Strategies for gathering zero-party data in customer marketing

To operate effectively in the modern economy, every business needs a customer data strategy. Customer data informs your digital advertising campaigns; it powers your promotions; it drives segmentation; it identifies your most (and least) valuable cohorts. In short, it’s what keeps the wheels of a modern business turning.

But not all customer data is created equally, and not all customer data is well-suited to the same uses. While first-party data and third-party data both have their uses and offer valuable insights to inform your strategy, we believe that zero-party data is an underutilized resource capable of driving truly effective one-to-one marketing.

Below, we take a look at zero-party data and why it’s so important for modern marketing teams. We also discuss the different ways you can collect or solicit zero-party data from your customers, and offer advice to inform your customer data strategy. 

What is zero-party data?

Zero-party data is any customer data that your customer knowingly and voluntarily chooses to share directly with you. It’s not something that you collect in the background (like first-party data) or that you purchase from a data broker (like third-party data). It’s not something that you collect at all. It’s something that a customer opts to share. 

Examples of zero-party data include a customer’s:

• Name (first, last)
• Contact information (phone, email)
• Location
• Date of birth / age
• Gender
• Budget / income
• Job title
• Interests / likes 
• Etc.

Zero-party data is also sometimes known as explicit data; because the customer is telling you something directly (i.e., explicitly), there’s no need to make assumptions about what the data might mean. When a customer shares information with you in exchange for something — for example, they complete a form in exchange for a coupon code — it may be referred to as solicited data.

Why is zero-party data important to customer marketers?

In the past, customer data strategies relied heavily on cookies and other forms of third-party data. While this was for a long time an effective strategy, it’s become increasingly untenable  — thanks, in part, to Apple sunsetting cookies in 2020 and Google doing the same in 2024. 

A zero-party data strategy offers businesses a means of understanding their customers without having to rely on partners (or technology) that could turn off the tap at any time. 

Some of the other benefits that zero-party data provides include:

• It’s easier to trust: Zero-party data is something that a customer chooses to share with a business. That makes it more likely that the customer is telling the truth, especially compared to instances where a customer may feel like they’re being manipulated into providing information to you.
• It’s explicit: When a customer tells you about themselves, they’re making an explicit statement — there’s no need for you to make assumptions to get at the real meaning behind something. This is an important distinction between zero-party data and first-party data.
• It’s more likely to be accurate: When data comes from an outside partner, such as a data vendor, you hope that it’s accurate — but there’s no guarantee. Because zero-party data is something your customer offers to you, and something you manage internally, it’s more likely to be accurate. 

All of this means that zero-party data empowers more effective personalization and one-to-one marketing.

How to collect zero-party data

1. Make it an exchange

While it’s not necessarily a requirement, customers typically share zero-party data with a business because they believe that it’ll benefit them in some way. As you start designing your zero-party data strategy, think about the different incentives you can leverage to encourage customers to share their information with you.

For example, by answering a quiz, a customer might expect that doing so will lead to better product recommendations. By completing a survey or poll, they might expect that you’ll consider their feedback when making product improvements or when designing new features. 

By submitting a newsletter signup, they might expect to receive valuable or helpful content. By completing a form, they might expect to receive a free trial, promo code, coupon code, or other discount. 

2. Get creative

Forms may be the gold standard for collecting zero-party data from your customers, but they're not the only option. Consider other ways that you can solicit information from your customers, including: 

• Polls and surveys 
• Newsletter signups
• Interactive quizzes and tests 
• Product testing or beta testing opportunities 
• Promotional emails and SMS texting
• Website pop-ups 

The more options you give your customers, the more likely one will resonate with them — and that they'll share valuable data to help you better serve them with segmented messaging. 

3. Pair it with first-party data

Zero-party data can tell you a lot about your customers, but it can't tell you everything. That's why it's important to think of your customer data strategy a little like a puzzle. 

Zero-party data is an important piece of it, but you should still consider how first-party data (and even third-party data) might help you paint a fuller picture of who your customers are and how you market to them. 

4. Don’t abuse it

Finally, it's important to note that any zero-party data strategy is built on trust. Customers share their information with you because they a.) trust that you'll protect it, and b.) trust you won't abuse it. 

With this in mind, it's important to think long and hard about how your customers would feel about the ways you use their information. Think twice before selling their data, anonymized or not, as well as any other strategy that might imply you took advantage of your customer. 

Likewise, ensure your data strategy includes robust security measures and access control to avoid any unnecessary risk that could undermine customer trust and put your entire strategy at risk.

How a CDP enables your zero-party data strategy

Collecting zero-party data from your customers is just one slice of the pie. In order to put it to good use, you’ll first need to combine it with everything else you know about your customer — in other words, harmonizing it with any first-, second- and third-party data you’ve also collected from or about your customers.

This can be difficult to do manually, especially if your data lives in multiple disparate tools or systems. The good news is that it doesn't need to be a manual process. By pairing a customer data platform (CDP) with a cloud data warehouse (CDW), you can automatically reconcile customer data and generate 360-degree customer views to power your marketing efforts. 

It works like this. First, your Cloud Data Platform (like Snowflake) pulls all of your customer data in from the different systems that contain it. That data is organized, cleaned, and structured. Then, your CDP (like Simon Data) converts the raw customer data into usable insights — generating customer profiles, segments, audiences, and more. 

Ready to start collecting and leveraging zero-party customer data? Take a look at our CDP Buyer’s Guide to learn more about what to look for as you evaluate your options.

Interested in learning more about how Simon Data and Snowflake can help you unlock the power of zero-party data? Request a demo today.