Businesses collect consumer data for various reasons. Consumer data can involve basic demographic information, interaction data, behavioral data, and attitudinal data. Because of the insight that captured consumer data provides, it may be leveraged to understand audiences better, improve customer experiences, identify gaps in the market, forecast sales, guide marketing strategies, boost customer interactions, and optimize performance.

Collection methods for data can range from highly technical to tedious and manual. Here are some common techniques for collecting consumer data:

Newsletter subscriptions

When customers subscribe to your newsletter and promotions, it’s common for them to fill in a short form that asks them to provide basic information, such as their name and email address. Some businesses also allow customers to sign up for more personalized services by asking them to choose from a list that best describes their preferences. However, the key to getting more sign-ups is to make the registration process simple. Once you have a customer’s name and email address in your subscriber list, you can enhance your database with the right data collection practices and services.

Online surveys

The questions that you ask in a survey will depend on your data-capturing goals. Do you want to learn about their spending habits, preferences, interests, or buying behavior?

Online surveys are the most effective type of survey; they’re not only cost-effective but consumers prefer them over traditional survey methods, including phone surveys and face-to-face surveys. To attract your customers into taking a survey, offer them a benefit or a perk for participating – such as a discount or a gift.

Website tracking and analytics 

You can improve customer relationships and better business decisions by analyzing your website’s performance. Web analytics can gather information on traffic sources, referring websites, page views, and conversion rates. 

Customer orders

It’s routine to ask for certain information when a customer places an order, such as full name and delivery address. You will also require their email address so you can send them a confirmation email or their order and send updates on shipping. And by requesting their phone number, you can contact them in case there are any problems with their order.

Transaction histories

Transaction histories give insight into consumer behavior and spending habits. With this data, you can target your marketing and segment your lists. Data from a customer’s transaction history also goes toward strategies to retain customers. For example, a customer with a history of buying a certain product may signal the likelihood of them being interested in upgrades or accompanying products. Transaction histories also help you identify which customers to invite to your loyalty programs.

Data enhancement services

Data enhancement services can take an email list with basic information such as name and email address and enhance it with valuable demographic data. At RunnerEDQ, our demographic data solutions tap into a data file of over 2 billion records covering 170 households, allowing us to enhance your consumer data with detailed demographic data such as household income, residence data, credit information, marital status, and other unique attributes of your customers.