Progressive Profiling

Progressive profiling is a technique used to ensure data accuracy and completeness by gradually asking users more detailed questions over time to gather reliable 1st party data.

This allows the user to slowly become more comfortable with supplying personal information rather than being asked for everything at once. It also helps to keep forms short, allowing for quicker form completion and higher completion rates. Additionally, progressive profiling can help organizations gain insights into their customers that may not be readily available from public sources.

To implement progressive profiling, you need to create interactive forms or pop-ups that gradually ask your customers for more personal information over time. This can be set up in three steps:

• Define the initial customer profile with basic customer-provided data such as name, address, email, etc.
• Ask customers increasingly targeted questions based on their customer journey, interactions and previous responses to capture more data points related to the customer profile.
• Continually review and update the customer profile with new data captured from interactions and responses over time.

Research has shown that progressive profiling can be beneficial for both marketers and customers.

For marketers, it helps them to better understand their customer’s needs and preferences, allowing them to create more personalized experiences for them.

Additionally, it can help drive conversion rates, as studies show that reducing form fields from 11 to 4 can increase conversion rates by 120%.

For customers, progressive profiling provides an improved user experience as they are not bombarded with too many questions at once. It also helps ensure that the customer’s privacy is respected as only small amounts of data are collected at a time.

Overall, research suggests that progressive profiling is an effective way for marketers to gain valuable insights into their customers while providing them with a better user experience.

Here are some best practices for effective progressive profiling:

• Be clear and upfront about the purpose of the questions being asked.
• Keep the number of questions to a minimum so as not to overwhelm the customer.
• Consider how frequently customers should be probed for additional information and provide options for those who may not want to answer.
• Refrain from asking for sensitive personal information such as bank account details or social security numbers that could lead to identity theft.
• Test different variations of form fields and questions to determine which ones yield the best results.
• Make sure you’re respecting any local privacy laws when collecting data, and make sure there is an opt-out option available if desired by the customer.

SAP Emarsys helps industry-leading brands like PUMA, Pizza Hut and Nike to build deeper pictures of their customers by using progressive profiling to gradually capture valuable first-party data.