In the data-driven world, marketers are constantly looking to use information to better interact with consumers. As we have discussed, sometimes analysis can be difficult given the quality and accessibility of information. By improving these points, marketers can go a long way in better utilizing their first party data internally to target communications.
However, recently, there has been an explosion of not just the use of internal information, but also third party data to provide additional insight. Many marketers are leveraging some type of third party data in the business to business and business to consumer space.
According to the recent Experian Marketing Services 2014 Digital Marketer Report, 94 percent of organizations append enrichment data to their contact information. Most companies globally look to append business data, geolocation data, demographic data and enhanced address data. In the U.S., preference data is especially popular as a route to marketing success.
These data sets allow organizations to better understand business and household details, ultimately leading to more targeted messages that are better suited to the specific interaction.
Traditionally, marketers added these details in a bulk fashion to enhance records. The information is used to better understand a company’s customer base or segment data for future campaigns. When planning a strategic, long-term effort, this method of appending helps marketers better understand who their customers are and how they can better serve them.
However, while that process is still extremely valuable today, many marketers have to move at a much faster pace. While marketers are still utilizing bulk append methods, many are looking to take it one step further and gain information faster in the digital landscape.
Analytics experts can take the core customer base profiles and can create “lookalike” models for similar consumer engagement. Customer information combined with appended real-time third party data can be put into the model to determine the appropriate message. These models allow marketers to better provide relevant content to the customer, while they are still engaged.
This real-time data enhancement is utilized when marketers want to communicate in a personalized fashion quickly, which is a desire across most digital channels. Examples of these time-sensitive communications include personalized thank you emails or welcome emails for a loyalty program. Other examples include customized website pages or call center scripts to provide more intelligent offers to engaged customers.
This, paired with leveraging the first party information, is a valuable took in a marketer’s toolkit. While there are many data options available, marketers need to look to customize these models to fit their individual customer base and business model.
Leveraging data in a real-time fashion allows marketers to better communicate and connect with consumers. For more on pinpointing your best customers, download The 2014 Digital Marketer Report.