All marketers know that big data has the power to inform marketing decisions. What isn’t immediately apparent, however, is what marketers can do, both internally and externally, to activate their data to produce better marketing results that connect with consumers in an increasingly 1:1 manner.
As brands advance their data-driven marketing initiatives, the importance of owning and sharing data internally grows proportionately. Internally, customer service, marketing and analytics teams need to collaborate closely to understand who their customers are and how they behave. Insights and analytics teams can make sense of disparate data sets, and create a clearer picture of customer behavior online and off. Customer service teams can advise regarding which offers resonate in which departments, and more. The data from both of these groups can inform media buys, influence creative, and help marketers segment audiences to push the right prices and promotions to the right people. Ultimately, breaking down the barriers dividing data will result in a more relevant and seamless experience for the customer.
Etailers in particular know their customers well through the data they collect. They know customers’ shopping behaviors, what they’ve purchased both online and in-store, and what incentives have driven those purchases. Sharing, and ultimately unifying data sets internally provides marketers with the ability to build a customer-centric marketing approach.
Sharing data should extend beyond the enterprise and into the partner space yet forming and building successful partnerships in today’s ad tech landscape can be a difficult and complicated process for buyers and sellers alike. With the LUMAscape frequently used as a starting point buyers are faced with the difficult task of sifting through an ocean of information and finding the right partners to help them achieve their goals. MediaMath, through its OPEN Partner Marketplace, provides a solution that facilitates and encourages collaboration between buyers and best-in-class data partners.
The bottom line is that marketers should collect and own all the data available to them to benefit their businesses and their customers. Whether connecting CRM data to media data, connecting credit card purchases offline to online media, connecting the dots between the data and the customer will result in the best experience for them. And providing customers the best experience maps back to the goals of every brand.
This post is the fifth in a series for marketers with an understanding of programmatic technology who are looking to step it up.
Keep up with this series to further educate yourself on how programmatic technology fits into the bigger marketing picture by following the Step It Up Series on the blog.
Do you have what it takes to integrate programmatic technology more deeply into your business strategy? Take our quiz to identify your level of programmatic sophistication and get to the next level.