Ways to capture and use first-party data

First-party data is of the utmost importance for a moving business. It consists of the data about your audience – their behavioral patterns and shopping habits, how they communicate with your business, and much more. We all agree that first-party data plays the most important role in running a business. However, it is probably one of the hardest data types to collect because it requires the effort of the company and its employees. With that in mind, let’s see how to capture and use first-party data and why it is so beneficial for your business.

Everything that fits into the first-party data category

Let’s analyze first-party data a bit more, and learn what it actually includes. The most essential types of first-party data are:

• customer demographics;
• customer behavior and interests;
• website activity;
• purchase history;
• sales interaction;
• email engagement;
• customer feedback;
• customer support calls;

Through this data, you are learning a lot about the customers. Furthermore, you can use that data to improve your business. Before we even start talking about the strategies to collect data, let’s talk more about where to store it.

CRM is the best option

Moving company CRM software is a single database where you can store all of the customer data. There is no need to keep track of multiple platforms. Furthermore, you don’t have to deal with duplicate or outdated data. This is a common problem that happens when a company keeps data stored in multiple places.

Also, CRM is the perfect tool for not only storing the data, but also keeping track of sales processes, doing lead scoring, and much more.

How to capture and use first-party data?

Now that we know what platform to use for storing data, let’s talk about the best strategies to collect information. The five most common ones are lead generation forms, custom question forms, emails, communication channel research, and brand building.

Even though there are many other approaches, these five should be more than enough for your moving business. Here is why they are so good.

Lead generation forms

When you have clients on your website, it is a good idea to greet them with a lead generation form. It usually has generic fields that include name, e-mail, or other contact information, and a couple of industry-related questions about the services they are the most interested in.

You need to present these forms to the visitors at the right moment. You can create triggers depending on the pages they visit. That way they will not be spammed with forms every few seconds. The form will pop up as a natural part of the flow of information.

The lead generation forms help you collect contact information about potential clients, and get more info on what their interests are.

Custom question forms

You can look at custom question forms also as lead generation forms. However, personalized questions add more flavor to the form. Let’s say a visitor is looking at your website, and they are browsing through the section about senior relocation. You can present them with a specialized form that has questions regarding this type of service. This way you can capture and use first-party data easily.

Emails

Running a newsletter is still very popular. Communicating with your clients through emails has a lot of uses. Furthermore, CRM email marketing for movers is one of the most common conversion strategies. You are using data from emails, filtering it through the CRM system, and pulling reports that will help in creating a successful marketing campaign.

When visitors browse through the company website, they can fill out forms that ask them what their main interests are. Based on their response, you can send them specialized emails regarding those services. Furthermore, you can use polls, questionaries, and many other data-collecting strategies in your emails, to capture even more essential data.

Communication channel research

There are so many online apps people use today. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are just a few examples. Besides social media platforms, people also use websites like Reddit, Hulu, Spotify, and many others.

Once you know who your targeted audience is, do research and find out what apps or platforms they use the most. If you know where they are, you can find a way to get them to your website. This is a good strategy that relies on advertising on various platforms used by your potential customers.

Brand building

Turning your business into a brand is a complex and lengthy process. However, it has many benefits. The core strategies for this approach are quality control, sharing company values, focusing on consistency, building trustworthy connections, and providing exceptional customer service.

By using customer care software for moving companies, you can collect both customer complaints and praises. You can also capture testimonials or most common questions. All of this counts as valuable data.

While you are taking care of your customers through customer support, you are in fact building a name for your company. This is how you can gather data through brand building.

You can also organize events, seminars, or educational lectures for your customers. These events are useful for not only presenting products but also talking with customers and collecting data.

Second-party and third-party data

We also need to mention two other equally important types of data.

Second-party data is just someone else’s first-party data. For example, if your moving business partners up with a storage company, you can also collect their first-party data.

Another option is to use websites and applications of independent researchers. They usually communicate with a large number of people, collecting first-party data. They later distribute that data for a price. If you are willing to pay, this could be a good strategy to quickly get important data without spending a lot of time. This is called third-party data.

Customer data will drive your business

Capture and use first-party data to help your business grow. Information is more valuable than money, and if you use it in the right way, your business will quickly scale and grow. Just have in mind your customers’ privacy, and treat their personal data with respect. Give them value, and they will give you their trust in return!