First Party Data is the New Gold
There are many reasons why first-party data will be the "New Gold" in business, so it's difficult to know where to start. First, before we get into all the reasons, let's define the different types of data:
Third-Party Data: any information collected by an entity that does not directly relate to the user the data is being collected on.
Second-Party Data: Someone else's first-party data is shared with you. It can be used for audience targeting or enriching your own database.
First Party Data: information a company collects from its customers and owns. It can complement, enhance, and reduce the need for other data types.
The goal for any business owner should be to use first-party data at every possible turn. That's obvious, but that is also difficult until now. More on that later.
Many businesses have had to rely on third-party data for their marketing because they don't have access to first-party data, such as visitors on the company website or visitors who started to complete a fill form and never finished it. The vast majority of people visit a website and never engage; that number is at a startling 98%. It isn't easy to get first-party data with those numbers, so reliance upon third-party data has been required.
However, that is about to change. For a couple of years now, it has been widely reported that Cookies will go away. Nobody seems to know when that will happen, but at some point, that trigger will get pulled. What that means in terms of marketing is challenging to project. Suffice it to say that things are going to change. Not being able to generate third-party data will mean a shift in the market, and businesses will have to pivot for lead generation.
Cookies were supposed to go away in 2022 and 2023 and now it has once again been pushed back to 2024. This delay will allow business owners and marketing professionals to devise an alternative.
One such alternative would be to identify who is coming to a website. That technology for B2B has been around for a few years now, but for B2C, it is just coming to the market. Gaining first-party data from the website will be a game changer for the business owner.
By knowing who is visiting the company website, the business owner will have access to the ROI of their marketing spend and can save money by knowing what is working. The business owner can see first-hand who is visiting their website, where that person lives, contact information, and where the visitor traveled when on the site. This will be first-person data on steroids.
When data is available, decisions are much easier to make. Zeroing in on those visitors that are looking is a time saver as well. Not to mention the ability to build a database based on interested parties instead of buying a list.
For these reasons and many more first-party data is quickly becoming the "New Gold" and the sooner a business owner invests in this technology, the quicker their investment will grow.
If you are interested in learning more about how to gain first-party data, please reach out to Tim at Tim@NPmarketinggroup.com.