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    5 benefits of developing a first-party data strategy

    Last updated: August 30, 2024

    First-party data isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. It’s a non-negotiable for media businesses to survive and thrive in today’s competitive media environment. 

    Those leaders and organizations who master first-party data take control of their fate, grow more valuable audiences, and increase revenue and margins, 

    So the question isn’t why you should develop a first-party data strategy. It’s why now — and how to accelerate from the drawing board to execution.

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    In this post, you’ll learn: 

    • The biggest benefits of first-party data — and the costs of doing nothing
    • How media companies are using first-party data to put their audience first, drive growth and generate sustainable revenue 

    4 benefits of using first-party data 

    First-party data is the difference maker in building and growing a robust media business. So the question isn’t why you should invest in first-party data. It’s why now. 

    We get it. Changing strategy is difficult. Even if you’re not getting enough information about your audience or you have clunky workflows costing you money, persisting through known issues can feel safer than risking even more disruptions with new technology.

    The time is now to prioritize your first-party data — and here’s why: 

    Personalize content and target offers more effectively 

    70% of consumers expect brands to personalize ads and product recommendations, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen, according to McKinsey research. 

    Personalization isn’t just about preventing churn, either. It also boosts the bottom line: Brands using first-party data see a 2.9X revenue increase and 1.5X cost savings, according to research from Think with Google and Boston Consulting Group.

    But you can’t personalize your content if you don’t know who each of your audience members are, what they care about, and what they’ve already seen and read. 

    First-party data fills that gap. Coming straight from the source, first-party data gives you the information you need to create audience segments, individualize your content to individual needs — and then scale it across thousands of audience members. 

    Data is the foundation of personalization, the McKinsey report adds. “Looking across the customer life cycle, leaders build a granular view of where there is the most value. They leverage customer segments and microsegments, and factor in behavioral, transactional, and engagement trends. They use those insights to define and quantify their personalization objectives and ground their efforts in customer-centric key performance indicators (KPIs).” 

    Run more cost-effective campaigns 

    First-party data gives advertisers the information they need to create more targeted, cost-effective and successful campaigns. 

    You might generate $10k from a programmatic campaign. But if you can use audience data to tailor specific ads to specific audience segments, based on their previous engagement history, browsing history and recency of engagement, you might drive $25k or more from the same ad. 

    Research bears this out: BCG’s Global Digital Marketing Maturity Survey found that companies that link their first-party data sources can generate double the revenue from a single ad, communication, or outreach. 

    We’ve also seen this among leading media companies: Research by Condé Nast shows that advertisers that deployed advertising campaigns using its first-party data saw a 15% lift in brand awareness, a 17% lift in favorability, and a 13% gain in purchase intent on average, compared to brands that didn’t. The overall result was a return of $3.32 for every ad dollar spent.

    “First-party data enables us to improve customer experiences across our properties by increasing advertising performance and providing content recommendations, while respecting consumer opt-outs,” Karthic Bala, Condé Nast’s chief data officer, said in a report by Google. “The virtuous cycle of personalization has, in turn, led to higher engagement and additional first-party data assets, while giving our customers what they want and building trust.”

    Attract more paid subscribers and revenue 

    First-party data helps you segment your email lists according to someone’s demographics, behaviors, and purchases more easily. That makes it much easier to match content to each recipient’s interests and personalize and get the right offers in front of the right people. 

    This doesn’t just boost your open and click rates. It directly contributes to subscriptions. According to research from the New York Times and the Boston Globe, newsletter readers are more likely than non-readers to become paid subscribers and tend to stay subscribed longer. 

    How Becker’s Healthcare used its first-party data strategy to drive 1,000 monthly content signups with Omeda 

    About Becker’s: Becker’s Healthcare is a media organization in healthcare with five print and digital publications, along with webinars and white papers, live and virtual events, e-newsletter and podcasts.  

    The problem: Becker’s needed a more streamlined way to introduce their audience to their entire slate of resources. Beyond that, they needed a better way to manage and unify all the data it collected — so they could create even better content going forward. 

    The solution:

    1. The Becker’s team used Omeda to unify first-party data from all of their channels — from their webinars and events to their website, email and ads – into one place.
    2. Using their newly unified audience data, Becker’s created specific audience segments based on job title and industry. 
    3. Becker’s used Omeda’s marketing automation solution to create a welcome email series that introduced new readers to their wide variety of content and educational offerings. Then they used their previously created segments to tailor these initial emails to those topical areas. 
    4. Once Becker’s had enough first-party data about an email recipient, they could recommend articles to them based on their individual website browsing and email engagement history. 

    The outcome: 

    • The welcome sequence’s first email earned a 4% click-through rate and helped Becker’s drive nearly 5,000 new contacts to its e-newsletter preference form.  
    • Combined, the lead gen and event-based emails drove 1,000+ sign ups for their educational offerings. 

    Additional first-party data resources 

    Want to learn more about first-party data? Need ideas for your next campaign? Build up your first-party data strategy with some of these resources: 

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