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• Blog series part 2 : How to increase engagement of your website visitors, and turn them into customers

  8 septembre 2020, par Joselyn Khor — Analytics Tips, Marketing
  Long gone are the days of simply tracking page views as a measure of engagement. Now it’s about engagement analysis, which is layered and provides insight for effective data-driven decisions.

  Discover how engaged people are with your website by uncovering behavioural patterns that tell you how well your site and content is or isn’t performing. This insight helps you re-evaluate, adapt and optimise your content and strategy. The more engaged they are, the more likely you’ll be able to guide them on a predetermined journey that results in more conversions ; and helps you reach the goals you’ve set for your business. 

  Why is visitor engagement important ?

  It’s vital to measure engagement if you have anything content related that plays a role in your customer’s journey. Some websites may find more value in figuring out how engaging their entire site is, while others may only want to zone in on, say, a blogging section, e-newsletters, social media channels or sign-up pages.

  In the larger scheme of things, engagement can be seen as what’s running your site. Every aspect of the buyer’s journey requires your visitors to be engaged. Whether you’re trying to attract, convert or build a loyal audience base, you need to know your content is optimised to maintain their attention and encourage them along the path to purchase, conversion or loyalty.

  How to increase engagement with Matomo

  You need to know what’s going right or wrong to eventually be able to deliver more riveting content your visitors can’t help but be drawn to. Learn how to apply Matomo’s easy-to-use features to increase engagement :

  1. The Behaviour feature
  2. Heatmaps
  3. A/B Testing
  4. Media Analytics
  5. Transitions
  6. Custom reports
  7. Other metrics to keep an eye on

  1. Look at the Behaviour feature

  It allows you to learn how visitors are responding to your content. This information is gathered by drawing insight from features such as site search, downloads, events and content interactions. Learn more

  

  Matomo’s top five ways to increase engagement with the Behaviour feature :

  Behaviour -> Pages
  Get complete insights on what pages your users engage with, what pages provide little value to your business and see the results of entry and exit pages. If important content is generating low traffic, you need to place it where it can be seen. Spend time where it matters and focus on the content that will engage with your users and see how it eventually converts them into customers.

  Behaviour -> Site search
  Site search tracks how people use your website’s internal search engine. You can see :

  • What search keywords visitors used on your website’s internal search.
  • Which of those keywords resulted in no results (what content your visitors are looking for but cannot find).
  • What pages visitors visited immediately after a search.
  • What search categories visitors use (if your website employs search categories).

  Behaviour -> Downloads
  What are users wanting to take away with them ? They could be downloading .pdfs, .zip files, ebooks, infographics or other free/paid resources. For example, if you were working for an education institution and created valuable information packs for students that you made available online in .pdf format. To see an increase in downloads meant students were finding the .pdfs and realising the need to download them. No downloads could mean the information packs weren’t being found which would be problematic.

  Behaviour -> Events
  Tracking events is a very useful way to measure the interactions your users have with your website content, which are not directly page views or downloads.

  How have Events been used effectively ? A great example comes from one of our customers, Catalyst. They wanted to capture and measure the user interaction of accordions (an area of content that expands or closes depending on how a user interacts with it) to see if people were actually getting all the information available to them on this one page. By creating an Event to record which accordion had been opened, as well as creating events for other user interactions, they were able to figure out which content got the most engagement and which got the least. Being able to see how visitors navigated through their website helped them optimise the site to ensure people were getting the relevant information they were craving.

  Behaviour -> Content interactions
  Content tracking allows you to track interaction within the content of your web page. Go beyond page views, bounce rates and average time spent on page with your content. Instead, you can analyse content interaction rates based on mouse clicking and configuring scrolling or hovering behaviours to see precisely how engaged your users are. If interaction rates are low, perhaps you need to restructure your page layout to grab your user’s attention sooner. Possibly you will get more interaction when you have more images or banner ads to other areas of your business.

  

  Watch this video to learn about the Behaviour feature

  2. Set up Heatmaps

  Effortlessly discover how your visitors truly engage with your most important web pages that impact the success of your business. Heatmaps shows you visually where your visitors try to click, move the mouse and how far down they scroll on each page.

  

  You don’t need to waste time digging for key metrics or worry about putting together tables of data to understand how your visitors are interacting with your website. Heatmaps make it easy and fast to discover where your users are paying their attention, where they have problems, where useless content is and how engaging your content is. Get insights that you cannot get from traditional reports. Learn more

  TRY IT FOR FREE

  3. Carry out A/B testing

  With A/B Testing you reduce risk in your decision-making and can test what your visitors are responding well to. 

  

  Ever had discussions with colleagues about where to place content on a landing page ? Or discussed what the call-to-action should be and assumed you were making the best decisions ? The truth is, you never know what really works the best (and what doesn’t) unless you test it. Learn more

  How to increase engagement with A/B Testing : Test, test and test. This is a surefire way to learn what content is leading your visitors on a path to conversion and what isn’t.

  4. Media Analytics

  Tells you how visitors are engaging with your video or audio content, and whether they’re leading to your desired conversions. Track :

  • How many plays your media gets and which parts they viewed
  • Finish rates
  • How your media was consumed over time
  • How media was consumed on specific days
  • Which locations your users were viewing your content from
  • Learn more

  

  How to increase engagement with Media Analytics : These metrics give a picture of how audiences are behaving when it comes to your content. By showing insights such as, how popular your media content is, how engaging it is and which days content will be most viewed, you can tailor content strategies to produce content people will actually find interesting and watch/listen.

  Matomo example : When we went through the feature video metrics on our own site to see how our videos were performing, we noticed our Acquisition video had a 95% completion rate. Even though it was longer than most videos, the stats showed us it had, by far, the most engagement. By using Media Analytics to get insights on the best and worst performing videos, we gathered useful info to help us better allocate resources effectively so that in the future, we’re producing more videos that will be watched.

  5. Investigate transitions

  See which page visitors are entering the site from and where they exit to. Transitions shows engagement on each page and whether the content is leading them to the pages you want them to be directed to.

  

  This gives you a greater understanding of user pathways. You may be assuming visitors are finding your content from one particular pathway, but figure out users are actually coming through other channels you never thought of. Through Transitions, you may discover and capitalise on new opportunities from external sites.

  How to increase engagement with Transitions : Identify clearly where users may be getting distracted to click away and where other pages are creating opportunity to click-through to conversion. 

  6. Create Custom Reports

  You can choose from over 200 dimensions and metrics to get the insights you need as well as various visualisation options. This makes understanding the data incredibly easy and you can get the insights you need instantly for faster results without the need for a developer. Learn more

  

  How to increase engagement with Custom Reports : Set custom reports to see when content is being viewed and figure out how engaged users are by looking at different hours of the day or which days of the week they’re visiting your website. For example, you could be wondering what hour of the day performed best for converting your customers. Understanding these metrics helps you figure out the best time to schedule your blog posts, pay-per-click advertising, edms or social media posts knowing that your visitors are more likely to convert at different times.

  TRY IT FOR FREE

  7. Other metrics to key an eye on …

  A good indication of a great experience and of engagement is whether your readers, viewers or listeners want to do it again and again.

  “Best” metrics are hard to determine so you’ll need to ask yourself what you want to do or what you want your site to do. How do you want your users to behave or what kind of buyer’s journey do you want them to have ?

  Want to know where to start ? Look at …

  • Bounce rate – a high bounce rate isn’t great as people aren’t finding what they’re looking for and are leaving without taking action. (This offers great opportunities as you can test to see why people are bouncing off your site and figure out what you need to change.)
  • Time on site – a long time on site is usually a good indication that people are spending time reading, navigating and being engaged with your website. 
  • Frequency of visit – how often do people come back to interact with the content on your website ? The higher the % of your visitors that come back time and time again will show how engaged they are with your content.
  • Session length/average session duration – how much time users spend on site each session
  • Pages per session – is great to show engagement because it shows visitors are happy going through your website and learn more about your business.

  Key takeaway

  Whichever stage of the buyer’s journey your visitors are in, you need to ensure your content is optimised for engagement so that visitors can easily spend time on your website.

  “Every single visit by every single visitor is no longer judged as a success or a failure at the end of 29 min (max) session in your analytics tool. Every visit is not a ‘last-visit’, rather it becomes a continuous experience leading to a win-win outcome.” – Avinash Kaushik

  As you can tell, one size does not fit all when it comes to analysing and measuring engagement, but with a toolkit of features, you can make sure you have everything you need to experiment and figure out the metrics that matter to the success of your business and website.

  Concurrently, these gentle nudges for visitors to consume more and more content encourages them along their path to purchase, conversion or loyalty. They get a more engaging website experience over time and you get happy visitors/customers who end up coming back for more.

  TRY IT FOR FREE

  Want to learn how to increase conversions with Matomo ? Look out for the final in this series : part 3 ! We’ll go through how you can boost conversions and meet your business goals with web analytics. 

• Conversion Rate Optimisation Statistics for 2024 and Beyond

  21 novembre 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips

  Driving traffic to your website is only half the battle. The real challenge — once you’ve used a web analytics solution to understand how users behave — is turning more of those visitors into customers.

  That doesn’t happen by accident. You need to employ conversion rate optimisation strategies and tools to see even a small lift in conversion rates. The good news is that it doesn’t take much to see massive results. Raising your conversion rate from 1% to 3% can triple your revenue. 

  In even better news, you don’t have to guess at the best ways to improve your conversion rate. We’ve done the hard work and collected the most recent and relevant conversion rate optimisation statistics to help you. 

  General conversion rate optimisation statistics

  It appears the popularity of conversion rate optimisation is soaring. According to data collected by Google Trends, there were more people searching for the term “conversion rate optimization” in September 2023 than ever before. 

  As you can see from the chart below, the term’s popularity is on a clear upward trajectory, meaning even more people could be searching for it in the near future. (Source)

  

  Do you want to know what the average landing page conversion rate is ? According to research by WordStream, the average website conversion rate across all industries is 2.35%. 

  That doesn’t paint the whole picture, however. Better-performing websites have significantly higher conversion rates. The top 25% of websites across all industries convert at a rate of 5.31% or higher. (Source)

  Let’s break things down by industry now. The Unbounce Conversion Benchmark Report offers a detailed analysis of how landing pages convert across various industries.

  First, we have the Finance and Insurance industry, which boasts a conversion rate of 15.6%. 

  On the other end, agencies appears to be one of the worst-performing. Agencies’ landing pages convert at a rate of 8.8%. (Source)

  

  What about the size of the conversion rate optimisation industry ? Given the growth in popularity of the term in Google, surely the industry is experiencing growth, right ?

  You’d be correct in that assumption. The conversion rate optimisation software market was valued at $771.2 million in 2018 and is projected to reach $1.932 billion by 2026 — a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6%.

  Statistics on the importance of conversion rate optimisation

  If you’re reading this article, you probably think conversion rate optimisation is pretty important. But do you know its importance and where it ranks in your competitors’ priorities ? Read on to find out. 

  Bounce rate — the number of people who leave your website without visiting another page or taking action — is the scourge of conversion rate optimisation efforts. Every time someone bounces from your site, you lose the chance to convert them.

  The questions, then, are : how often do people bounce on average and how does your bounce rate compare ? 

  Siege Media analysed over 1.3 billion sessions from a range of traffic sources, including 700 million bounces, to calculate an average bounce rate of 50.9%. (Source)

  

  Bounce rates vary massively from website to website and industry to industry, however. Siege Media’s study unveils an array of average bounce rates across industries :

  • Travel – 82.58%
  • B2B – 65.17%
  • Lifestyle – 64.26%
  • Business and Finance – 63.51%
  • Healthcare – 59.50%
  • eCommerce – 54.54%
  • Insurance – 45.96%
  • Real Estate – 40.78%

  It won’t come as much of a surprise to learn that marketers are determined to reduce bounce rates and improve lead conversion. Today’s marketers are highly performance-based. When asked about their priorities for the coming year, 79% of marketers said their priority was generating quality qualified leads — the most popular answer in the survey. (Source)

  Just because it is a priority for marketers doesn’t mean that everyone has their stuff together. If you have a conversion rate optimisation process in place, you’re in the minority. According to research by HubSpot, less than one in five marketers (17%) use landing page A/B tests to improve their conversion rates. (Source)

  When it comes to personalisation strategies – a common and effective tool to increase conversion rates — the picture isn’t any rosier. Research by Salesforce found just over one-quarter of markets are confident their organisation has a successful strategy for personalisation. (Source)

  Conversion rate optimisation tactics statistics

  There are hundreds of ways to improve your website’s conversion rates. From changing the color of buttons to the structure of your landing page to your entire conversion funnel, in this section, we’ll look at the most important statistics you need to know when choosing tactics and building your own CRO experiments. 

  If you are looking for the best method to convert visitors, then email lead generation forms are the way to go, according to HubSpot. This inoffensive and low-barrier data collection method boasts a 15% conversion rate, according to the marketing automation company’s research. (Source)

  Where possible, make your call-to-actions personalised. Marketing personalisation, whether through behavioral segmentation or another strategy, is an incredibly powerful way of showing users that you care about their specific needs. It’s no great surprise, then, that HubSpot found personalised calls-to-actions perform a whopping 202% better than basic CTAs. (Source)

  If you want to boost conversion rates, then it’s just as important to focus on quantity as well as quality. Yes, a great-looking, well-written landing page will go a long way to improving your conversion rate, but having a dozen of these pages will do even more. 

  Research by HubSpot found companies see a 55% increase in leads when they increase the number of landing pages from 10 to 15. What’s more, companies with over 40 landing pages increase conversion by more than 500%. (Source)

  

  User-generated content (UGC) should also be high on your priority list to boost conversion rates. Several statistics show how powerful, impactful and persuasive social proof like user reviews can be. 

  Research shows that visitors who scroll to the point where they encounter user-generated content increase the likelihood they convert by a staggering 102.4%. (Source)

  Other trust signs can be just as impactful. Research by Trustpilot found that the following four trust signals make consumers more likely to make a purchase when shown on a product page :

  • Positive star rating and reviews (85% more likely to make a purchase)
  • Positive star rating (78%)
  • Positive customer testimonials (82%)
  • Approved or authorised seller badge (76%)

  (Source)

  Showing ratings and reviews has also increased conversion rates by 38% on home appliances and electronics stores. (Source)

  And no wonder, given that consumers are more likely to buy from brands they trust than brands they love, according to the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report. (Source) 

  A lack of trust is also one of the top four reasons consumers abandon their shopping cart at checkout. (Source) 

  Traffic source conversion rate statistics

  What type of traffic works the best when it comes to conversions, or how often you should be signing up users to your mailing list ? Let’s look at the stats to find out. 

  Email opt-ins are one of the most popular methods for collecting customer information — and an area where digital marketers spend a lot of time and effort when it comes to conversion rate optimisation. So, what is the average conversion rate of an email opt-in box ?

  According to research by Sumo — based on 3.2 billion users who have seen their opt-in boxes — the average email opt-in rate is 1.95%. (Source)

  Search advertising is an effective way of driving website traffic, but how often do those users click on these ads ?

  WordStream’s research puts the average conversion of search advertising for all industries at 6.11%. (Source)

  The arts and entertainment industry enjoys the highest clickthrough rates (11.78%), followed by sports and recreation (10.53%) and travel (10.03%). Legal services and the home improvement industry have the lowest clickthrough rates at 4.76% and 4.8%, respectively.

  

  If you’re spending money on Google ads, then you’d better hope a significant amount of users convert after clicking them. 

  Unfortunately, conversion rates from Google ads decreased year-on-year for most industries in 2023, according to research by WordStream — in some cases, those decreases were significant. The only two industries that didn’t see a decrease in conversion rates were beauty and personal care and education and instruction. (Source)

  The average conversion rate for search ads across all industries is 7.04%. The animal and pet niche has the highest conversion rate (13.41%), while apparel, fashion and jewelry have the lowest conversion rate (1.57%). (Source)

  What about other forms of traffic ? Well, there’s good reason to try running interstitial ads on smartphone apps if you aren’t already. Ads on the iOS app see a 14.3 percent conversion rate on average. (Source)

  E-commerce conversion rate optimisation statistics (400 words)

  Conversion rate optimisation can be the difference between a store that sets new annual sales records and one struggling to get by. 

  The good news is that the conversion rate among US shoppers was the highest it’s ever been in 2021, with users converting at 2.6%. (Source)

  If you have a Shopify store, then you may find conversion rates a little lower. A survey by Littledata found the average conversion rate for Shopify was 1.4% in September 2022. (Source)

  What about specific e-commerce categories ? According to data provided by Dynamic Yield, the consumer goods category converted at the highest rate in September 2023 (4.22%), a spike of 0.34% from August. 

  Generally, the food and beverage niche boasts the highest conversion rate (4.87%), and the home and furniture niche has the lowest conversion rate (1.44%). (Source)

  If you’re serious about driving sales, don’t focus on mobile devices at the expense of consumers who shop on desktop devices. The conversion rate among US shoppers tends to be higher for desktop users than for mobile users. 

  

  In the second quarter of 2022, for instance, desktop shoppers converted at a rate of 3% on average compared to smartphone users who converted at an average rate of 2%. (Source)

  Increase your conversions with Matomo

  Conversion rate optimisation can help you grow your subscriber list, build your customer base and increase your revenue. Now, it’s time to put what you’ve learned into practice.

  Use the advice above to guide your experiments and track everything with Matomo. Achieve unparalleled data accuracy while harnessing an all-in-one solution packed with essential conversion optimisation features, including Heatmaps, Session Recordings and A/B Testing. Matomo makes it easier than ever to analyse conversion-focused experiments.

  Get more from your conversion rate optimisations by trying Matomo free for 21 days. No credit card required.

• Making Your First-Party Data Work for You and Your Customers

  11 mars, par Alex Carmona

  At last count, 162 countries had enacted data privacy policies of one kind or another. These laws or regulations, without exception, intend to eliminate the use of third-party data. That puts marketing under pressure because third-party data has been the foundation of online marketing efforts since the dawn of the Internet.

  Marketers need to future-proof their operations by switching to first-party data. This will require considerable adjustment to systems and processes, but the reward will be effective marketing campaigns that satisfy privacy compliance requirements and bring the business closer to its customers.

  To do that, you’ll need a coherent first-party data strategy. That’s what this article is all about. We’ll explain the different types of personal data and discuss how to use them in marketing without compromising or breaching data privacy regulations. We’ll also discuss how to build that strategy in your business. 

  So, let’s dive in.

  The different data types

  There are four distinct types of personal data used in marketing, each subject to different data privacy regulations.

  Before getting into the different types, it’s essential to understand that all four may comprise one or more of the following :

  Identifying data	Name, email address, phone number, etc.
  Behavioural data	Website activity, app usage, wishlist content, purchase history, etc.
  Transactional data	Orders, payments, subscription details, etc.
  Account data	Communication preferences, product interests, wish lists, etc.
  Demographic data	Age, gender, income level, education, etc.
  Geographic Data	Location-based information, such as zip codes or regional preferences.
  Psychographic Data	Interests, hobbies and lifestyle preferences.

  First-party data

  When businesses communicate directly with customers, any data they exchange is first-party. It doesn’t matter how the interaction occurs : on the telephone, a website, a chat session, or even in person.

  Of course, the parties involved aren’t necessarily individuals. They may be companies, but people within those businesses will probably share at least some of the data with colleagues. That’s fine, so long as the data : 

  • Remains confidential between the original two parties involved, and 
  • It is handled and stored following applicable data privacy regulations.

  The core characteristic of first-party data is that it’s collected directly from customer interactions. This makes it reliable, accurate and inherently compliant with privacy regulations — assuming the collecting party complies with data privacy laws.

  A great example of first-party data use is in banking. Data collected from customer interactions is used to provide personalised services, detect fraud, assess credit risk and improve customer retention.

  Zero-party data

  There’s also a subset of first-party data, sometimes called zero-party data. It’s what users intentionally and proactively share with a business. It can be preferences, intentions, personal information, survey responses, support tickets, etc.

  What makes it different is that the collection of this data depends heavily on the user’s trust. Transparency is a critical factor, too ; visitors expect to be informed about how you’ll use their data. Consumers also have the right to withdraw permission to use all or some of their information at any time.

  

  Second-party data

  This data is acquired from a separate organisation that collects it firsthand. Second-party data is someone else’s first-party data that’s later shared with or sold to other businesses. The key here is that whoever owns that data must give explicit consent and be informed of who businesses share their data with.

  A good example is the cooperation between hotel chains, car rental companies, and airlines. They share joint customers’ flight data, hotel reservations, and car rental bookings, much like travel agents did before the internet undermined that business model.

  Third-party data

  This type of data is the arch-enemy of lawmakers and regulators trying to protect the personal data of citizens and residents in their country. It’s information collected by entities that have no direct relationship with the individuals whose data it is.

  Third-party data is usually gathered, aggregated, and sold by data brokers or companies, often by using third-party cookies on popular websites. It’s an entire business model — these third-party brokers sell data for marketing, analytics, or research purposes. 

  Most of the time, third-party data subjects are unaware that their data has been gathered and sold. Hence the need for strong data privacy regulations.

  Benefits of a first-party data strategy

  First-party data is reliable, accurate, and ethically sourced. It’s an essential part of any modern digital marketing strategy.

  More personalised experiences

  The most important application of first-party data is customising and personalising customers’ interactions based on real behaviours and preferences. Personalised experiences aren’t restricted to websites and can extend to all customer communication.

  The result is company communications and marketing messages are far more relevant to customers. It allows businesses to engage more meaningfully with them, building trust and strengthening customer relationships. Inevitably, this also results in stronger customer loyalty and better customer retention.

  Greater understanding of customers

  Because first-party data is more accurate and reliable, it can be used to derive valuable insights into customer needs and wants. When all the disparate first-party data points are centralised and organised, it’s possible to uncover trends and patterns in customer behaviour that might not be apparent using other data.

  This helps businesses predict and respond to customer needs. It also allows marketing teams to be more deliberate when segmenting customers and prospects into like-minded groups. The data can also be used to create more precise personas for future campaigns or reveal how likely a customer would be to purchase in response to a campaign.

  Build trust with customers

  First-party data is unique to a business and originates from interactions with customers. It’s also data collected with consent and is “owned” by the company — if you can ever own someone else’s data. If treated like the precious resource, it can help businesses build trust with customers.

  However, developing that trust requires a transparent, step-by-step approach. This gradually strengthens relationships to the point where customers are more comfortable sharing the information they’re asked for.

  However, while building trust is a long and sometimes arduous process, it can be lost in an instant. That’s why first-party data must be protected like the Crown Jewels.

  

  Components of a first-party data strategy

  Security is essential to any first-party data strategy, and for good reason. As Gartner puts it, a business must find the optimal balance between business outcomes and data risk mitigation. Once security is baked in, attention can turn to the different aspects of the strategy.

  Data collection

  There are many ways to collect first-party data ethically, within the law and while complying with data privacy regulations, such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Potential sources include :

  Website activity	forms and surveys, behavioural tracking, cookies, tracking pixels and chatbots
  Mobile app interactions	in-app analytics, push notifications and in-app forms
  Email marketing	newsletter sign-ups, email engagement tracking, promotions, polls and surveys
  Events	registrations, post-event surveys and virtual event analytics
  Social media interaction	polls and surveys, direct messages and social media analytics
  Previous transactions	purchase history, loyalty programmes and e-receipts
  Customer service	call centre data, live chat, chatbots and feedback forms
  In-person interactions	in-store purchases, customer feedback and Wi-Fi sign-ins
  Gated content	whitepapers, ebooks, podcasts, webinars and video downloads
  Interactive content	quizzes, assessments, calculators and free tools
  CRM platforms	customer profiles and sales data
  Consent management	privacy policies, consent forms, preference setting

  Consent management

  It may be the final item on the list above, but it’s also a key requirement of many data privacy laws and regulations. For example, the GDPR is very clear about consent : “Processing personal data is generally prohibited, unless it is expressly allowed by law, or the data subject has consented to the processing.”

  For that reason, your first-party data strategy must incorporate various transparent consent mechanisms, such as cookie banners and opt-in forms. Crucially, you must provide customers with a mechanism to manage their preferences and revoke that consent easily if they wish to.

  Data management

  Effective first-party data management, mainly its security and storage, is critical. Most data privacy regimes restrict the transfer of personal data to other jurisdictions and even prohibit it in some instances. Many even specify where residents’ data must be stored.

  Consider this cautionary tale : The single biggest fine levied for data privacy infringement so far was €1.2 billion. The Irish Data Protection Commission imposed a massive fine on Meta for transferring EU users’ data to the US without adequate data protection mechanisms.

  Data security is critical. If first-party data is compromised, it becomes third-party data, and any customer trust developed with the business will evaporate. To add insult to injury, data regulators could come knocking. That’s why the trend is to use encryption and anonymisation techniques alongside standard access controls.

  Once security is assured, the focus is on data management. Many businesses use a Customer Data Platform. This software gathers, combines and manages data from many sources to create a complete and central customer profile. Modern CRM systems can also do that job. AI tools could help find patterns and study them. But the most important thing is to keep databases clean and well-organised to make it easier to use and avoid data silos.

  Data activation

  Once first-party data has been collected and analysed, it needs to be activated, which means a business needs to use it for the intended purpose. This is the implementation phase where a well-constructed first-party strategy pays off. 

  The activation stage is where businesses use the intelligence they gather to :

  • Personalise website and app experiences
  • Adapt marketing campaigns
  • Improve conversion rates
  • Match stated preferences
  • Cater to observed behaviours
  • Customise recommendations based on purchase history
  • Create segmented email campaigns
  • Improve retargeting efforts
  • Develop more impactful content

  Measurement and optimisation

  Because first-party data is collected directly from customers or prospects, it’s far more relevant, reliable, and specific. Your analytics and campaign tracking will be more accurate. This gives you direct and actionable insights into your audience’s behaviour, empowering you to optimise your strategies and achieve better results.

  The same goes for your collection and activation efforts. An advanced web analytics platform like Matomo lets you identify key user behaviour and optimise your tracking. Heatmaps, marketing attribution tools, user behaviour analytics and custom reports allow you to segment audiences for better traction (and collect even more first-party data).

  

  How to build a first-party data strategy

  There are five important and sequential steps to building a first-party data strategy. But this isn’t a one-time process. It must be revisited regularly as operating and regulatory environments change. There are five steps : 

  1. Audit existing data

  Chances are that customers already freely provide a lot of first-party data in the normal course of business. The first step is to locate this data, and the easiest way to do that is by mapping the customer journey. This identifies all the touchpoints where first-party data might be found.

  2. Define objectives

  Then, it’s time to step back and figure out the goals of the first-party data strategy. Consider what you’re trying to achieve. For example :

  • Reduce churn 
  • Expand an existing loyalty programme
  • Unload excess inventory
  • Improve customer experiences

  Whatever the objectives are, they should be clear and measurable.

  3. Implement tools and technology

  The first two steps point to data gaps. Now, the focus turns to ethical web analytics with a tool like Matomo. 

  To further comply with data privacy regulations, it may also be appropriate to implement a Consent Management Platform (CMP) to help manage preferences and consent choices.

  4. Build trust with transparency

  With the tools in place, it’s time to engage customers. To build trust, keep them informed about how their data is used and remind them of their right to withdraw their consent. 

  Transparency is crucial in such engagement, as outlined in the 7 GDPR principles.

  5. Continuously improve

  Rinse and repeat. The one constant in business and life is change. As things change, they expose weaknesses or flaws in the logic behind systems and processes. That’s why a first-party data strategy needs to be continually reviewed, updated, and revised. It must adapt to changing trends, markets, regulations, etc. 

  Tools that can help

  Looking back at the different types of data, it’s clear that some are harder and more bothersome to get than others. But capturing behaviours and interactions can be easy — especially if you use tools that follow data privacy rules.

  But here’s a tip. Google Analytics 4 isn’t compliant by default, especially not with Europe’s GDPR. It may also struggle to comply with some of the newer data privacy regulations planned by different US states and other countries.

  Matomo Analytics is compliant with the GDPR and many other data privacy regulations worldwide. Because it’s open source, it can be integrated with any consent manager.

  Get started today by trying Matomo for free for 21 days,
  no credit card required.

  Try Matomo for free