What does ‘explicit data’ mean?
Simply put, the term ‘explicit data’ refers to any piece of information a user intentionally shares with a company.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: How do I collect this type of data?
The most common way to collect explicit data from users is to use either a digital or physical form. Examples of which include:
- Sign up forms
- Booking forms
- Lead magnet availment forms
- Survey forms
- Contact forms
- Application forms
- Raffle/contest entries
Let us take a look at each on in more detail:
Sign up forms, as the name suggests, are the forms users have to fill out to do things such as use a platform or join an email list.
Booking forms, as you may have already guessed, are the forms users have to fill out to do things such as:
- Book a flight
- Book a hotel room
- Book a seat at an event
- Book a service
Lead magnet availment forms are the forms users have to fill out to claim a lead magnet such as a discount, free ebook, or any other exclusive offer.
Survey forms are just that: forms users need to fill out to share their opinion.
Contact forms are also pretty self-explanatory. They are the forms users used to send inquiries or support tickets to companies.
Application forms are what users fill out to try and get into a company or educational institution.
Finally, raffle/contest entries are, as the name suggests, forms that users have to fill out and turn in for a chance to win a prize.
Question #2: What are examples of these data?
Since virtually any type of data that a user voluntarily shares with a company is considered explicit data, any type of data can be considered an example of explicit data. However, the most common examples include:
- Name
- Contact number
- Email address
Of course, if you run an online store, you will also need to collect your customers’ shipping and billing address in addition to their credit card information.
Question #3: What can I do with explicit data?
The main thing you can do with explicit data is used it to better segment your leads and existing customers and provide them with more targeted and relevant content and offers.
The most common way to do so is through email marketing. All you have to do is add each new lead and customer to your email list, segment your list based on things such as interest, demographic data, or position in the buyer’s journey, and craft targeted email marketing campaigns for each segment.
The good news is most modern email marketing platforms make doing all this—in addition to continuously optimising your email marketing campaigns for maximum ROI—super easy.
Here’s an article from Forbes on why you should care about explicit data.
Question #4: What is the difference between explicit data and implicit data?
The main difference between explicit data and implicit data is that while the former is voluntarily provided by a user to a company, the latter, as the name suggests, is something the company has to extract from existing explicit data and other available information about a user.
A good example of this would be analytics data such as:
- A user’s browsing habits
- The websites a user visits
- How long a user spends on a web page
- A user’s buying habits
- A user’s song or video preferences
As you can see, none of these is actively provided by users to companies. They are all things analytics tools are designed to automatically track in order to provide companies with all sorts of valuable insights they can use to improve their products, services, business processes, and marketing campaigns based on what their customers need and want.