The evolution of marketing data for customer experience

Is it time for some bold moves? A time to examine marketing data and customer experience as an experimental process? The evolution of marketing data is changing to help improve customer experience. Saas companies can use information from the data to attract more customers (through customer satisfaction and reviews), improve the product and create an overall better experience for product users. 

Sounds like a growth hack? More of a chance for businesses to put the customers first and, rather than seeing them as a number in the system, to see them as an individual who requires your product to make their life better. 

Marketing data to improve customer experience 

Understanding your customers, both from a product or sales perspective, is about taking a fascination with why people do what they do. 

While (soon to be) gone are the days when products can be built on Third-Party Data, businesses can not make assumptions about people based on basic demographic information anymore. 

This is the evolution of marketing data. We are now looking at the new way of marketing data and how Zero-Party Data becomes the best way to learn about the customer you wish to target through understanding how the current customer uses and engages with the product. Collecting information based on how your user interacts with your product gives you insight into how to sell to more people in the future.  

As Kate Murray says in the podcast interview on the Net Positive Podcast - “customer expectations are driving this. We are at a stage where customers' baseline expectations are a surprise and delight 24/7…people want to know how to use an app as soon as they download it”.  

What is the future of marketing data? 

So with this evolution, what does this mean for the future of marketing data? As we see the rise of Web3, we also can see the value in more customer engagement. If each customer has more control over their data, how can a SAAS company give more value to build more connections so these users are happy to share insights with the business? 

The data collected by Zero-Party Data isn’t just the basics. It includes things like personal context, preferences and interests in products. 

Then it can be used to: 

• Present the best offers to the users 
• Be used by product managers to align customer needs with business needs 
• Help define marketing and sales strategies 
• Give guidance on the tech tools that can support development 
• Create the next form of experimentation for the business 
• Delight the current users through their data, sharable. 

What needs to happen to collect Zero-Party Data? The right questions need to be asked not just to new users but to existing customers who use the product. Find out what they like and don’t like and make improvements from that information. 

Those improvements and changes create more sales and marketing strategies to attract customers.  

How to attract more customers with marketing data 

Focus on customer experience first. The data is going to help you learn more about what people want. Get rich data from your customers by using Zero-Party Data to help you. 

See the full story your user is telling you through their experiences with you, capture all experiences with your digital storefront and drive clarity to prioritize what you need to experiment with to attract more customers to your product. 

You then know why you are changing certain processes, systems or even elements of your product in your business. Because the user is telling you. The ones who bring new experiences and change the game in how they treat customers this is the future of SAAS companies. 

From these experiences, you can create digital word of mouth because you are listening to your customers. You are creating the experience they are asking for. Even if they don’t tell you this directly, they tell you through how they interact. The data will show you this. 

This data can help a review strategy in outreaching to the customers who are actively seeing benefits from your product or service. They are far more likely to give positive reviews on software listing sites, especially after you've demonstrated a keenness to help their specific use case. 

Example of using customer experience to improve product and sales 

Leading running shoe brand ASICS has been using the marketing data collected by Zero-Party Data collection and First-Party Data to enhance customer experience. To make more tailored and personal experiences.

This is primarily seen in their OneASICS loyalty program. ASICS have used this loyalty program to collect customer information to create a more personal experience. They implement what they discover from the data to create a better customer experience and since have seen a growth in product purchases from 10% to 50%. Meaning 50% of their purchases come from their loyalty members.

ASICS have used this data to: 

• Build stronger customer relationships 
• Obtain a complete analysis of their customers across all platforms
• Create personalized content experiences for those who log into their app or website  

How to use Zero Party Data in external marketing, becoming sharable. 

There are always going to be companies that are at the forefront of marketing data, and we can see one shining above all the rest, Spotify.

Spotify Wrapped is an incredible effort of personalization to their customers using Zero Party Data.

As a customer, you are made to feel closer to the brand for their algorithmic understanding of your listening habits. In 2022 they upped their game from their regular top songs, artists, and curated playlist to offer a unique listening personality for their listeners. 

The experience of the customer, connecting them to something so personal as their music taste, offers a unique connection to a brand that is already performing incredibly well. There exists a similar campaign that Apple Music has attempted to replicate but it does nowhere near the same level of exposure and brand awareness as Spotify Wrapped.

Replay 2022 from Apple is Pepsi, Always second.

Grammarly also deserves an honourable mention for their use of Zero Party Data. As a platform they are helping countless users with grammar, spelling, tone and soft communication skills across blog posts, emails, documents, and more! 

Their Zero Party Data is unique to the customer in their Weekly Writing Update Email. They mention the streak of writing that the user has completed. The email also mentions:

• productivity (comparison to other Grammarly users)
• mastery (accuracy of user spelling, grammar, etc) 
• vocabulary (unique words used)
• tone (top 7 writing tones, with percentage improvement from the week before)
• total words analyzed and
• top 3 mistakes made. 

I've used Grammarly to help write and review this blog post!

Final thoughts 

Try something bold in 2023. Make it a focus to use your data to experiment with your priorities. Use customer experiences to set your sights on the goals and changes you wish to make for your product and sales. 

Learn more about: 

• Web3
• Zero-Party Data 
• Decentralized user engagement 

Get rich data from the beginning with Upflowy. From a flow, you can learn more about your audience than any third-party cookies. We offer analytics and insights to help mature your business operations. The data you glean from your audience can help in your communication too. Speak their language, understand their needs, and recognise how you can connect with them. 

Want more? check out the podcast with Kate Murry who gives a tremendous 10-year review of the evolution of marketing data and technology in the ANZ market.