What Do Marketers Really Want in Data and Technology?

What Do Marketers Really Want in Data and Technology?

Marketers get data – or at least they get the importance of data. Data answers questions such as:

• Can you help me understand my customers?
• Which customers are my best customers and why?
• How can I find profitable new customers?
• How can I sell more to existing customers?
• How can I retain my existing share of each customer?
• How can I increase the velocity of my sales?
• How can I integrate my marketing through all available channels?
• How can I maximize the impact of my marketing budget?

However, data is just data unless you have the marketing technology to “make the data talk.” Marketers are increasingly in charge of marketing technology spend to drive better data outcomes. In fact, technology has become the core of marketing. According to research by IBM, marketing executives are adopting technology in the following areas:

• 88% Customer Relations
• 83% Digital Marketing
• 68% Customer Analytics
• 49% Mobile Advertising

So when asking marketers what they really want when it comes to marketing data and technology, the first answer you’ll most likely hear is “a successful end-to-end strategy that combines both data and technology with analytics to prove a tangible contribution to the bottom line!”

There is a myriad of companies that offer “just data” or “just technology” and there are a slew of companies that specialize in analytics, but the winning formula lies in a solution that combines the best of both worlds into one integrated, solutions-oriented marketing approach. And even better? A solution that also adds real-time, fast-moving Big Data sets to the mix.

Integrated Marketing through Data-as-a-Service

You may have heard of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS). Companies are touting DaaS as the next big thing and as a solution that gives marketers an “unfair competitive advantage.” By linking data with technology, DaaS is completely changing the game through a new model of fast-moving and real-time data acquisition.

As the name implies, Data-as-a-Service begins with the data. Specifically, a company’s internal data, third party data, real-time fast data, and unique and hard-to-find data (HTFD) sourced from the Big Data ecosystem. With technology this data is structured to create insight into their best customers and ideal prospects. Real-time knowledge is also used to learn about who is actively in market for products and services, who is searching for competitors, or who is posting to social media for product recommendations.

The key advantage of DaaS is that marketers now have access to more than just a database of standard data sources, but rather a database that is structured to deliver competitive advantage on a daily basis. Essentially, DaaS delivers real-time insights that put you ahead in the game and the analytics to prove it.

Real-Life Examples of DaaS in Action

While this is exciting stuff in theory, take a look at some real examples of DaaS in action.

Automotive Company:

A large automobile company was struggling to identify more qualified prospects and to ramp up lead volume. Using proprietary data sets that were not publically available, their customer database was augmented with some truly unique data sets and they expanded their universe of qualified prospects who were either actively in market for new vehicles or who were giving off purchase indicator signals:

A variety of customized data sets were also sourced, such as life event triggers:

Furniture Retailer:

A regional, multi-location furniture retailer was seeking new ways to target consumers (before their nearby competition did so) and they also were seeking ways to target the new generation of millennial shoppers. They first integrated their customer data into a single repository for analysis. Once their database was up and running, they augmented their data with some specialized data sources:

• Data enhancement with consumer data to identify new prospects
• Onboarded data to create a digitally addressable dataset for real-time messaging
  • Link offline data to online IDs.
• Segmented millennial consumers by proximity to your store location, income, home-owner or renter and more.
• Pre-Mover and New-Mover Data using web mining to identify pre-movers and new movers who may soon be in-market for furniture.
  • Real-time data on new rentals, houses sold, geography, income level and more.
• Social media furniture purchase signaling data, such as “excited about the move”, or “looking for a leather couch.”

Once new prospects were identified, they were mapped near the retailer’s store locations for highly targeted offers.

While these are just two examples of the many ways DaaS brings competitive advantage through data and technology, the possibilities are truly endless for today’s CMOs. So again, when asking the question “What do marketers truly want in data and technology?”, DaaS pretty much covers all the bases… and with some extra ROI to boot.

To learn more about how Data-as-a-Service is completely changing the game for marketers today, watch this free webinar recording sponsored through the Direct Marekting Association (the DMA).