Three Ways to Capture First-Party, Declared Data with Your Holiday Campaigns

Each year, brands spend a LOT of money on holiday marketing campaigns: $691.9B in the US to be exact. But that spending ultimately pays off. Last season, US shoppers spent $108B online alone and the average consumer spent $967.

How can you maximize your holiday budget? One thing is certain, early execution is a must. New research found that holiday ad campaigns beginning in October have a 7% increase in ad impressions, 12% drop in cost-per-click, and 20% decrease in cost-per-thousand-impressions.

While timing is crucial, channel is also important. Mobile carries a 63% cheaper cost-per-click versus desktop and marketers have seen a 400% increase in click-through-rates on Instagram and a 54% increase on Facebook compared to display campaigns.

So you’re starting early, you know the best channels to reach your audience, and you have substantial budget set aside. Why not maximize your return?

With thousands of touchpoints created, there are infinite opportunities during the holidays to build relationships and deliver personalized experiences to your customers. But to deliver truly personal experiences, you need quality, first-party data. This data not only drives personalization, but long-term value.

But don’t just take our word for it:

“As first-party data becomes even more vital for the long-term health of retail businesses, a data collection strategy—one that helps further drive personalization and long-term LTV—must be a key consideration when putting together a strategic holiday plan.” – MarTech Advisor

Declared Data for Holiday Marketing

First-party data, such as transaction history or information collected through focus groups, surveys and forms, is the best data for understanding your customers. However, it is often difficult to capture at scale.

Focus groups are limited to 10-12 people, surveys have an average response rate of 10-15%, transactions only give you purchase amount, credit card type, and address, and most forms convert at rates below 25%.

Additionally, relying on transactional or behavioral data requires you to draw conclusions about what your audiences wants and intentions.  

What if you didn’t have to infer – what if they just told you?

That’s declared data.

Unlike transactional data, declared data is information willingly and actively given by consumers, often about their motivations, intentions, interests, and preferences. Declared data strips away the complexity and uncertainty of inferring, and leaves you with exactly what you need: your consumers’ own thoughts.

Brands are collecting and activating declared data in innovative ways every day and raking in outstanding results. How can you get started? Here are three ways you can use holiday campaigns to can engage customers and capture first-party, declared data.

1. Holiday Gift Guides

Odds are, if you’re a retailer you already have a holiday gift guide built into your content calendar. These quizzes are very popular and boast huge returns for brands by driving engagement and conversions. A standard guide takes consumers through a series of questions, after which they are matched to the perfect gift.

While you have their undivided attention, why not use this time to learn more about your consumer? Let’s take a look at an example.

Boden’s Holiday Gift Guide

Last year, Boden launched a holiday gift guide, helping users find the perfect gift for either themselves, the kids, a baby, or their significant other.

During the quiz, Boden captured the following declared data points:

• Who the user was shopping for,
• The types of gifts they’re interested in
• If they had ever shopped with Boden

The quiz ended in a lead capture form where users were asked to enter their email for the customized guide and a 30% discount code.

The quiz saw high engagement and allowed Boden to engage customers, capture declared data, and deliver a personalized email follow-up.

2. Holiday Travel Destination Matches

The holidays are sinonimos with travel. Last year, a record-breaking 107.3 million Americans traveled during the holiday season and estimates for this year continue to trend higher.

Although many are set on their destination, nearly 60% of travelers say they are considering a real vacation over a trip home. Additionally, New Years Eve continues to be a popular time, with 103 million people planning to travel.

Overall, the holidays are a great time for travel companies to engage and learn more about their customers. Let’s take a look at an example.

Travel Destination Match

A travel company launched a New Year’s Eve destination quiz to help users discover their perfect getaway..

During the quiz, the company captured the following declared data points:

• Who users were traveling with
• What activities they prefer
• How long they intended to travel

The quiz ended in a lead capture form where users were asked to enter their email for the custom itinerary.

The quiz engaged over 23,000 travelers and allowed the company to capture quality declared data, deliver a personalized email follow up, and create segments based on traveler activity preferences.

3. Gift Voting/Polling

How do you know which gifts are popular? Just ask! Live polling is a great way to get a pulse check on consumer opinion.

Amazon White Elephant Poll

Amazon launched a gift poll, encouraging users to vote on popular white elephant gifts.

During the quiz, the company captured which gifts were most popular and if users were Amazon Prime Members.

The quiz ended in a lead capture form where users were asked to sign up for Amazon Prime.

The poll was very successful (over 67,000 votes counted) and allowed Amazon to predict which gifts were going to be popular for the season.

Jebbit’s Approach to Declared Data

With the holiday season just around the corner, it’s time to start preparing your campaigns. Capturing and activating declared data empowers you to create and sustain digital conversations at scale with all your customers, boosting their lifetime value and brand affinity as you learn from them.

Jebbit built a platform that sustains attention on mobile devices and dynamically has these conversations. Leveraging each moment of consumer attention you get enables you to round out your picture of every customer in your database and acquire more customers while understanding them better from the start.

Get started

Learn more about how you can use holiday marketing campaigns to capture and activate declared data. Request a demo and talk to a declared data specialist today!

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