With the pending death of the cookie and the increasing concerns over data tracking, a new buzz is ‘zero-party data”. Zero-party data is data that a customer intentionally and proactively shares with a company.

Some benefits of zero-party data include that the quality and accuracy of responses is generally quite high. Zero-party data is also very relevant, inexpensive, and compliant.

We have to convince people to give us this information so that we can continue to market to them. That is the challenge. We already do this with gated content and offers, but now we need to find ways to get this information from people earlier in the process to find the people we send “awareness” messages to.

Some methods for gathering this information include gamifying the internet through quizzes or interactive ads and offering compensation for participation via content or access. Interactive content is an oft-mentioned trend for 2022 so we can expect to see more methods like these. Other direct ways to gather information that can include our explanations of the why and what of our data collection are social media polls, registration & email lists, in-store incentives, and preference centers. A key aspect of information gathering with zero-party data is honesty and transparency. We want to tell people why we want their data and what we are using it for.

There are, of course, cautions and considerations with zero-party data collection. Really consider and plan how the data will be used. We don’t want to waste the chance to collect information from users but also don’t want to overwhelm the consumer with information requests. It’s important to build a relationship with potential customers.

So what do we do with the zero-party data we’re collecting? People who are already using tools such as HubSpot have the tools to use smart content for information collection. Email marketing is another oft-mentioned trend in 2022 with increased usage. One reason for this is the ability to target messages with segmentation and smart content. Use the responses to create a profile and build an audience of similar people with what third party data still remains. This should still be working toward the ultimate gold of getting their zero-party data.

For more information on zero-party data (and other forms of data collection), check out this article from the Treasure Data blog!