The marketer’s arsenal has never been broader or more diverse. Which creates a challenge to know how to manage data collection, attribute results, allocate spend, and align various channels and platforms to ensure the customer gets a seamless experience.
The responses to the Experian Digital Marketer Report -- from 198 marketers across EMEA- make for an interesting read. According to Colin Grieves, managing director at Experian, the most important goal for marketers today is to create more relevant messages to the people that matter most in a more consistent way. And the way to achieve this? Access to the right data.
“The right data is data that allows you to make the best decisions for your customers and your business. It’s not about seeking to collect every piece of data under the sun – which won't lead to a positive consumer experience, not to mention being a waste of time and money,” he explains.
The big data challenge
GDPR was arguably one of the biggest regulation enforcements in recent marketing history, and it seems to have also been one of the biggest challenges for marketers to tackle.
This comes as no surprise considering before GDPR came into effect, only 47% businesses felt they were ready for the regulatory changes, despite the report revealing that the top three challenges marketers were up against were all linked to effective use of data:
Accurately measuring and attributing the results of our campaigns
Coordinating campaigns across channels
Integrating separate technologies and platforms
“It’s imperative for any entity that manages customer data, to make sure it’s as accurate as it can be, that it’s kept and stored appropriately and used within the appropriate timeframe. These factors should have always been the case, but recent regulations have brought these needs to the forefront.”
Clearly a marketer’s ability to understand their customer and then be able to engage consistently with them, regardless of channel or device, continues to be at the forefront of most marketers’ minds. Apparent in the number of businesses that have in recent months brought on chief data officers to own responsibility for the data sitting within a business, help break down silos and get rid of the lack of understanding about where data might be held – and how it can be best put to work.
And it seems to be working - 13% of marketers said silos in their organisations are a challenge compared to last year, where 25% selected it as a major challenge.
Getting personal
Almost half of respondents said inaccurate data was one of the biggest challenges to achieving better relevancy or personalisation in their marketing efforts.
“We talk a lot about personalisation,” says Grieves. “But we can be over-literal in the use of the word. A better word is relevancy. How can we deliver a more relevant experience for customers, to make their journey more effective and drive more engagement for the brand?”
According to Grieves, relevancy can be thought of in two ways. The offer itself - making sure the brand shows something that is likely to be of interest to a consumer. And by being consistent across all channels – showing the same overarching brand message regardless of what platform the consumer is active on. “People want to see relevant advertising, and data makes that possible.”
Customers expect good service and a brand that understands them, one that tailors experiences to suit their individual needs.
“One area we have seen clients talking to us more about is single customer view – which is definitely not a new concept. The need for a brand to have an appropriate view of its customers, so it can manage its data and communications more effectively. Having a single customer view today is about achieving insight across multiple touchpoints and platforms, to achieve an aggregated, consistent and holistic representation of the customer.”
Of those respondents in the report who do not have a single customer view, 65% chose lack of inhouse expertise as a top challenge. Other major challenges included poor data quality (45%) and lack of customer data (45%).
Humanising the data
“I've always been of the view that data should be part of the thinking when it comes to creative, but it should never replace the creative,” says Grieves. “It doesn’t replace the human skill, instinct and craft to create something appealing.”
However, according to Grieves, creativity should always be informed by data. “It might be stating the obvious but if there are clear demographics that are going to be interested in a product or service, then why not use data to get an understanding of what will be interesting and compelling to that audience?
It's not about putting everything into AI to see an ad pop out the other end. No one is advocating that. But data has a role in informing how good creative can be crafted, and certainly, how it can be executed. It all should link together.”
If you would like to find out more about the 2018 Digital Marketer Report and see how marketers are approaching GDPR, personalisation, attribution, measurement and more, please contact sarai.sinai@experian.com .