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The difference between first, second, third-party data and how to use them

The difference between first, second & third-party data and how to use them

Our society today is generating an enormous amount of data on a daily basis.

The source of this data generation includes the internet, social media, services, communication channels and so on.

Proper data analysis using the right systems can be used to improve a variety of processes involved in healthcare, energy production & distribution, finance, communication, marketing, etc

Data is an extremely valuable resource that can be fed into advanced systems and used to address a lot of societal issues.

In digital marketing, customer data can provide high quality and in-depth information about changing consumer behavior, needs and interests.

These distinct pieces of information can then be used by marketers to develop and implement an effective and efficient marketing strategy.

The primary aim of data-driven digital marketing is to utilize consumer insights to develop personalized content that will prompt conversions and sales.

In this article, we are going through the difference between first, second and third-party data and how to use them.

First-Party Data.

First-party data refers to information your brand obtains on your audience and customers.

First-party data plays a major role in site and customer relationship management (CRM) retargeting efforts because it provides you with insights about your existing customers.

This makes the information obtained reliable for making forecasts on future user behaviors and patterns.

With first-party data, you can target your customers by capitalizing on previous actions they have taken on your brand’s website.

First-party data include information collected from users’ behavior on your website or mobile application, surveys, customer relationship management (CRM) platform, customer feedback, point of purchase, etc.

How To Use First-Party Data.

The high quality, accuracy, and in-depth nature of first-party data increases its value and relevance in enriching your digital marketing efforts.

First-party data is also associated with minimal privacy risk as you are required to seek the consent of your customers before collection.

During the process, you are expected to comply with all the rules and regulations surrounding consumer data protection and privacy.

As the marketer who collects and manages this data, you have direct control and outright ownership over it.

Here are three ways you as a marketer can use first-party data:

1. Personalize customer experience:

The data you collect can give in-depth knowledge of your visitor’s needs and interests. You can then use these insights to create personalized content and advertisements. Meeting the needs and satisfying the interest of your audience is one way to stimulate repeat purchases.

2. Predict trends:

First-party data can provide you with valuable insights into your customer’s behavior. With this information, you can predict how they will respond to your marketing strategy or product offerings.

3. Improve Audience segmentation:

You can use the rich insight first-party data generates about your audience to organize them into different groups with similar behavioral patterns, preferences, and interests. This increases your chances of success with personalized user experience.

Second Party Data.

Second-party data is information that a company collects from its audience and trades with another company in a mutual agreement.

This data is from a different audience other than your own with whom you do not have any connection with.

Second-party data is basically a second-hand data because it is the first-party data of another company.

It typically includes information gotten from surveys, customer feedback, past purchases, product interests, digital interactions and so on.

For you to drive up sales and improve overall growth, you cannot rely solely on data gotten from your audience. Therefore, the need for second-party data from a trusted partner with a demographic that is favorable to your business interest.

Second-party data plays a pivotal role in helping you to expand your reach, target a new audience and possibly capture new high paying customers.

How to use second-party data.

There has been a rapid increase in the number of participants leveraging second-party data. This massive surge in its use can be attributed to more companies recognizing it’s value.

The use of second-party data provides you with similar benefits of first-party data but also gives you the ability to gain a broader understanding of different consumer needs and interests.

Below are some ways for you to use second-party data:

1. Enhance your marketing campaigns:

Second-party data can provide you with deeper insights to improve your marketing strategy and targeting tactics.

2. Enrich your database:

First-party data is of high quality but limited in its scale. This is because it consists only of data gotten from your existing customers. Enriching your database would require additional data from a trusted second party. An increase in your database will allow you to expand your digital marketing campaigns.

3. Reach new audiences:

First-party data limits your marketing campaigns to only your existing customers. You cannot rely on this for sustainable and effective business growth. You can use the information gotten from second-party data to expand your reach and generate more exposure from a new market that will be beneficial to your business interests.

Third-Party Data.

Third-Party Data is data that you purchase from external sources who did not collect the data directly. These external sources are companies or entities referred to as Data aggregators.

Data aggregators obtain the data they sell from other brands, businesses, and organizations. They pay the initial data collectors a certain fee in exchange for the data. These data are managed and stored in a central database as third party data.

A significant number of companies sell their first-party data to data aggregators which makes them accessible through different mediums.

After collecting large amounts of data from different publishers, the data collectors categorize them into different segments.

These include but are not limited to psycho-graphic factors (like audience behavior, user preferences, interests, etc), demographic factors (like age, gender, occupation, income level, etc), industry and so on.

The categories can further be broken down into specific sections from which the buyer can pick. These sections usually align with their business interest or marketing tactic.

Some benefits of third party data is access to a large pool of user data and its extensive coverage.

However, since this data is not collected directly from your existing customers, it is not exclusive and available to your competitors.

How to use third party data.

1. Discover new audiences:

The broad scope of third party data can help you identify a new demographic that might have an interest in your products or services. This allows you to expand your reach, make more sales and grow your business. You can also study user data to identify common preferences and use that information to improve a new product you might be developing, to make it more appealing.

2. Increase the accuracy of your targeting:

The proper analysis of third-party data can help to increase the precision with which you target specific sections of your audience.

3. Complement your first-party data:

While first-party data provides you with high quality and quality information on your existing customers, it might be lacking in volume. This is especially true for small to medium scale businesses.

Third-party data helps to provide you with the scale first-party data usually lacks. Using third party data gives you an ability to reach a wider volume of users who might be interested in your products and target them with personalized advertisements.

November 30, 2024
Five Ways to Make it Easier for Customers to Purchase from your Small Business

Five Ways to Make it Easier for Customers to Purchase from your Small Business

If you’re struggling to make your small business becoming a large, booming business, you have to start at the basics. It can be easy to get caught up in the minute details without seeing the forest for the trees. Yes, all those details matter, but what matters most is turning potential customers into paying ones. Let’s go over five of the top ways to make sure that your business is set up to be a successful one with these next tips.

Five ways to make it easier for customers to purchase from your small business

1. Have an online payment option that is obvious

Even if your business is predominantly a physical store-front, there’s no reason to not make purchasing easy. Make your payment option simple and easy. One option is to have an online option; with options like Payanywhere, there’s no reason to not accept virtual payments. This way, your customers can browse at their leisure, and you can accept credit card payments right from your computer. If a customer calls you up after they’ve left your store intent on buying something they saw earlier, the last thing you want to say is, can you come back in to pay for it? By that point, you’ve lost the customer, so make payments simple.

2. Maintain your website

If you offer a physical product or service, ensure that your website is up-to-date with contact information. Have an online presence that covers the basics of your storefront or service, including commonly asked questions so that customers spend less time trying to figure out exactly what you do. At the very least have a phone number, hours of business, and, if you offer a more seasonal service, the average lead time.

3. Remind the customer of your expertise

If you operate solely with an online presence, make sure that your website is detailed and thorough. The last thing you want is a potential customer wavering between purchasing your service and not; by giving them all the information up-front, you’re reassuring them that you are an expert in your field.

4. Provide good customer service

This may seem obvious but check your voicemails. This seems silly, but many businesses get so caught up with everything they need to do each morning that they forget one of the obvious things – to follow up with customers reaching out to you. Whether that’s via an online portal, email, or voicemail, make sure you give those customers a bit of time each day so that you’re turning potential clients into payments.

5. Offer subscription services

A customer who needs something repeatedly is unlikely to stray and try another store or website if they can rest assured that what they’re needing is going to show up at their door front each month. If you run a software-as-a-service, you likely know the importance of repeat customers, and the easiest way to turn one-time customers into recurring ones is by offering a subscription. This is true for physical goods as well; if you run a business that has customers returning to your website or storefront every couple of months, offer them the option of having something delivered each month to them.

There you have it: Five simple ways to make customer purchases easier for your small business. Put these five tips to use and notice as your conversions increase over the next several months.

November 30, 2024
How to Make the Most Out of Your First Solo Ads Campaign

How to Make the Most Out of Your First Solo Ads Campaign

Looking to make the most out of your first solo ad? You’re at the right place. These helpful tips should help you get started even if you’ve never done any sort of email advertising in the past.

So without wasting much time, let’s get started.

1. Setting Up Your Landing Page

Before you go ahead and make a purchase, it’s recommended to set up a capture page for capturing visitors’ emails. This will ensure you’re able to collect the maximum number of emails, which in turn will improve your return on investment (ROI).

ROI plays a huge role in paid advertising, and it’s one metric you can’t overlook or it’s too easy to lose money. With a funnel to collect visitors’ emails and a back-end sequence (autoresponder automation emails), your chances to break even on your ad spend are much higher.

Without collecting emails, you’re instantly losing most of the visitors forever, There’s simply no way you’ll ever have a way to contact them again unless you collect the people’s information. Email marketing is heavily used by the leading marketing agencies (and digital marketers) from all over the world for a reason – it simply works!

Make use of email marketing + automation sequence in your online business if you haven’t already. It will pay dividends for years to come.

2. Using a Click Tracker

Using a link tracking software will make sure you’re able to accurately track your marketing campaigns’ performance. Not only can you track the number of clicks to a link (link clicks), but also metrics like opt-in rate, engagement rate, and determine what exactly are people doing in your funnel.

If you’d rather not know your numbers, paid ads are a big no-no. It’s better to start with free marketing methods, and only scale once you know you can do better with paid advertising.

There are many free and paid click tracking tools out there, simply choose the one that best fits your requirements. Testing multiple at a time won’t hurt either as you’ll quickly know which ones suit you better. It also helps most of the paid link trackers come with a free trial option for you to explore the platform at no extra cost.

3. Getting Ready

With a decent landing page and a link tracker set up, you’re now ready to purchase your first solo ad. You can either find sellers via a quick Google search or via Skype groups. https://oursoloads.com/ is among one of our favorite traffic providers. They’re also willing to making your first ad campaign a lot more special by dropping in a 10% discount.

Before you purchase an ad, make sure you check out the vendor’s testimonials. The more they have, the merrier! Always reach out to them to make sure your offer is a good fit with their lists. With solo ads, targeting is everything and you definitely want targeted prospects for your business opportunity.

Think of it like this – are you likely to purchase something which you don’t want? No, correct? That’s it. If you show a pet product to a person who doesn’t have a pet, are they likely to buy from you? On the other hand, if you show relevant fishing gear to a person who absolutely loves fishing, what are your chances here? Astronomically higher!

4. Making Your Purchase

The day has come, it’s time to book your first ad campaign. If you’ve contacted the vendor already, it’s often recommended to negotiate a little and find the best deals. Most legitimate traffic vendors will happily get you a better deal than is displayed on the sales pages.

This will eventually help in the end since it will surely improve your cost per lead (CPL). The lower your acquisition rate per subscriber is, the better. Like mentioned before, it’s a game of numbers.

You also want to break even as soon as possible. Promoting cheaper front-end offers (free CPL programs or inexpensive $7-27) products will help you cut costs in your list building campaigns.

Send traffic to a landing page, collect visitors’ emails (or if needed, first names as well), then send to offers via a bridge page. The bridge page, also known as thank you page can do the pre-selling for you and prepare the visitors for the front end offer.

Understand the audience’s pain point, make it relevant and your job will get much easier in the end.

5. Traffic Quality

It’s recommended to only go for 100% Tier1 traffic for obvious reasons. These people are native English speakers, have access to credit cards and other means to make a purchase. Tier2/Tier3 works as well, but you’re more likely to encounter some tire-kickers who would fight to save a penny!

Not saying T2/T3 traffic won’t work, but with T1 traffic, your odds are much better. If you’re receiving some discounts anyway, why not make the most out of it?

There are sometimes issues with refunds, and chargebacks. These are more common with T3 countries.

6. Keeping It Clean

Once you get it going, it’s easy not to look back. It’s recommended to continue to clean your e-mail list every once in a while by getting rid of inactive subscribers. Why if you may ask? Since some of these are not engaged anymore, they’re only adding to your monthly autoresponder bill.

If you get rid of them, it will create more space in your account without the need to upgrade. For starters, clear leads who haven’t engaged with your content in the last 30 days (if they were received your emails that is).

Moreover, it can often help with your email delivery (inboxing) as well. Email automation companies like AWeber like it when your audience’s engagement is better than the industry average.

Final Words

That brings us to the conclusion of this resource. We hope this helps with your first (or next) solo ad purchase.

What’s your favorite step out of these? Have you ever purchased a solo ad before?

Or did we miss anything?

Either way, do let us know by leaving a quick comment down below.

November 30, 2024
[Episode 1] Introduction to the Ask Reginald Podcast (and Covid-19)

[Episode 1] Introduction to the Ask Reginald Podcast (and Covid-19)

[Episode 1] In this first-ever episode of the Ask Reginald Podcast, Reginald introduces himself and shares the vision of the show. Plus, he shares a quick few minutes takeaway from the Covid-19 pandemic and how YOU can take action right now for your future. Tuned now to learn more!

Subscribe & Download

Want to get notified of new episodes directly on your phone? Subscribe to my podcast using your favorite app!

Listen onApple PodcastsListen on SpotifySubscribe onStitcher radioFollow me onTuneIn Radio

November 30, 2024
How To Use Oxygen With Other WordPress Builders?
How To Use WordPress Builders With Oxygen Builder?

Oxygen Builder is one of the finest and most lean WordPress builders I had used. Elementor, Beaver Builder and Divi don’t come even close to what Oxygen Builder can offer.

But, there’s a little problem.

Oxygen Builder is known for not working well with other WordPress theme builders in the market. You cannot just install a WordPress theme and hope that it plays nicely with Oxygen.

Often time, this WordPress guide is extremely important for those who had a large site and use one or more WordPress theme builder. Migrating everything to Oxygen not only takes time but a lot of effort too.

There’s a little trick over it. Now, if you love watching video, hit the play button to watch how you can get Oxygen to work with any WordPress theme builder.

How To Use Oxygen With Other WordPress Builders?

By default, Oxygen Builder is a WordPress builder by itself. Therefore, I highly recommend you to use Oxygen with other WordPress builders only if you have a large site and it would be massive hassle to convert everything into Oxygen.

It takes over $1,000 to complete the entire site migration to Oxygen. If this is something you are keen on, you can reach out to me and I’m happy to help you in anyway possible.

There are two simple steps you need to take in order to use Oxygen with other WordPress builders:
1. 1Build a layout template for current/existing layout
2. 2Build a layout template for new posts and pages using Oxygen
Part 1: Build A Layout Template For Existing Layout

This is an important step to ensure that your website design do not break when you activate Oxygen Builder. Here are the steps you need to take.
1. 1Get a copy of Oxygen Builder
2. 2Install and activate Oxygen Builder license
3. 3Disable all cache plugin
4. 4Head over to Oxygen » Templates » Add New Template
I am a huge fan of Thrive Architect and therefore, the following example will be integrating Thrive Architect into Oxygen Builder.

“Building an Oxygen template for all your old blog post is the first step and to avoid any distorted layouts when using Oxygen Builder.”

– Reginald Chan –
- Add title: Put in a name for your Oxygen Template.
- Inherit design from other template: None
- Where does this template apply?: Singular (check Posts and Pages only)
Once the above is done, click “Edit with Oxygen.”

This template is to ensure that your website layout is not broken in anyway. Thus, you will be using Inner Content element on Oxygen Builder.

By default, you will see an empty page. Select the panel on the left and search for Inner Content. Click on it to have the element imported to the layout.

For easier navigation, you can use Structure to have a bird’s eye view on the entire page.

Now that this is done, you can perform additional setups such as screen layout.

I set different layouts on different screen size. In order to do so, you need to ensure that the Inner Content element is location inside a Divider.

Part 2: Creating A New Template With Oxygen For New Posts And Pages

Once you had completed the above steps, you need to create a new template with Oxygen. This will be used for ALL blog posts and pages that you create.

“Templates in Oxygen Builder is like using Global Widgets for Elementor. When you use them right, you are going to save a lot more time in WordPress design.”

Reginald Chan

The process of creating a new template on Oxygen is similar with the steps above. The next time you are creating a blog post or page, select the template that you had created with Oxygen and click on Edit with Elementor or Edit with Thrive Architect.

By doing this, all the saved templates will be imported directly into your content and you don’t have to worry anything about the header, top and bottom menu, etc.

Summary: Using Oxygen With Other WordPress Builders

This WordPress tutorial is only best when you are using Oxygen on a large WordPress site (such as over 500+ posts and pages). This allows you to inherit all he previous designs and not breaking anything on your site.

The best part, you will be able to use Oxygen Builder on all your latest blog posts and at the same time, using Oxygen with other WordPress builders.
November 30, 2024
How To Speed Up WordPress Websites
How To Speed Up WordPress Websites

Over the last few days, I’d one of the toughest time in getting one of the websites up and running. I was working on a Exabytes Plesk VPS (which is freaking cool by the way). I even used Oxygen Builder (read my review here) which is by the far, the best bloat-free and fast loading website builder.

When I first loaded up the site, I was expecting it to load like blazing fast (VPS with 3 cores and 3GB RAM) but I was purely mistaken. I had overlooked that I was using an unmanaged VPS. At this point, I knew two things: I was spoilt by Kinsta and I need to seriously make my WordPress website faster.

In this article, I’m going to show you exactly how to speed up WordPress websites without coding skills—and how you can make your website load faster and making Google happy.

1. Use A Reliable WordPress Hosting For Faster Websites

The most important step is to use a reliable WordPress hosting. Taking this important step is by far the most effective way to speed up your WordPress site.

But, using a reliable WordPress hosting can really be costly. This site is powered by Kinsta hosting and I’m using Business 2 plan which costs $100 per month. There are also lower tiers WordPress hosting that you can also consider. Click here to check out the full list of Kinsta hosting pricing.

What if I’m on a tight budget but desperately in need of a reliable WordPress hosting?

The best option is to go for a shared WordPress hosting. Now, here’s what you need to know about shared WordPress hosting:
- There are many cheap WordPress hosting that costs under $5 a month
- There are many bad WordPress hosting companies
- There are only a few good WordPress hosting solutions
Using a cheap and bad WordPress hosting company is going to give you more headache than a peace of mind. You are bound to experience many downtimes, slow responsive website and almost no customer support.

But if you seriously in need of a cheap WordPress hosting solution, I recommend you to take a look at BlueHost. It is reliable, having multiple datacenters around the world and live chat support, you can easily save a few dollars each month until your website takes off with traffic.

2. Use A Cache Plugin To Optimize WordPress Loading Speed

Installing a cache plugin for WordPress is almost as important as choosing the right web hosting company. A cache plugin helps you to configure and optimize your WordPress site without needing you to go into the coding part.

Most cache plugin are created to ensure that website owners (that’s you) can easily configure the plugin without any hassle.

Here are some of the best cache plugins you should be using today:
- WP Super Cache
- WP Rocket (I personally recommend this)
- W3 Total Cache
- Swift Performance
If you are using a managed WordPress hosting solution, you can safely ignore this part because optimizations are often completed on server level.

3. Uninstall Unwanted Plugins To Reduce WordPress Bloat

Plugins are great but only if we use them correctly. Speeding up a WordPress site is all about reducing the database size.

Now, take a moment to look for unwanted plugins you had installed on your site.

Uninstalling unwanted plugins or plugins that had not been used is a great way to ensure that your website loads fast(er). Typically, here are some guidelines to help you decide if the plugin is worth removing from your wp-admin:
- The plugin was not used for over a month
- It is just an old plugin that no longer serve the purpose
- You left the plugin inactive in the plugin dashboard
4. Use Content Delivery Network (CDN) For Faster Loading Websites

CDN helps you to serve static files to your audience through the nearest datacenters to them. This helps you to speed up website loading speed and ultimately, giving a better experience to your website audience.

If you are just starting with blogging, Cloudflare is an excellent, free-to-use CDN service. Once you had signed up, change your nameservers to the ones given by Cloudflare and within 24 hours, your website will be running with its servers.

Do another check on the website loading speed and you will notice a nice bump in the loading speed.

5. Optimize Images And Speed Up WordPress Websites

A smaller size page loads multiple times faster than a large page. In this case, images play huge roles in the website loading speed. The more optimized the image is, the faster your website will load.

How do you optimize WordPress images correctly?
1. 1Optimize images before uploading to WordPress (tools such as TinyPNG helps dramatically).
2. 2Use proper image optimization plugin such as Imagify or Shortpixel
3. 3Scale the image based on the right display size (instead of the largest size available)
Summary: Simple Tricks To Speed Up WordPress Websites

The process of speeding up a WordPress site takes some effort and the right strategies. However, it is important to note that a fast loading website doesn’t only give more weight to better rankings, it helps you to make your website audience happier.
November 30, 2024