5 progressive profiling examples to gather first-party data

First-party data is essential for any business looking to craft an effective marketing strategy in the cookieless future.

By collecting and leveraging customer insights from their own websites, apps, and other sources, businesses can gain invaluable information that provides them with a better understanding of their target audience. With this knowledge, marketers can create more relevant campaigns to customers by delivering personalized content that resonates with their interests.

First-party data can also be used to identify high-value customers, uncover potential opportunities for growth, and optimize user experiences across channels.

Ultimately, using first-party data will allow businesses to create campaigns that make an impact on their customers and drive lasting results in the post-cookie world.

“There will likely be more speed bumps in the road, but, ultimately, a shift to first-party data can lead companies toward a better understanding of their customer journey. So, continue experimenting, measuring, and improving—and buckle up!” Deloitte Insights

What is progressive profiling?

Progressive profiling is a process that helps you gather customer data to build detailed customer profiles.

It works by collecting new pieces of information about visitors or customers over time, allowing you to slowly “profile” them and gain insight into their interests and needs.

This can be especially helpful when it comes to segmenting customers according to the type of product they are interested in, or the types of marketing messages they will best respond to.

Progressive profiling uses first-party data collected from forms on your website, questions asked during customer service conversations, surveys, etc. Contrary to third-party data, first-party data provides more reliable insights because the source is trusted and known.

How progressive profiling differs from traditional data collection methods

Traditional data collection practices often require customers to submit lengthy forms with detailed information upfront, which can be intimidating for users and lead to lower conversion rates.

Progressive profiling works by collecting first-party data over time as customers interact with your website or app. This means that instead of asking them to fill out full profiles all at once, you can use their responses to create more targeted questions each time they log in or interact with your site.

By doing this, you can gain valuable customer insights while still being respectful of the user’s time and effort.

The benefits of progressive profiling for gathering first-party data

The benefits of using progressive profiling for gathering first-party data include:

• Growing customer trust by only collecting the required amount of information at the right time, rather than requesting large amounts of data all at once.
• Creating segmented customer profiles based on their unique actions and behaviors, giving you deeper insights into individual preferences.
• Personalizing messages and content based on what you know about each customer’s background and interests, leading to more powerful marketing strategies.
• Building stronger relationships with your customers by understanding their needs and providing an effortless, tailored experience.

Progressive profiling is a great way to gather first-party data while putting the customer in control of how much information they share with you. This helps build trust and creates more meaningful experiences for your customers.

5 ways of implementing progressive profiling to gather first-party data

1. Create interactive content for data collection

As the digital landscape evolves, connecting with customers requires an innovative approach. A survey by Content Marketing Institute (CMI) found that “87% of marketing professionals believe interactive content is a key to earning attention and gaining consumer insights.”

By leveraging this type of engaging material, marketers can generate valuable first-party data for understanding customer behavior and optimizing their strategies accordingly.

2. Use incentives to encourage opt-ins and data sharing

To successfully implement a progressive profiling strategy, businesses need to be intentional about how they incentivize customers to opt-in and provide their data. Offering rewards or discounts can encourage people to share data as well as other incentives like exclusive access to content or products.

Providing context around why the information is being collected can also help build trust with customers, making them more likely to opt in.

Additionally, businesses should ensure that any questions asked are relevant and necessary for gathering the specific data needed. Asking too many questions at once may discourage customers from completing forms.

3. Customize preference centers for user-controlled data collection

By collecting user-controlled, first-party data through personalized preference centres, organizations can increase customer engagement and loyalty. Having this information allows businesses to create targeted campaigns, curate offers that match the user’s interests, and optimize customer journeys.

In the long run, customizing preference centres to collect data can help organizations build a better understanding of their customers and develop more effective strategies.

4. Leverage multi-step forms and surveys

With multi-step forms and surveys, you can ask customers for additional data as they progress through the customer journey. This helps to ensure that businesses are able to collect all of the necessary data while keeping the user experience streamlined and unobtrusive.

The problem is most businesses can only achieve this if the user has accepted cookies. Anonymous progressive profiling is an alternative solution, enabling marketers to compliantly collect first-party data by asking relevant questions and building anonymous preference profiles.

Ideally, your forms should be short and only ask for unreadily available information. This helps increase completion rates and mitigates the risk of overwhelming users with too many questions. This might sound counterintuitive since the whole point of your form is to gather as much information as possible.

Still, AI-powered form-shortening tools like HubSpot can fill in the blanks. These platforms use enrichment data found in your database or other publicly available resources to auto-complete form fields in the background. As such, prospects only have to enter information not available anywhere else, reducing form friction while ensuring 100% data capture.

5. Integrate progressive profiling with user account systems

By integrating the progressive profiling process with an existing user account system, businesses can make sure that their valuable first-party data is securely stored and protected from misuse. This not only increases customer satisfaction but also helps drive sales and engagement. Integrating progressive profiling into an existing user account system is a great way to get more out of the user data available and offer a richer experience for users.