Why marketers need to break silos and unify all marketing data in one place
How many times have you heard or seen the words big data? Probably more than you can count. The terms big data and real-time advertising have come to dominate the lexicon of the marketing press.
Why marketers need to break silos and unify all marketing data in one place
Marketers are increasingly aware of the benefits data-driven marketing strategies have in driving real-time customer interactions, and a much more valuable customer engagement as a result.
Consequently, brands allocate more of their budgets for IT infrastructure and digital media technology. In fact, research company IDC forecasts the worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics will be $187bn by 2019.
In reality, marketers find it difficult to connect the dots; they collect data from different channels, website visitors, mobile app users, store visitors and call centre inquiries, but struggle to build a single customer view. Seven in ten marketers have gaps in capabilities and effectiveness of their technology when it comes to creating a single view of the customer, according to Marketers Worldwide. (1)
A data-management platform (DMP) is the missing piece of the puzzle. A DMP breaks the silos and unifies all the data in one place, so marketers can get a single view of their customers across the entire buyer journey. Put simply, a DMP lets you collect and analyse customer data – including behavioural, geographic and profile data – from every digital touchpoint.
The result is an integrated picture from both first-party and third-party data sources. You can then activate that data to accurately target your audience across a number of different channels.
The right DMP lets you see how your resulting campaigns are performing in real-time, and can let you optimise the media buy and advertising creative, on the fly. You gain a true 360-degree view of how your campaign is performing – at reaching a specific audience in real-time.
With the explosion in email, web, SMS, digital, mobile, and social avenues, you have to find a way to unify data from each touchpoint to meet growing customer expectations. A good DMP centralises data collected from your paid, owned, and earned channels, eliminating the need for you to build individual custom data platforms. However, you need to make sure your DMP:
- Is built for omni-channel. It’s important that a DMP provides a cross-channel view, not just of your advertising channels
- Is a fully integrated solution. Consider choosing a DMP as part of a wider customer engagement platform, to benefit from a consolidated data view and the ability to synchronise activity across your digital channels
- Offers scalability. A good DMP is built to grow as your business does, across whatever channels your consumers engage with. Many DMP vendors simply are not built to scale across multiple channels
- Majors on strategy and service support. Make sure your DMP provider offers consulting, via a strategic and digital marketing services team, to help you adapt your business to the changing digital world and to, ultimately, use technology to solve business problems
It’s clear advertisers and publishers who want to develop a real-time marketing strategy need to pivot away from a siloed approach, towards all-encompassing data management.
The future of real-time advertising is through the use of bespoke technologies, offering genuinely ‘real-time’ campaign optimisation. An open platform is important to let you a build a differentiated offering and avoid the pitfalls of a siloed approach.
At last, DMPs have the capability to breathe new life into the ideal of the single customer view that many marketers feel is beyond their reach. In an era when minute-by-minute campaign reporting is possible, no brand can afford not to examine its potential.
To find out more about Mapp’s DMP and how it can accelerate your digital marketing journey, please follow us @Mapp_Digital, or visit us at mapp.com
Omar Janabi is Senior Director of Marketing at Mapp Digital. Mapp Digital is one of the largest, global independent marketing technology companies. Our Customer Engagement Platform, with integrated Data Management Platform and customer-centric services assist mid-market and Fortune 500 companies maximize return from digital marketing executions.
(1) Signal, “Preparing for Cross-Channel Success: Solving the Identity Puzzle,” March 24, 2015
Omar Janabi, senior director of marketing, Mapp Digital.
Tel: +44 203 897 2600
Email: uk@mapp.com
Web: mapp.com
Twitter: @Mapp_Digital
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