How to build a robust foundational customer data strategy

Acquiring new customers gets expensive—fast, so marketers know the value of not only retaining customers but also building true loyalty and advocacy. One way to do that? By maintaining accurate customer contact information and gaining a deep understanding of who they are.

We all know what it’s like to see multiple customer records with the same email address or multiple addresses affiliated with the same customer’s name. As people move more than they used to (the average American moves 11.7 times in their lifetime) and the average American has at least two email addresses (28% have four or more, source: Statista, 2022), it makes sense that first-party data can get a little muddy.

If marketers don’t take the time to clean and consolidate their first-party data, the five issues below can make it more challenging to build personalized and targeted campaigns that reach their customers effectively and efficiently.  

5 common problems with incomplete first-party data

• Fragmented and inaccurate customer data: This hinders your ability to create a 360-degree view of your customers. 
• Missing contact data: This makes it harder for marketers to reach and connect with in-market customers. 
• Duplicate customer records: This means it's likelier that marketing messages are reaching the same person multiple times. 
• Outdated customer contact information: When you can't keep track when customers move, change their name, or switch to a new primary email provider, it's harder to personalize marketing messages and increases the likelihood of failed delivery. 
• Inability to stay compliant with state privacy regulations: This issue, often due to lacking postal addresses, can lead to legal complications for brands and marketers. 

3 steps marketers can take to build a robust foundational data strategy

Ready to make the most out of your first-party data? This simple three-step approach is key for marketers who want to leverage first-party data to the fullest of its capabilities.  

1. Consolidate customer records

Once a unified customer record is established, you will have a clear view of your current customers and how to contact them. Filling in these contact detail gaps is key for building long-lasting customer relationships—and ultimately driving more revenue.

More importantly, adding more contact points improves cross-channel activation performance. Having multiple emails, a postal address and phone numbers can improve match rates to platforms by 20%.

This helps brands reach more of their customers with marketing messages across channels.

2. Enrich your first-party data

As robust as your first party data may be, you’re not always able to see what customers like me are doing outside of your owned channels. The next step in your plan should be to enrich the first-party data you already have with additional data sets like:

• Demographic data: This includes data points like age, gender, income level, education, ethnicity, marital status and employment.
• Financial data: This includes information like income, net worth, assets and liabilities.
• Transactional data: This includes information like how much consumers spend and where they spend it.
• Psychographic data: This is based on consumer characteristics like habits, interests and hobbies.

Working with a trusted third-party data provider like Epsilon, you can enhance customer records with insightful data attributes to get a full view of your customers.

3. Leverage the results

Now that your first-party data has been cleaned up and enriched, you can identify business opportunities and customer trends to create marketing strategy that yields results.

Personalized messaging creates optimal customer experiences and it’s crucial to drive an action—whether you want them to buy your product, sign up for your loyalty program, attend an event or even refer new customers. It all starts from a complete foundational data set.

Ready to tap into the power of true data-driven marketing to create business impact? Start with consolidating customer records and filling in the gaps. Learn more about how Contact Complete can help.