MARKETING BESTIES WITH

Hi Marketing Bestie,

You’re in your big quarterly planning meeting.

Someone drops a big stat in a slide. The whole strategy hinges on this 1 number.

It has 2 decimal places. So it feels EXTRA official.

But…you still have to ask the least-fun question in all of Marketing:

“Where did that number come from?”

I hate to be the bad guy, but…

That’s when things unravel.

“I think it was from a report? Maybe last year’s deck?”

This moment is the whole problem in 2026.

Everybody has answers. But nobody has the truth.

That’s why I’m calling it right now…

2026 is the Year of First-Party Data

Audience data is like milk: it should really come with an expiration date. 🥛🤢

The antidote to smelly assumptions is fresh data.

Fresh, first-party data.

✅ First-party data = Direct feedback from customers. Info YOU collect, straight from the people you’re trying to reach, with consent, in a way you can explain:

Support tickets
Surveys
Purchase history
Community comments

(Disclaimer: people sometimes split first-party data into a sub-section called zero-party data to distinguish between what you infer vs. data customers they tell you themselves, but I’m gonna talk about them as one today.)

⛔ First-party data is NOT: a spreadsheet of emails you bought from a vendor, or a deep research prompt result. That’s third-party data.

New first-party data is quality information.

And quality information is your competitive edge.

We all know this.

But the thing about third-party data is…it’s a lot easier & faster to get.

Real Research ≠ Vibes

“Do more with less.” 2026 in 1 phrase.

Marketers are expected to move faster, with less data.

People don’t want to be cringe. So they do a quick Google. Scroll TikTok. Use deep research in ChatGPT.

Everything, except…just asking customers what they really want.

Because they think that’s out of reach.

They think research is too expensive, or takes too much time. That it’s only for big brands with big budgets.

All this is a recipe for running faster…in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile, AI’s feedback on your plan…

Today we’re talking about the step you can’t skip in 2026:

Figuring out which way you should be running, BEFORE you start the sprint.

This is how (and why) to get back to basics, without slowing down.

Let’s get into it.

But First…How’d We Get Here?

Before we fix it, it’s important to know the 3 main reasons we got here:

Privacy constraints. The days when you could track 1 user across the web with 100% certainty? That’s over. Privacy regs: stronger. Walled gardens: everywhere. Every time someone hits “Ask App Not to Track” (fair), the limit of what we can know gets smaller.

And let’s not even talk about 3rd-party cookies, LOL.
Measurement got more probabilistic. Translation = a lot of user data is now estimated, because platforms literally can’t look at user activity the way they used to. So we use AI, machine learning, and statistical models to make informed guesses. (Think GA4 and Marketing Mix Models.)

It’s an educated guess. But it’s still a guess.
Answers got cheaper. AI can give you a plausible-SOUNDING take in seconds. And it will give it to you with the confidence of a guy explaining crypto at brunch.

AI is great for speed, drafts, pattern-spotting. But it also should raise the bar on inputs. Because the fastest thing in the world is still only as good as what you feed it.

All these factors mean it’s a lot easier to build Marketing on top of something that’s just…vibes.

TL;DR: Speed is cheap. Direct signals are scarce.

This mismatch has created some truly cursed decisions.

The teams with better data - fresh, first-party data - will make better calls.

Hard-to-Reach Audiences Make This Worse

If you’re trying to reach a small, niche, or tough-to-reach audience, all these problems get a LOT harder. And the shortcuts show up fast.

Marketing to Gen Alpha/Gen Z is a perfect example.

Because this population is so hard to reach, people get creative…in a bad way.

They quiz the interns, search terms on TikTok, or pull stats from a year-old “Gen Z shopping trends” article, and act like they’re universal.

You know what happens next.

POV: your Marketing is cringe

The alternative to embarrassment is real research. First-party data.

But if you’re stretched thin, you start treating research like a luxury…instead of something that can keep you from making a very expensive mistake.

AI can help with general demographic insights. But it can’t answer brand-specific questions like “how do teens feel about MY product or message?”

Your brand is specific. Your data has to be specific, too.

TeenVoice’s model is a good example of what “ask the source” looks like with teenagers.

You can spin up surveys quickly, and get answers back as quickly as within a few hours, all with controls to make sure you’re talking to the right people.

That’s real data. And that’s not a luxury.

Your Research Field Guide

Here’s a version you can run this week. It’s simpler than you think:

Step 1: Pick 1 decision due in the next month

Maybe it’s which creative concept gets produced. Maybe it’s a tagline or trying a new channel.

Step 2: Write 3 assumptions you have about it

This is what you THINK will happen.

Will your audience understand something quickly? Is it cringe or not? Does the price make sense?

Don’t skip this step. If you don't write the assumptions down, you can’t be surprised when they’re wrong.

Step 3: Turn your assumptions into questions

Keep them simple and direct. Don’t lead based on the answers you want.

Examples you can use:

“What do you think this is?”
“What’s the 1 part you remember?”
“What feels confusing?”
“Which jokes were funny?”
“What would make you care?”

Step 4: Get answers quickly AND credibly.

Audience interviews, anonymous surveys, community feedback. What comes out of this step is what will change your outcome + inspire your next moves.

The fastest + most credible route is tapping a resource like TeenVoice: you can create a survey in minutes, access specific audiences, and get results back fast. They can also do a full white-glove service, whether you want help writing surveys, defining sample needs, or customizing data visualizations.

Step 5: Make the call, then document what you learned.

Bake your learnings into your plans. If you’re working with TeenVoice, drop their data visualizations right into your deck.

Then, repeat.

Hot tip: presenting people what you believed, contrasting it with what you learned, and what you did because of it? Fastest route to internal credibility.

The First-Party Data Checklist

So, you’re trying to decide if a research company or a dataset is worth your time.

Here’s the checklist:

✅ Asked the Right People - not randos. Your actual target customer base.

✅ Freshness - reflects current reality, not a snapshot from 6 months ago.

✅ Verified - Fraud is rampant in survey world. Your data should be screened to reduce bots, and eliminate professional survey takers.

✅ Explainable - the method is sound & repeatable.

✅ Ties to the decision you need to make.

In practice, this looks like what they do at TeenVoice: human reviewers check VPN & location-masking, and even low-effort responses (like filling in “A” the whole way through), to catch bots and fraudulent survey-takers.

Staying in the Loop

1 thing to keep in mind: even once you have a great first party dataset, your work isn’t done.

The world moves fast. So does your audience.

You have to be ready to change with them. And that means checking in.

(Scrolling TikTok doesn’t count as checking in.)

That’s why you have to turn your first-party data search into a habit:

Same questions, asked on a recurring basis. On a schedule you stick to.
Track what changes + what stays stable
Use what you learn to reduce internal debate & move faster, smarter.

TeenVoice takes a 12-month tracker approach, here: a similar survey, delivered to a similar audience, 3 or 4 times per year. Then they track what shifts over time.

This is the Marketing version of touching grass.

It’s also how you avoid being the 2026 team built on 2024 assumptions.

Easier Said Than Done? Not Always.

Internally, the bottleneck isn’t usually “we don’t feel like doing the research.”

It’s “who has the time or expertise to design this well, analyze it, and translate it into Marketing decisions??”

If the answer for you is “absolutely no one,” that doesn’t mean the next answer is “guess we’ll never know!”

The answer should be: “time to call in some help.”

Look for a flexible service , where you can either DIY surveys, OR get full support from professional researchers to:

Define what to study
Write questions
Analyze results
Build readouts to answer your specific business questions

Maybe you’re testing 5 new taglines. Or maybe you’re figuring out the entire new direction for your campaign.

When stakes are high, timelines are tight, and internal bandwidth is MIA, it’s helpful to call in the people who do this for a living.

Let’s Recap.

Here’s what to remember for the rest of the year:

2026 will reward cleaner inputs. When info is plentiful and speed is cheap, quality is your edge.
First-party data is direct signals you can explain.
Hard-to-reach audiences will show the cracks in your assumptions, fast.
AI can juice up your workflow, but the humans buying from you have to be your source of truth.
Checking in on a regular cadence will keep your assumptions from turning into fossils. 🦖

Moral of the Story: Just Ask.

No matter how you slice it: first-party data has stopped being a “nice-to-have.”

All the DIY research in the world, from every AI model, can’t replace just…asking questions. To real people.

If your audience is teens, this goes double. And if you want to keep up with teen consumers without turning it into a 6-week research project, TeenVoice is built for exactly that.

A survey builder for custom questions, especially when you need brand-specific feedback fast.

Plus a research library for a fast, baseline read on teen consumer behavior, wellness, digital lives, and future planning.

TeenVoice is offering 20% off a survey or a FREE topline report if you purchase a survey in Q1. But you have to tell them I sent you, because this is only for us.

Survey says: save yourself from at least 1 cursed assumption this quarter.

Start asking questions.

Your friend,

Daniel

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