According to Salesforce’s State of Marketing Report, “Marketing is spelled D-A-T-A.” As 2022 continues, marketers need to be aware of the importance of first-party data and how data ownership will impact their success in the new year. In addition to the value of raw data itself, data ownership opens up many possibilities and avenues for marketers to take advantage of. Emerging marketing technologies, such as text message marketing, are poised to help marketers leverage data and optimize broader digital marketing strategies. Basically, if you’re not already on the text marketing wave, you’re missing out.

Data is the new marketing

In Salesforce’s aforementioned report, the importance of data is anything but understated. They say that 78% of marketers use data to drive customer engagement. Furthermore, they show that a 40% increase in data sources in both B2B and B2C should be expected in 2022. This all goes to show how relevant first-party data will be in the next few years. Text marketing gives marketers another way to accrue more personalized data about their audience. By analyzing CTR, engagement, and demographic information, marketers can find more fruitful trends in their customers’ buying habits and increase sales. Text’s direct connection between brands and customers leads to building a quality database of your loyal customers.

Target your niches

Every market has smaller groups within that respond differently than your majority. Utilizing increased data sources through text marketing lets you specifically target those niches with content they resonate with. If you’ve got a smaller group of enthusiastic customers, capture their attention with content specialized for them. Data collection allows you to build profiles on your more elusive targets and leverage information to entice them to purchase or engage more. The “long tail” of your market has never been easier to get a hold of—use it to your advantage!

Optimize your audiences

Everyone has different interests, and various marketing tactics work better on some than others. As your database grows, you’ll start to gather more data about your customers: what offers do they like most? What images appeal to them? What branded content grabs their attention? This information is invaluable, and you can use it to craft an even more efficient and impactful marketing strategy. Providing a better service gets more people talking, which gets more people opting in, which gets you more first-party data (and revenue), rinse and repeat.