The Rise of Data-Driven Marketing

Today’s marketers have an array of digital capabilities at their fingertips that their predecessors could only dream of. From social media to big data to cloud computing, they can tailor messages in real-time to each individual consumer, deliver them more precisely – and save a ton of money.

But with such potent marketing weapons, why have so many companies failed to dramatically improve their brand recognition, Net Promoter Scores or sales? Is it that customers are already struggling with information overload? Or are marketers yet to realize the full potential of data gathered from first party, third party, behavioural and social data sources?

Data Trumps Intuition

In a world where many marketing decisions have historically been judgement calls, data is challenging the status quo of intuition and best guesses.

Many forward-thinking brands have started the journey by implementing unified data platforms to collect, normalize and analyze the true potential of their unexplored data assets, from programmatic media trading desks to yield optimization platforms, from offer targeting engines to user experience customization tools. In doing so, they are enabling the automation of complex media buying, messaging, marketing and offer management tactics. Which leads to marketing activity that performs better, whether it’s paid, owned or earned..

The New Digital Currency

Big data isn’t about volume, it’s about context, speed and scale. This is what will define marketing campaigns in the future. Marketers will combine their own data (first party) with data from other sources (third party) and cross-reference it to provide more insights than they could previously imagine.

Recent research by the GlobalDMA suggests that the biggest factors encouraging marketers to capitalize on data are:

• 53% to become more customer-centric
• 49% to maximize effectiveness/efficiency of marketing investments
• 33% to gain more knowledge of customers and prospects
• 20%  to align with digital customer preferences

So what data yields the best insight? Unsurprisingly, what you learn directly from your audiences provides the best opportunity to target consumers more effectively. So data captured on your website via a form, the responses to a multi-stage quiz on Facebook or through your mobile app represent the “gold standard”. Then it’s a question of how you overlay this data with other sources and analyze it to deliver game-changing insights.

Consumers now expect highly personalized, engaging experiences when they interact with brands. Companies that can meet (or exceed) their expectations with a digital dialogue – using data to provide outstanding experiences – are winning.

White Paper Download: The Rise of Data-Driven Marketing

Download our latest white paper to discover how brands and publishers are adopting a data-driven approach to their marketing. One that captures consistent audience data across web, social, mobile and partner channels and then integrates it with third party and behavioral data to deliver unparalleled audience insights and unbeatable campaign performance.

Plus, get further insights into:

• The emergence of Data Management Platforms (DMPs).
• Some of the issues associated with consistent and reliable data capture.
• The benefits of a new data-driven marketing infrastructure.
• Using multiple channels, networks and devices to amass actionable audience insights.