Marketing hasn’t been one-size-fits-all for a long while, but today’s consumers have ever-growing expectations of how their favorite brands should interact with them.
McKinsey found that 71% of shoppers expect brands to recognize them, and that 76 percent grow frustrated when that recognition is absent. Twilio’s 2023 State of Customer Engagement sent up an earlier warning flare: 66% of people will leave a brand whose experiences feel generic.
The alarm grew louder when Google postponed—then partly canceled—its plan to scrap third-party cookies. A 2024 Deloitte retail-trends study showed that, even with the reprieve, only 60 percent of marketers felt “mostly” or “very” prepared for a cookieless future.
Regulators aren’t sitting on their hands. The EU’s Digital Markets Act demands explicit opt-ins for cross-site tracking, while California’s CPRA lets residents issue a one-click “do not sell” order.
Against that anxiety-inducing backdrop, the smartest play for marketing personalization involves the data customers actively choose to hand over—what Forrester dubs zero-party data.
First-party data is what brands observe—a click-stream, a past purchase, activity on a website.
Zero-party data is more specific, and generally involves preferences: “I prefer to be texted after 5 p.m.” or “My foundation shade is neutral-olive.” These insights might be offered up via polls, quizzes, and so on. Because the information is volunteered, it survives browser changes and heads off most compliance headaches.
The magic of zero-party data is that it’s freely given—but only when the experience feels worth it for the customer. While apps like Sephora’s Color IQ or Nike’s Run Club make the exchange of information from customer-to-brand seamless, you don’t need to build a platform from scratch to start collecting valuable insights.
Zero-party data isn’t harvested—it’s earned. But when brands make asking part of a helpful, enjoyable experience, the answers come freely, and often with surprising depth.
When brainstorming tactics for good zero-party data outreach, make sure you tick these three boxes:
•Keep the request streamlined, lightweight, and low-lift for the customer
•Make the value exchange obvious—what’s the customer getting out of this?
•Ensure the data collection is fully opt-in
Here are a few ways to start drawing in rich zero-party data across different channels.
Email isn’t dead—it just needs a glow-up
Maybe you’re a luxury travel brand drafting a welcome email for new sign-ups. Rather than waste that space, include a survey or prompt asking customers to “Help plan your dream trip.”. Sometimes a single thoughtful email can yield better data than months of tracking pixels.
Plan some light social-story polls
Use disappearing stories on Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok to pose quick either-or questions: “Morning workouts or late-night sessions?” or “Which flavor tempts you today?” Because the format feels playful and ephemeral, people respond freely. Each tap records a clear preference that can feed future product drops, ad targeting, or editorial calendars.
Don’t squander a good loyalty program
Give members a dashboard where they can toggle what perks or topics they care about—exclusive events, size restock alerts, ingredient deep dives, budget-friendly bundles. When customers adjust those switches, they’re volunteering evergreen profile data while also reducing the risk of message fatigue.
Consider the point-of-sale moments
Retailers can prompt customers at checkout—online or in-store—with brief, optional surveys: What’s your next outdoor goal? Which brands do you love? How did these shoes fit? These questions don’t just feed review systems—they help refine segmentation for everything from product development to store layout.
Lean into post-purchase feedback
After a customer receives their order, it’s a natural time to ask for feedback or preferences. Smart brands have built short, elegant follow-up flows via SMS and email, asking how the product worked, how it fit into their routine, or what they’d like to see next.
If you’re big enough, build an app
Nike’s Run Club app invites runners to log mileage and state goals such as “qualify for the Boston marathon.” Those ambitions merge with browsing and buying history, so the brand knows when shoes have logged 300 miles and which city an athlete is racing next.
Gathering preferences, of course, is easier than activating them. Machine intelligence now shoulders that load. Twilio’s 2024 research shows 73 percent of business leaders believe AI will remake their personalization playbook.
Tech-forward tools like CUE embody the shift: your zero-party data can be stitched to a 43-thousand-signal identity graph and returned as media-ready segments in minutes.
Brands that thrive with zero-party data keep the value exchange explicit, refresh preferences from time to time, and honor opt-outs without drama. This keeps your customers feeling confident that the data they're sharing is worth it.
In short, the future of marketing may rest on a simple formula. Ask the right questions, integrate the answers into your personalized campaigns, and leverage AI to kick everything up a notch.
