Mastering the Art of Conversation: The New Way to Capture Declared Data

We’ve all experienced the disappointment of a survey with low response rates or spent way too much time conducting focus groups. The quality is high, but the quantity is often lacking. And frankly, it’s exhausting.

Needless to say, scalability is often the number one challenge when capturing first-party marketing data.

But what it if I told you there was an easier way?

Declared Data

At this point, it’s a given that providing personalized customer experiences is critical to successful marketing. The challenge, however, comes with having the conversations and learning about consumers.

We’ve found the best way to understand customers is by harnessing the power of declared data.

Declared data is a type of first-party data that has been willingly shared by an individual, often about their motivations, intentions, interests, and preferences. Just like first-party data, once you have it, it’s yours.

Declared data is not an inference or assumption based on browsing or purchase behavior. It’s information that comes straight from the source.

Historically, methods for capturing declared data have had inherent limitations: Focus groups are limited to 10-12 people, surveys have an average response rate of 10-15%, transactions only provide purchase details, and most forms convert at rates below 25%.

Despite its challenges, marketers know they need to capture this data at scale. eConsultancy found that eighty-one percent of marketers say they see strong ROI from using first-party data in campaigns and Think With Google research revealed that 92% of marketers believe using first-party data is critical to their growth.

With first-party data so crucial to success, wouldn’t it be great if marketers could ask each customer about their likes and preferences?

Until recently this was more a pipe dream than a reality. Luckily, it’s easier than ever before to have conversations, at scale.

Where, When, and How? The Digital Marketing Landscape

You’re probably asking yourself: How can you possibly have meaningful conversations with each customer?

It’s seems daunting, but it’s easier than you think. To answer this, we need to take a step back and look at the where, when and how consumers are engaging with the digital content.

Where?

The future is mobile. A growing number of consumers are using mobile as their primary device for accessing the internet, with 40.7 million individuals  using exclusively smartphones for access. Therefore, content must fit and be optimized for this format – whether they’re consuming it regularly or discovering it for the first time.

When?

Mobile attention is evolving to frequent check ins and longer time spans. Consumers on average spend more than 5 hours per day on their phones, checking them nearly 150 times per day. During these times, they are bombarded with notifications.

On average, 671 million push notifications are sent to consumers each day – that’s nearly 46 notifications per smartphone user! Although these seem like great opportunities to engage, over 50% of notifications are viewed as annoying or distracting. This is primarily due to the lack of personalization and relevancy. Now, more than ever, messaging has to be contextually relevant in order to cut through the noise.

How?

Understanding where and when consumers are accessing the digital landscape is just two-thirds of the puzzle. The final piece is looking at how consumers use their smartphones during these frequent touchpoints.

According to a recent Deloitte survey, 57 percent get their news on apps, 45 percent listen to music, and 31 percent stream films. Twenty-nine percent use their phones as digital wallets, even when purchasing in-store. Many use them as smart assistants, and a growing number use them to hail transportation.

This means that during those 150 moments per day, there is a large range of locations, both in app and online, to connect and have conversations with mobile consumers.

The Mobile Revolution: It’s All About Attention

Conversations 101: Creating Personalized Experiences Based on Mobile Attention

Understanding mobile attention is critical when creating personalized content. With consumers checking their smartphones nearly 150 times per day, we as marketers have plenty of opportunities to engage. The key is treating each touchpoint like a conversation.

Conversations can take on many forms including mutual learning, asking something new, reiterating what you already know, recalling past information shared, etc.

The trick, as with any conversation, is active listening and retention. What exists in the landscape currently is not a sharing problem, but a listening problem.

Given the chance, customers will happily tell you more about themselves – especially if they know they’ll get a better experience out of the exchange.

According to a recent Segment report, consumers not only want, but are expecting, highly personalized experiences.

For example, retail customers are particularly receptive to personalization. Fifty-four percent of consumers expect to receive a personalized discount within 24 hours of identifying themselves to a brand (such as by submitting their email or signing up for an account), and 32% expect a discount to be issued after just one hour.

Ultimately, consumers want personalization, better offers, and easy experiences. By taking advantage of mobile attention spans, marketers have the opportunity converse numerous times throughout the day, thereby creating richer relationships and better tailoring their marketing efforts.  

The New Way to Capture Declared Data

Overall, consumer’s mobile mindsets are changing and how marketers talk to them needs to change as a result. Watch below as our CEO, Tom Coburn explains:

‍

Getting Started

Luckily, getting started with declared data has never been easier. There a many ways to capture data in smaller settings and at scale. The key is reflecting on and mapping out what you’d like to know about your customers.

Ask yourself: In a perfect world, what are 10 data points I would love to know about each customer?

Then, think about how you could optimize your current initiatives with that data.

At Jebbit, we’ve found that the best way to turn mobile attention into actionable declared data is by providing an immersive experience that gives consumers the chance to answer questions, select options, and more.

What Does That Look Like in Practice?

A CPG brand might use QR codes on product packaging to drive traffic into a product quiz where consumers get a personalized, product recommendation.

A wine company launched a product quiz and sweepstakes via QR code printed on their wine bottles. Consumers were invited to select their favorite wine and learn about its country of origin. They could then enter for a chance to win a trip to that location. Upon entering, consumers were sent trigger emails with personalized wine recommendations. The experience saw a 70% engagement rate and 80% completion rate.

An eCommerce brand might drive paid social traffic into a mobile lookbook that lets shoppers indicate their style preferences and get a personalized, shoppable outcome.

Boden, a British apparel brand, captured declared data on style preferences through Jebbit experiences. Based on the indicated  preferences, Boden sent personalized, shoppable emails with a discount code. Consumers could then purchase the looks they loved in the experience. These shoppable emails drove 40% of all purchases, and 60% of the purchases occurred immediately after shoppers completed the style quiz or lookbook, with a 33% increase in cart size as well.

A travel company might send email traffic into an itinerary builder where travelers enter information about their dream vacation and get a custom itinerary.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises launched an interactive, mobile “This or That” experience, where travelers could choose between various options to build the perfect Alaskan cruise. Upon completion of the experience, travelers received a personalized follow-up email with unique subject lines, copy, and offers. By using declared data to personalize emails, Regent drove 9X higher click rates and 2X higher open rates.

A media company might create an interactive article that allows readers to give feedback and indicate which types of content they’d read the most.

The Boston Globe’s consumer marketing team began launching a series of Jebbit mobile experiences to find their most engaged reader segments via declared data capture. These declared data points revealed readers’ favorite topics, frequency of reading the Globe for different types of news, favorite shops, restaurants, and events to go in Boston, and more. They then created Facebook custom and lookalike audiences using the declared data segments, tailoring the creative, messaging, and offer for each one, driving a 121% increase in paid digital newspaper subscriptions.

In each instance, the brand sends something much more conversational and relevant to the mobile-minded consumer. As a result, they open up opportunities for data capture and can tie that data back to each individual who engages with the mobile experience.

Learn More

Want to see results like these? Check out the Declared Data Playbook to get the deep dive into declared data and see how you can get started.