Consumers are willing to share basic personal data with their favorite brands such as names, email addresses and birth dates in exchange for a better customer experience or discount, according to our 2022 Customer Loyalty Data Study: What Are the True Drivers of Loyalty in the Minds of Consumers?.
But how can brands acquire deeper consumer data than that?
Most consumers trust their favorite brands to keep their data safe, but are reluctant to share too much personal information, the study says.
Brand officials must start showing their customers immediate and direct value from the data they share. They must clearly show consumers how the data will be used, develop innovative ways to make that data valuable for customers and demonstrate that value.
But how do you go beyond obtaining traditional data like names, email addresses and birth dates? Maybe offering incentives can spark elevated consumer engagement?
Here are 5 ways to engage your customers to acquire deeper data.
1. Surveys, Polls and Quizzes That Expand Consumer Profiles
Collecting consumer data in an engaging and low-friction way is part of the overall customer loyalty experience. Foremost among incentivized engagement methods are surveys, polls and quizzes that can expand consumer profiles.
When you engage customers via surveys, polls or quizzes you can also glean deeper data and learn their consumer preferences through how they participate, mobile vs. desktop, what program types motivate them, what time of day/day of week are they most likely to engage.
If specific actions are underperforming for your brand, additional currency (sweepstakes entries, points, Instant Win plays) can be offered to increase action completion. Targeted communications can also be used to drive action completion.
Surveys and polls can give your brand psychographic/demographic information, along with various customer insights.
For example, SC Johnson invited both Thanksgiving travelers and hosts to share their thoughts and opinions in a dual-path promotion.
Travelers answered questions about why they wanted to return home for the holiday for a chance to instantly win a $1,000 gift card toward their trip. After answering a question about their entertaining style, Thanksgiving hosts could instantly win a $250 gift card to help cover the costs of their holiday feast. Win or lose, both received a coupon valid at participating retailers.
2. Receipt Data
Receipt data is valuable in better understanding consumer purchase behavior, from where they shop, to when they shop, to what they are buying, to the size of their basket, and even how they are paying.
Receipt validation addresses the following marketing objectives:
- Sales during a specified timeframe
- Sales at a specific retailer
- Product Trial/Adoption
- Data Acquisition
- Customer Acquisition
- Customer Insights
- On-Pack Code Replacement
- Cross-Portfolio Sales
- Sales, Demand and Traffic Generation
For example, Ruby Tuesday aimed to drive email opt-ins and consideration while gaining valuable consumer insights.
Ruby Tuesday invited consumers to spin a virtual slot machine featuring hero shots of its delicious food for a chance to instantly win a free Ruby Tuesday burger. They could also complete other activities like uploading receipts and completing a Vegas-themed personality quiz for additional chances to win a trip to Las Vegas and free Ruby Tuesday for a year.
3. Sweepstakes
Sweepstakes are popular because of the low participation barrier and simplicity of execution. Sweepstakes can integrate into a variety of channels and take many forms, including social hashtags, mobile apps, and text to enter.
Brands can also gate a sweepstakes so that consumers must make a purchase to participate. Purchase validation methods can include receipt upload, on-pack codes, codes on receipt, or direct shopper card or app integration.
Sweepstakes address the following marketing objectives:
- Awareness
- Data Acquisition
- Customer Acquisition
- Email Acquisition
- Social Acquisition
- Loyalty Acquisition
- SMS Acquisition
- Mobile App Download
- Mobile App/Cross-Channel Usage
- Mobile App/Cross-Channel Trial & Adoption
- Mobile App/Cross-Channel Exploration
- Sales, Demand and Traffic Generation (when purchase is gated)
For example, the Capital One Free Lunch Sweepstakes aimed to foster new mobile app behavior. The sweepstakes tagline was: “Enter for a chance to WIN FREE LUNCH FOR A YEAR.”
Entrants were asked to deposit a check with their phones. A new grand prize winner was awarded each week. The sweepstakes motivated customers to deposit checks with their phones and enjoy the convenience of mobile banking.
Sweepstakes represent one of the most popular ways to collect valuable first-party data and opt-ins because of their versatility.
4. Personality Profilers
Personality profilers collect data points in fun, engaging ways and sort consumers based on responses. They increase brand relevancy and gain insights by incentivizing consumers to take a personality quiz.
Personality profilers and quizzes help brands learn more about their consumers while also driving personalization and product education. Participants answer a few questions (text-based, image-based, and/or video-based) and receive shareable results based on their answers – and prizes, offers and content can all be customized based on their input.
Personality profilers address the following marketing objectives:
- Brand Engagement
- Data Acquisition
- Customer Acquisition
- Customer Insights
- Content Creation & Sharing
- Product Education
- Social Buzz & Virality
- Product Trial (through education/results)
- Sales, Demand and Traffic Generation.
For example, Listerine conducted the “Join the Bold Percent” campaign, which aimed to drive sales through brand engagement.
Consumers were invited to test their boldness through personality quizzes, check their Oral Health IQ, upload Listerine receipts and complete other activities for chances to win bold-themed prizes.
5. Advocacy
Incentivized engagement strategies can be specifically designed to generate authentic brand advocacy. These strategies come from amplification methods, including email referrals, social channels, product reviews and content galleries.
These strategies are designed to entice loyal consumers to encourage their families and friends to engage and encourage consumers to drive awareness of new products or services, solicit authentic product reviews, foster UGC brand endorsements and highlight loyalty programs and all forms of incentivized engagement (sweepstakes entries, points, Instant Win plays).
For example, the #RockARedLobster campaign aimed to drive top-of-mind awareness by inspiring seafood-loving fans to promote the brand on social media to celebrate National Lobster Day.
It was an invitation-only program that encouraged Red Lobster fans to share photos with #RockARedLobster, representing their love of all things lobster on Instagram and Twitter in exchange for a chance to win prizes instantly.
Create Customized Targeted Experiences for Your Customers
The biggest value to consumer data is the ability to provide customized targeted experiences for consumers across all touch points. Data can help us understand when to communicate to consumers, what channels to use, and what messages resonate best.
Transparency in how data will be used is critical in strengthening customer relationships. Only collect data that you plan to use and be upfront with consumers on how collected data will be used to improve their experience with the brand.
All these tactics can be built into loyalty programs so you can better understand your members.
As you can see, there are many excellent types of fun-filled, incentivized engagement that can help you acquire deeper data from your customers.
If you’d like to talk about your loyalty program or any of these tactics, reach out to us any time.
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ebbo helps brands achieve their customer loyalty goals with full-service, end-to-end solutions and also creates original educational content straight from the experts to help loyalty marketers stay on the cutting edge of customer engagement.