In any business, the right up-to-date, accurate consumer data can drive into your marketing campaign or even change your business or marketing strategy.
Consumer data is the information held on file about customers by a store or other business, usually including names, contact details, and buying habits. Using consumer data to power marketing campaigns and marketing decisions is nothing new. After all, businesses have been using it since the 1980’s to improve customer service and products. How you can use it in your marketing campaign is another matter altogether. Many entrepreneurs and businesses know they need consumer data, but few know the type of consumer data they need or what to do with data once they have collected it.
Collecting or buying consumer data is the easy part. As of today, there are over 4000 consumer database companies that can sell and buy consumer data, but only a data-driven marketing agency like Frescodata provides secure database marketing services, up-to-date, accurate, verified consumer data that can help you develop your next marketing campaign.
Why You Need Consumer Data Protection
When Big Data first arrived with the rise of computer use in the late 90’s, consumers weren’t really aware or were basically unconcerned with the collection of consumer data. Only a few voiced their concerns over data collection, usage and privacy. However, when companies like Cambridge Analytica and Facebook started getting caught misusing consumer data, consumers started to take notice and question what happens to their data.
Because of these scandals and the ‘eerie targeting’ that goes on in advertising, consumers today feel that they should trust a brand before they give them their data. Most consumers prefer transparency and control over how their data is collected and the type of data companies that collects the data. According to the Internet Society, 63% of people globally do not like how their smart devices collect information and 88% think manufacturers should ensure their devices enable privacy.
Since more people started to complain about their information being traded like livestock, it led to the European Union creating the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016, UK’s Data Protection Act and several federal and state laws for data protection in the United States. The GDPR ensures companies gain consent from users before they use their data and allows users to control what type of data is shared. Violation of the GDPR can result in fines up to 4% of a company’s annual revenue or 20 million euros, whichever is greater.
So, before you start your next marketing campaign, consumer data protection should be at the forefront before you collect or buy consumer data. If your company chooses to collect, store and maintain its own consumer data, even with cloud storage, security and maintenance costs to keep the data relevant can end up exceeding your company’s annual marketing budget. Collecting the data can be difficult especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for and if your brand isn’t seen as trustworthy or GDPR compliant.
Once you’ve collected your data, you now have to verify, validate and clean your data to ensure your consumer list is filled with potential targeted buyers and not random consumers or businesses. Then you have to secure the data against hackers and even your own employees.
If you choose to buy consumer data, you must beware of the type and quality of data you are buying. Not all data brokers or database marketing services provide data appending services, data enrichment, data verification and validation, or even provide data from US business databases or even UK business databases.
Instead of taking the unnecessary risk of hiring and vetting a team to do all of that, it’s easier to buy consumer data from a trusted GDPR compliant, data-driven marketing agency like Frescodata. At Frescodata, we provide data enhancement including data appending services and data enrichment, data verification and validation services and can help you compile your buyer personas, email marketing database and consumer lists from global consumer databases including US and UK business databases.
Collecting Consumer Data
The collection of consumer data over the last decade has led to the creation of an over 60 billion dollar consumer data industry where data brokers buy, analyze, and sell consumer data to companies for marketing purposes. Though some companies do their own in-house data collection, analysis and create their own email marketing database, this can be costly to maintain and protect and it’s why large amounts of consumer data are usually collected, stored and secured by data brokers. Then the consumer data is analyzed and collected into four types:-
Demographic Data
Descriptive data that can be easily collected by companies or database marketing services as first-party data i.e raw data that is first collected directly by a company from their customers or b2b clients, through surveys, interviews, purchases, registrations, focus groups and more. They include full name, email address, home address, occupation, age, income, etc. Basically any basic data about the customer or business.
Behavioural Data
Monitors consumer behavior. This type of consumer data pays attention to patterns in consumers’ spending, browsing and even lifestyle. It can also form part of first-party data collected by brands through websites and loyalty programs.
Interactive Data
This is the type of data you get from A/B testing, Google Analytics, lab-based or unmoderated testing. It shows users’ interactions on websites and with software. Depending on where the interaction took place and/or ownership of the software, it can be first or second-party data i.e data collected by an outside party from your customers.
Attitudinal Data
First-party data or second-party data can be collected the same way as descriptive and behavioral data, but is used to interpret how the consumer feels about a product or service or why they behave a certain way. For companies, attitudinal data can reflect brand loyalty and can also be used to improve product functionality, user experience and give your brand a competitive edge.
Once all the data is collected it is stored in consumer databases, analyzed and segmented for sale to businesses, database marketing services, and data-driven marketing agencies like Frescodata, it becomes third-party data. Frescodata then performs data enhancement and data verification and validation to ensure when you buy consumer data, it is relevant, fresh and accurate.
Using Consumer Data to Power Your Marketing Campaign
Up-to-date, accurate consumer data can power all your marketing campaigns and with the consumer data industry set to grow to over 100 billion in the next five years, making use of consumer data is now the key to marketing success.
Whether you are using an inbound strategy, omnichannel, mobile marketing, people-based marketing strategy or simply need an email marketing database, you will need the right data to create a targeted email list, buyer persona, and strategize your marketing campaign.
Understanding data analytics plays an important role in you and your company’s ability to make the most of the data you have on hand. There is a difference between understanding what the breakdown means and implementing it into a marketing strategy. Understanding data analytics takes time and money and implementing it requires a different team of marketing professionals depending on your marketing goals.
Instead of trying to build a team to understand and implement your consumer data, you can strategize with Frescodata and we will help you build your consumer list, email marketing database and show you many ways in which consumer data can be utilized to power your digital marketing campaigns. Now here are just 10 ways you can benefit from using accurate, up-to-date consumer data in your marketing strategy.
Make the Customer Journey Easier
Now that you have accurate consumer data, you can ensure your customer’s journey is made easier by eliminating unnecessary extra steps that don’t pertain to your customer’s behavior, demographics or intent.
Make Onboarding and KYC/KYB Faster
The availability of data enhancement including data appending services and data enrichment and data verification and validation services helps with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) compliance. Thereby making onboarding new customers safer and faster.
Develop Buyer Personas
Turn client personas into buyer personas using demographic, behavioral and attitudinal data from multiple sources. Or you can buy consumer data from a single trusted data-driven marketing agency that has multiple sources of data on your industry without the lengthy surveys.
Retargeting
Having verified and validated data that’s been enhanced means you can clean up those old email marketing lists, target your new buyer persona and spam fewer people. Of course, this takes time if you want to do it in-house and you can still end up with data errors unless you sourced your data from a GDPR compliant database marketing service that performs data enhancement before you buy consumer data.
Lead Generation
Of course, faster onboarding, better targeting and easier customer journey mean faster lead generation. Using the right demographic, behavioral and attitudinal data you can create a better user experience and make product improvements that can turn your leads into buyers.
Prospecting
Through behavioral and attitudinal consumer data, finding out your buyer’s interest and intent is easier and makes finding new prospects ahead of your competition faster. No longer are you casting a dragnet out to sea grabbing up anything, now your targeting has bullseye precision on a specific market of potential paying customers.
Location-Based Marketing
Do you have a local event or sales promotion and want to know the possible attendees in the area? Using consumer data and Frescodata’s geofencing, you can create a location-based marketing strategy and send out SMS alerts to targeted leads or provide directions and other related information via email to your customer list.
B2C Loyalty and Promotions
Strengthen your customer’s loyalty and increase customer retention by using your consumer lists to create specials and promotions just for them through direct marketing, email or mobile marketing campaigns.
B2B Supply Chain and Distributions
Research has proven that up-to-date factual data on your supply and distribution chain as well as your B2B customers improves relationships and sales growth. In some cases, by identifying potential customers along the supply chain and in others by sharing or selling consumer data.
Leverage Paid Search
Proper targeting saves you money on your Search Engine Marketing Campaigns (SEM) and increases potential lead generation and saves you money by making the most out of your clicks and impressions. It can help you find new micro-markets to target and expand your mobile programmatic marketing efforts.
Of course, in order to reap the benefits of these 10 ways to power your marketing campaign and many more, your consumer data must be:-
- Good and Fresh
- Secure
- Verified and Validated
- Relevant
- Cost-Effective
Lucky for you, all of this is provided by Frescodata. At Frescodata, when you buy consumer data you’ll save money and reap rewards on your next marketing campaign. Through our trusted data verification and validation and data appending services, you can purchase email lists from our secure email marketing database for email marketing campaigns or we can use data enhancement to clean up your existing mobile marketing customer list. Let’s strategize today for your next marketing campaign.
