5 Ways to Use Customer Data

You’ve collected the customer data and now you’re ready to start using it to improve your marketing. So, what’s next? When it comes to using all the data you’ve collected, it can feel a bit daunting. We want to help break down the best ways to use customer data in your business.

We'll go through what customer data is, why it's important, and how you can use it effectively. 

What is customer data?

Let’s start with getting to know what customer data is. According to Shopify, customer data is information collected on a company’s customers; it’s used to personalize marketing campaigns, identify target audiences, and increase sales. It includes things like age, gender, occupation, purchase history, browsing data and preferences. 

In short, customer data is what you use to better know your audience. It gives insight into what they buy, what they do, and who they are. This will allow you to create better marketing campaigns over time.

Types of customer data

Identity data

Identity data will be your most basic data. This will let you know the bare minimum details about your customer including the following:

Name

Postal and email address

Phone number

Age and birthday

Race and ethnicity

This data is used to help companies create buyer personas and get a better understanding of the audience your business it appealing to.

We're here to help if you're working on building buyer personas for your company. Check out our guide on How to Create Effective Buyer Personas to level up your next campaign by breaking down who your users are, what motivates them, and their needs. 

Engagement data

This will show how customers interact with your business across different touch points. This allows you to look at customer engagement as a whole versus individually.

How is this tracked?

Website visits

Click-through rates

Bounce rates

Ad engagement

Social media engagement, including likes, comments and shares

Email engagement

Behavioral data

Behavioral data focuses on a customer’s direct engagement with your business.

This includes:

Purchase history

Subscription renewals and cancellations

Abandoned shopping carts

Attitudinal data

This type of data can be a bit more tricky to understand because unlike identity, engagement, and behavioral data which is supported by hard numbers, attitudinal data is based on reviews left by your customers on your business, services, and products.

Things attitudinal looks at:

Customer reviews

Online surveys

In-person interactions with customers

Attitudinal can be hard to track because every review is written a little differently. Some may be overflowing with details, while others are to the point. On the business side, you have to make sure you’re pulling the right information from the reviews you receive to get the best data.

How to collect customer data

The way you collect customer data may depend on the product or services you offer – but there are a few options you can test out. You can try sign-up forms, this will allow you to have a customer's name and email. Website or app tracking, you’ll be able to see how people act on your website or app. Email marketing will help you analyze customers’ interactions and help you improve campaigns over time.

5 ways to use customer data

Now you know different types of customer data and how to collect it, it’s time you figure out how to use it. Collecting it is just half the work, the most important part is making sure you use it in a way that helps your business out.

Better personalization campaigns

You’ll find with the usage of cookies and your data tracking processes that you have a better understanding of your customers and their preferences. This is important when it comes to personalizing more of your campaigns and making sure your customers get more of what they’re looking for at that time.

Aradius Group can also help you with recurring personalization in your next marketing campaign. Our solution RETAIN uses personalized print to increase brand loyalty and customer retention.

RETAIN works to identify personas and create relevant messaging that resonates with each consumer group. It lets you use the customer data that you have and give each individual an offer that matches their unique interests with a specific product or service that your business provides.

Understand how your audience buys from you

The more data you have about how your audience is buying from your business, the more you’ll be able to tailor buyer personas. You may find over time that the way you have a buyer persona set up isn’t working and you need to adjust. With data, you’ll be able to adjust according to how your audience is buying.

Improve customer loyalty

What’s one thing you always want in a business? Returning customers! Having a partnership with a customer is better than customers who come once in a while. The more you know about a customer the more you’ll be able to help them with their shopping experience.

Here's an example of how data can improve customer loyalty: I have a great connection with the owner of a pet store and they know my dog and her needs. They are better able to help provide food that she may like, let me know when we should switch it up and because I’m a repeat customer, I get a free bag of dog food every 4 bags! All of this plays into why I continue to shop there for my pet's needs. 

Refine your marketing messages

This plays into personalization a bit. The more refined your marketing messages, the more personal they feel. So, the more data you have on a customer, the more targeted your message will be. This allows customers to feel like you’re speaking directly to them, and don’t we all love that?

Optimize campaigns

The more data you have the better you can research and target your ideal audience. The more optimized your campaign is the more chances you have at reaching the right people for your products or services.

The takeaway

There are many different types of customer data, different ways to gather data and different ways using data will impact your business. It’s important you know what data matters most to your company and how you can go about implementing it to see benefits – think about how well campaigns will do when they’re optimized for your audience!

If you’re interested in learning how to use customer data more in-depth, reach out! We’d love to talk more about how our recurring personalization solution, RETAIN, could benefit you and your customers.