Report: Marketers Discovering Benefits of Using of First-Party Data

In a report titled, “The Promise of First-Party Data,” researchers from Econsultancy and Signal found that two-thirds of marketers believe first-party data provides the best path to understanding their target customer. This trend marks a shift away from third-party data, which has been the mainstay of digital marketing for years, according to the authors of the report.

First-party data can be defined as the information directly collected and stored by a company. Data from the report showed that first-party data yields the highest ROI of any data type, and it has the greatest potential to do more. About 82 percent of respondents said they will use first-party information over the next year.

As marketers rely more on first-party data, the researchers of the report believe that they will focus on content personalization to enhance the customer experience.

“Content personalization is a central piece to tailoring customer experience,” wrote the authors of the report. “It will only become more important as the role of mobile increases.”

About 60 percent of companies that have seen a strong ROI from the use of data claim that they have a “strong capability” of personalizing content or sites. Nearly 66 percent say they have strong campaign targeting capability.

The Growing Use of Data in Content Marketing

A study released by the Content Marketing Association has found that 91.4 percent of all marketers utilize customer data in their content marketing strategy.

In addition to gauging the use of consumer data, the study looked into how customers are utilizing and sharing content from marketers. About 27 percent of the content shared by consumers is not self-promotional. The top varieties of content shared include press and news pages, as well as charity pages.