A First Party Data Series: The Role of Identity Data in Your Customer Data Foundation

Having a solid data foundation, built on first party data that includes a variety of customer data types, like identity data, is a critical component of success. Not only does your customer data foundation give you a true view of your customers off which to build personalized customer experiences, but your data foundation can break down internal departmental silos, improve operations, increase customer retention, reduce costs, and increase revenue. 

The landscape around how companies can recognize, understand, and deliver personalized experiences has evolved. Data deprecation forces (regulations, technology changes like Apple’s ATT and third party cookie deprecation, and customer attitudes) mean that companies need to radically shift their approach to a first-party-centric data strategy. This means brands need a solution based on consented first party data collection with the flexibility and agility to incorporate multiple identity solutions to power use cases along the customer journey. Companies need an ideal solution to not only build a consented, first party data foundation, but also augment it with integrations to the industry’s most powerful identity solutions.

Over the next few weeks we will present a series of articles on the different types of first party data, including identity data, descriptive data, behavioral data, and qualitative data.

What is Customer Identity Data?

Customer identity data is the most specific possible data about an individual that helps identifies who they are. Companies use identity data to recognize the same person across devices and channels. Examples of identity data include customer include user IDs, email addresses, device identifiers, first and last names, phone number, email address, social handles, loyalty IDs, and more.

As your customers are interacting with your business across multiple online and offline touchpoints, identity data is used in authentication and verification processes to confirm that a customer is who they claim to be. For example, companies rely on these unique identifiers when customers are accessing online accounts, interacting with mobile apps or browsers, in store purchases, and online engagement when a customer is not signed in, but still needing to be traced back to the customer.

What is Identity Data’s Role in the Customer Data Foundation

Identity data plays a crucial role in any customer data foundation because it allows businesses to establish a unified and accurate view of their customers across various channels and touchpoints. Identifying individual customers and connecting their interactions and behaviors across multiple devices and platforms will create a more complete and personalized view of each customer. 

How Can Your Company Use Identity Data?

There are a variety of ways to use this type of data, depending on the nature of your business and the purposes for which the data is collected. Here are some common examples:

Customer identification and verification: Collect and use identity data to verify the identity of your customers when creating an account, making a purchase, or accessing a service. This helps prevent fraud, protect your company’s interests, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

Personalization and marketing: Personalize marketing messages and product offerings to better meet the needs and preferences of your customers. For example, a retailer can use a customer’s Loyalty ID to offer accurate rewards and special offers.

Creating Accurate Audiences: Identity data can be used to ensure the right individuals are being added into audiences. For example, there are many John Smiths in the world, all with vastly different interests and backgrounds. Only certain John Smiths are appropriate for an audience targeting horse lovers, and so using personal identifiers, paired with other data types, can make sure the right John Smith is being targeted in a campaign about horses.

Compliance and reporting: Identity data can be used to comply with legal and regulatory data protection requirements. This may involve collecting and reporting certain types of information about its customers to government agencies or other authorities.

How Does a CDP Help Collect and Organize Identity Data into the Data Foundation?

​​Data deprecation forces have caused significant changes to how companies can use data to identify and target customers. These forces have made the role of the CDP for customer acquisition more important. It’s important to note that any company that collects or uses identity data has a responsibility to protect said data and ensure that it’s used only for legitimate purposes. This involves implementing appropriate security measures, obtaining consent from customers or users, and complying with relevant laws and regulations.

By using a CDP to power a strong first party data strategy, companies can create a strong data foundation to power accurate marketing, streamline operations with true customer profiles, and improve regulatory compliance. Maximizing this foundation also leads to more efficient spend allocation, which is critical during times of economic pressure. 

Tealium’s channel and vendor-agnostic approach to managing data is particularly well suited for incorporating identity data into a first party data foundation and providing agility and flexibility in a shifting market.

For more information on how Tealium can help support your efforts to build a solid data foundation, schedule a free demo today.