email experience for recipients. Keeping in mind the data used to make decisions will be limited in accuracy will help marketers craft content and CTAs geared to drive measurable results.

How a CDP Can Help

Current email privacy updates mean the most important thing marketers can do is look at data points. These data points will help them understand whether their messages are reaching and converting people. Using email metrics like clicks and click rates will undoubtedly be critical. Marketers who understand how their recipients have been engaging with their messages historically will be better equipped to make sense of future changes. Examining historical open and click trends by mailbox provider or domain can provide a wealth of insight once open rates start to change due to Apple’s new features. However, when it comes to making sense of the ever-changing marketing landscape and signals across various channels, there is no substitute for using a CDP like Simon Data. CDPs bring clarity to increasingly opaque signals.While cross-channel messaging has already shown itself to be a critical component of a modern marketer’s strategy, changes like Apple’s introduced point toward the growing importance of cross-channel measurement and analysis. Email metrics and events should no longer be viewed in a vacuum. Regardless of how we communicate, measuring recipients’ engagement with your brand is the key to sanity. Checking those channel-specific signals will make more impactful decisions. Utilizing a CDP gives marketers the tools to connect the dots between seemingly disparate data points. Thus, more quickly and effectively drawing a more holistically accurate picture of marketing efficacy.Download The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing Software to learn how a CDP can help make the most of your data.

In the newest installment of the Data Unlocked Podcast, Jason Davis, Simon Data’s co-founder and CEO, links up with Abby Feuer, DonorsChoose’s Executive Vice President of Marketing and Growth. They chat about utilizing customers’ past behaviors to create data-driven marketing personalization.

DonorsChoose is a nonprofit charity on a mission to make it easy for teachers and students to access the resources they need for a strong education. DonorsChoose faces the at-times difficult task of getting a steady stream of donors. After 21 years of positively impacting students across the nation, Feuer shares how her team has found success through several personalization methods. These include word of mouth, creating moments in the space, and targeting (and retargeting) personas.

Word of Mouth

It may seem old school, but DonorsChoose relies heavily on storytelling from existing benefactors; the organization believes that the best way to build trust is through a friend’s recommendation. While it sounds simple, DonorsChoose has several personalized email touchpoints that can spark these memorable conversations that might lead to a donation down the line. Feuer notes donors get a thank you note from the teacher, photos of the project in action, and a report on how the classroom used each dollar. The follow-ups from DonorsChoose often continue for months after an initial donation. This period allows for several opportunities for supporters to resurface their contributions with others in person or on social media. Additionally, these touchpoints drive visits back to the DonorsChoose website.

Most teachers who share their projects on DonorsChoose have been introduced to the program by word of mouth mention from friends, family, or colleagues. There are also seminars that teachers can attend to help onboard the platform and bring their vision to life.

These data-driven personalization efforts are often enough to encourage donors to share their experiences with others or even make a second contribution to a project. When there are lulls in classroom updates, DonorsChoose identified another method to re-engage contributors.

Memorable Moments

Feuer mentions that July and August, when teachers are preparing for the year ahead, are the most popular times for projects to be created and receive donations. Teacher Appreciation Week in May also garners a peak in attention on the platform. For the other nine months of the year, DonorsChoose has found success by spotlighting big moments that catch the attention of former contributors by creating a sense of urgency.

“We can create moments, like something around our anniversary with our most engaged donors, where we resurface the first project they ever gave to, to inspire them to give again. We rely on a lot of automated emails and messages based on historical preferences and giving behavior and then these big events throughout the year to drive reengagement.”

-Abby Feuer

These moments are when having historical and event-driven customer data can help marketers target the right people at the right time with compelling messages. Through Simon Data, DonorsChoose can view customer real-time and historical data in one place. An event that interests a donor based on their previous habit triggers a message alerting the donor of this item of interest. This sequence has proven to be effective in garnering more donations during these critical times. While these events have proven successful, DonorsChoose has also found success by learning more about their donors and patterns.

Targeting Personas with Data-Driven Personalization

Simon Data also enables DonorsChoose to build segments around supporters who have already contributed. There are two factors that Feuer mentions are crucial in retargeting:

1. Is there loyalty to a specific teacher?
2. Is there a specific community or purpose that resonates?

Often friends or family members will support teachers in their life year-after-year to help their classrooms thrive. Others may focus on a sentimental donation to a school they attended or a cause that is close to their heart. It’s easy for DonorsChoose to send a follow-up message using Simon Mail if a favored teacher or school adds a new project or if a specific cause needs funding. Other factors that can strengthen personalized outreach include the acquisition source and how much money is required to complete the project.

Again, the key piece here is messaging donors at the right time with the right message to catch their attention. If you recall from episode three of the Data Unlocked series, finding the perfect moment is something Vivino struggled to capture. People don’t like receiving daily or non-purposeful emails. Digging into customer data is how marketers grow to understand who they are targeting and when the right time is to reach them.

“What we have learned through research is that even if you’ve planned out how much you want to give to nonprofits in that year, through a compelling email or event, we can get you to give again. If you see a project that is related to a childhood memory, a geographic preference that matters to you, et cetera, we can inspire you to donate even if you weren’t planning to.”

-Abby Feuer

Summary

Data-driven personalization has always been important to DonorsChoose methodology; the organization has completed over two million projects by prioritizing them. Notably, the crowded nonprofit space makes it challenging at times to get noticed. As Feurer and Davis discuss on the podcast, a personalized campaign funnel can help distinguish one charity from the rest. DonorsChoose optimizes its marketing cadence and segmentation with Simon Mail, allowing the organization to craft campaigns and messaging driven by unified data. Thus, the impact of personalization speaks for itself, with over 5 million donors to the charity.

Contribute to teachers in need using DonorsChoose – find a cause (or two) that resonates with you and help teachers supply books, cleaning supplies, technology, and more to help students get back to learning.

LISTEN TO THE FULL DATA UNLOCKED PODCAST

How To Use Personalization To Ensure Your Subscription Brand Never Falls Victim To The Monthly Purge

Subscription brands can be some of the most challenging to market. While one-time purchases can be necessary or written off as a well-deserved splurge, subscriptions face regular scrutiny. If your customers are feeling bored with their subscription or underwhelmed with the service, they are more than likely to churn and once they’ve canceled, it can be difficult to win them back. So, how can subscription brands use customer data to thrive in a cutthroat market? Personalization strategies that brands have turned to in order to differentiate their experience and offer more value to their subscribers. In this post, we’ll dive into some best practices that’ll take your subscription brand’s personalization strategy to the next level.

The Time And Place For Personalization

Today, customers know that they’re participating in a trade-off when offering their personal data to brands. In return for data, they should receive benefits and convenience. However, the “creepy” factor is undeniable, and the payoff is often unsatisfying. As a result, customers regularly report negative attitudes towards personalized ads. So does that mean marketers should stop using them? The “Privacy Paradox” tells us: no. Messages, ads, and other personalized content almost always out-perform the alternative when it comes to engagement and open rates. Despite negative feelings about personalization, when content is personalized in a way that adds benefit or convenience for the customer, they’re more than willing to hand over their data. When it comes to building your personalization strategy, staying on the right side of the Privacy Paradox means that your goal should be to build a thoughtful experience that establishes a meaningful relationship with your customer. With that in mind, start by framing your strategy around your customer’s needs and challenges rather than focusing on the end result of revenue. Your customer data can be a great source of inspiration for understanding your customer. For instance, you can use implicit or behavioral data to understand their psyche:

• How many orders has a customer placed?
• How many times have they upgraded their subscription or changed their preferences?
• Have they attempted to use features unavailable within their subscription tier?
• How often do they engage with your product, website, or app?

These details can tell you what challenges a customer is encountering, how comfortable they are with the order process, or what extra information they need to take the next best step.If someone upgrades their subscription, you can then send them an email explaining new features of their subscription. If they’re trying to use features they don’t have access to, it calls for a message highlighting all of the membership tiers and the perks of each one. These examples aren’t super sales-y, but are timely and directly push customers towards a solution to their problem. Basically, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Ask yourself “if I encountered this issue, or took this action, what would I want or need in response?”

Data-Driven Personalization Strategies and Segmentation Best Practices

At Simon Data, we view segmentation as a form of personalization - it can be 1-to-many or 1-to-few, as opposed to 1-to-1 personalization. Without some heavy investments in machine learning technology, it can be difficult for subscription brands to achieve the dream of a true 1-1 experience. However, segmentation can offer a low-lift strategy to ensure that every customer is receiving communication that’s helpful and relevant to them.

How to Build Your Segments

Segments are built by identifying the general sets of customers engaging with your brand and then grouping them by their behaviors, differentiators, and the data points that highlight or describe those differences. Some key segments for subscription brands include:

• Leads - visitors that have converted in some way but have not yet purchased a subscription.
• New subscribers - new subscribers to your service
• Active subscribers - customers that have retained their subscription for a period of time
• Returning subscribers - customers that have resubscribed after churning
• Inactive subscribers: subscribers who have churned.
• Gift or promotional subscribers: customers that were given a subscription as a gift, or customers that converted using some sort of promotion or discount.

There are additional dimensions through which you can further segment these customer groups, including:

• Customer lifetime value - the total value of a customer to a business throughout the entirety of their relationship
• Category affinity - subscribers who demonstrate preference for a certain type of content or product.
• Location - geographical location can inform what products you promote.
• Level of engagement - how frequently the customer uses the product, service, and other channels (social media, website, add-ons)

But just because you know a lot about each customer doesn’t mean all of that information is helpful. Testing your way into personalization is a great way to measure the effectiveness of the campaign, and the impact on your desired segment. You have to build your data foundation first to ensure your personalization strategies are relevant and useful. Starting with segments with recurring sends or journeys to optimize customer experience can be even more effective. Once you’ve experimented to pinpoint which journeys make for a better CX with segmentation, you can then lean into personalizing those segments in ways that add further value. When all of your customers are subscribed for different reasons, creating these broad segments can be the most time-efficient way to personalize to their individual needs. Ultimately, where you start with your personalization/segmentation strategy depends on your existing data. Start with what makes sense based on where you are now, and the rest will follow.

What Customers Really Want

Personalization done right can be a great way to build relationships through marketing. So, does that mean that all personalization strategies are effective? Not exactly. We know that customers are willing to trade off some privacy for convenience and clear value, but it’s pretty obvious when you’re asking for information that you don’t really need. For example, if you’re looking for personalization opportunities for your subscription meal kit, you probably don’t need to know your customers’ date of birth - especially if the only thing you’re doing with it is sending a “happy birthday” message. The sentiment is nice, but if it doesn’t fit in with the existing relationship you have with your customers, there’s no real reason to do so. An exception here is if you’re sending them a special birthday discount, or a special meal with their shipment. Not only is it relevant for a meal kit brand, but it shows your customers that you value their business and are willing to go the extra mile. Acts of appreciation - big or small - demonstrate them the value behind providing you with personal information. The deciding factor when it comes to collecting data needs to be whether or not the experience the information would enable solves a customer problem, provides value, or strengthens a relationship. To identify what data you need and what you can declutter, you need to have a conversation about what problems you want to solve, and what information you would need to make it happen. Working from the problem or goal towards the solution, instead of from existing data to a conclusion, is more time-efficient, and is ultimately more impactful in heightening your customer experience.

A Tool to Simplify the Process

That said, it’s clear that personalization strategies are tricky - especially for subscription brands. Overall, the best way to simplify the process is to use a Customer Data Platform, like Simon, which enables marketers to access and use all of their customer data to build and launch deeply personalized experiences and campaigns without having to rely on IT or engineering. To learn more about Customer Data Platforms, check out The Definitive Guide to Customer Data Platforms. Or, see how our CDP enabled pet subscription brand, Bark Box to automate data pulls and segmentation, rapidly experiment and iterate on targeted cohorts, and optimize targeting, timing, and messaging, by reading our case study.