What Data is Valuable and Relevant to Collect for Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation helps businesses deliver the right message to the right person at the right time - automatically. But for automation to be effective, it depends entirely on one thing: data! Without accurate and relevant data, your automated campaigns risk being irrelevant, mistimed, or non-compliant.

Collecting the right data powers smarter decisions, improves targeting, and ensures that every email, SMS, or notification resonates with your audience. It also keeps your marketing legally sound and customer-centric.

At LINK Mobility, our MyLINK MarketingPlatform enables companies to build data-driven marketing automation flows using powerful segmentation, real-time triggers, and dynamic content. But first - you need the right data in place.

Why Data Matters in Marketing Automation

Data is the foundation of personalized, multichannel customer journeys. It helps you:

• Understand who your audience is

• Know what they care about

• React to what they do in real time

When collected and used properly, data allows for highly targeted, timely, and effective messaging - leading to higher engagement, better conversion rates, and stronger ROI.

Additionally, compliance with privacy laws like GDPR means only using data that is consented to, relevant, and securely handled. Responsible data practices are not just legal obligations - they also build trust with your audience.

Key Categories of Data to Collect

1. Contact and Profile Data

This is the foundation of your marketing database. Contact and profile data includes essential information such as name, email address, phone number, company name, industry, job title, and communication preferences.

This data allows you to:

• Identify individual leads or customers

• Segment audiences by role, company size, or vertical

• Personalize outreach and set default language or channel preferences

• Ensure legal communication based on consent

By collecting contact and profile data, you gain the ability to create basic audience segments and enable cross-channel communication through email or SMS.

2. Behavioral Data

Behavioral data provides insight into how contacts interact with your brand online.

It includes data points such as:

• Website visits and pages viewed

• Email opens and link clicks

• Time spent on product pages or blogs

• Abandoned cart events

• Repeat visits or form interactions

This type of data is crucial for triggering responsive automation. For example, if a contact visits your pricing page multiple times but does not convert, you can trigger a follow-up campaign offering a consultation. Behavioral data helps ensure your timing is right and your message is aligned with current interest.

3. Transactional Data

Transactional data reflects what a customer has done in terms of purchases or financial interactions.

It includes:

• Purchase history (products, categories)

• Average order value

• Frequency and recency of purchases

• Refunds or cancellations

• Payment methods or status

This data supports lifecycle marketing strategies. You can use it to trigger reorder reminders, loyalty rewards, or upsell offers based on prior purchases. It also helps you identify your top-value customers and treat them accordingly.

4. Engagement and Scoring Data

Engagement data tells you how active and responsive your audience is across channels.

Combined with lead scoring, this data helps you:

• Prioritize sales outreach to hot leads

• Filter out low-engagement segments for reactivation

• Refine your audience targeting based on interest level

• Track changes in behavior over time

Lead scores can be based on a range of interactions - clicks, downloads, event attendance, or email replies. The more engaged someone is, the more personalized and direct your messaging can become.

5. Custom and Dynamic Data

Custom data fields allow you to collect information that is specific to your business model or use case.

Examples include:

• Account manager assignment

• Product preferences or interests

• Event attendance history

• Role-specific details for B2B (e.g. department size, budget authority)

• One-to-many relationships, such as multiple subscriptions tied to one profile

This kind of data powers true personalization. You can tailor product recommendations, support content, or even onboarding flows to individual preferences and contexts.

6. Consent and Compliance Data

Data privacy regulations like GDPR, ePrivacy, and others require marketers to collect and store consent-related information.

This includes:

• Opt-in status for specific channels

• Timestamp of consent collection

• Consent version (in case terms change)

• Source of consent (e.g. website form, email link, etc.)

Without this data, you risk sending unauthorized messages, which could damage trust and lead to legal penalties. With MyLINK MarketingPlatform, consent is stored and managed at the contact level, making it easy to filter and segment only those who are eligible for communication across SMS, email, and more.

Data Collection Methods and Best Practices

Collecting the right data requires intentional design and ongoing attention.

Here are some best practices:

• Use website forms with only essential fields at first

• Implement progressive profiling to gather more data over time

• Sync with your CRM or eCommerce system

• Track behaviors through web pixels or APIs

• Offer a preference center where users can manage data and opt-ins

Always explain why you are collecting data, how it will be used, and get explicit consent. Transparency builds trust - and keeps you compliant.

How to Use Collected Data in Automation Flows

Collecting valuable data is only the first step - the real impact comes from how you use it. Structured, reliable data allows you to automate journeys that are both timely and relevant. Whether you are engaging new leads or reactivating existing customers, data-driven automation ensures your message aligns with the customer’s behavior, preferences, and stage in the lifecycle.

Once your data is structured, you can use it to:

• Trigger automation based on behaviors (e.g. cart abandonment, browsing)

• Personalize emails and SMS messages using dynamic fields

• Segment contacts by interest, lifecycle stage, or engagement score

Example:
Set up a reactivation flow that identifies contacts who have not purchased in 90 days, checks their last clicked product, and sends an SMS or email with a personalized offer to bring them back.

With FlowBuilder in MyLINK MarketingPlatform, you can do all this with a visual interface - no coding required.

Data Types and Their Use Cases

Understanding what types of data to collect is one thing - knowing how to use them effectively is another. The table below outlines common data types, examples of what they look like in practice, and how they can be used to power meaningful and compliant marketing automation.

Build Smarter Automation with Better Data

Good marketing automation is built on good data. Without reliable, structured, and consented data, even the most sophisticated platforms will underperform.

Now is the time to review your data collection practices, identify gaps, and put in place a strategy that supports personalized, effective, and compliant marketing.

LINK Mobility’s MyLINK MarketingPlatform offers the segmentation, automation, and integration tools you need to unlock the full power of your customer data - across SMS, Email, and beyond.