Constant Change Challenges Marketers’ Data Capabilities

Brands have to embrace omnichannel marketing, and it is data that makes it possible, by allowing to connect a consumer’s experience at one touch point with the rest of the journey.

For decades now, brands have leveraged data to improve their communications and enhance their relationships with prospects and consumers alike. Today’s consumers expect brands to have their businesses in order when it comes to data management.

But the reality is that many brands and businesses are far from having everything in place when it comes to data management—from collection through to consumer-facing application—often because, well, things keep on changing.

There are so many data-driven opportunities to enhance your marketing mix today, it often feels like things can’t get any better, and then they do. We are no longer restricted to the availability of personally identifiable information via either our own data feeds or those of third parties. As Adobe’s latest report “Managing Anonymous and Authenticated Experiences Across the Customer Lifecycle” makes clear , there are many opportunities on the continuum from anonymous to authenticated data that can help marketers to deliver increased relevance to consumers [Adobe is CMO.com’s parent company].

While best practice may be well understood, there are very real challenges facing organisations seeking to use all of their data across the entire customer lifecycle. Often the data is coming in from different parts of the organisation, requiring effective cross-functional collaboration. Many established businesses are burdened with legacy systems, once state-of-the-art but, increasingly, ill-equipped to make best use of data. This impacts not only marketing but also sales, operations, product development, and many other functions too, preventing them from taking full advantage of the riches within their own company data and often that of third parties.

Customers Reward Relevance

The value of personalisation through data is, however, undeniable. Whether that’s improving communications with anonymous or authenticated consumers, using data to improve the relevance and therefore resonance of your communications is, indeed, an imperative. Today’s consumers are time-poor and often impatient with brands that don’t recognise them or, critically, their needs. They will punish those that don’t deliver relevant experiences, often by the silent but fatal blow of simply ignoring them, and will reward those brands that do deliver relevance with their time and attention.

Consumers are wise to the value of their data. Many understand the digital trail they leave every time they use the internet and see the repercussions of this with the remarketing campaigns that track them across the web, encouraging them to return to their abandoned basket or complete an easy next step in the customer journey. Unfortunately, some marketing efforts today are still too blunt and we inadvertently frustrate consumers with irrelevant communications (I’m sure you too have been heavily retargeted for an item you’ve just bought online.) Consumers have little patience with the technical constraints of the internet and ad serving technologies at our disposal. They simply want us to do a better job and will reward those of us that do.

Data Is Your Lifeblood

Years ago data was described as the oil of the internet; today it is the lifeblood of many, if not most, companies. As we move from multichannel to omnichannel marketing, it’s data that makes the shift possible, enabling brands to connect a consumer’s experience at one touch point with another, subsequent, interaction in their journey, helping the first feed and strengthening the second.

By understanding what they did (or didn’t) do at the first touch point, a brand can use this information about the consumer—who may still be anonymous—to make the second touch point more relevant. It is the scaled application of this theory that enables brands to test, learn, and improve. It is a constant quest for the most optimised experience for different consumer cohorts throughout the consumer journey, on and offline. That’s our role today.

Relationships between a brand and a consumer take many forms today as a result of the plethora of channels through which the two can connect. Strong relationships can be formed in which the brand never knows the real name of their loyal consumer and online advocate. They may only ever know their made-up username, but this does not make the relationship any less real. Some of the more traditional norms for relationships and communications etiquette need to be rethought or at least challenged to ensure we update and modify the tools and behaviours that worked for us over the past decade.

Maximising Reach And Effectiveness

What is certain is that great marketing plans continue to optimise reach and impact among the most relevant audience for the business objective in hand. Maximising reach and effectiveness (note these go together and should not be substituted one for the other) is how we maximise the impact of sales on company growth. What is uncertain, however, is what these marketing plans contain, as the marketing mix has exploded in opportunities compared to marketing even a decade ago.

Data today can feed the entire customer lifecycle, from helping build initial awareness through purchase to post-purchase behaviours including advocacy and repeat purchase. You may use data to plan and deliver a well-targeted display advertising campaign augmented through the use of lookalike audiences to build your funnel and employ data gathered from this activity to fuel your remarketing efforts further down the funnel. Data doesn’t have to be personally identifiable to be valuable, as Adobe’s report shows, as we witness every day both anonymous and authenticated data are highly valuable elements of the modern marketing mix.