Get the Most out of Integrated Databases

Author:

Dino Michetti

Source:

Marketers need to aggregate as much data as possible in all marketing media, and use that data in real time to personalize the experience across all channels. Using customer data integration tools, marketers can merge their online and offline data to get better insight into their customers. They will want to ensure that the data, which may be disparate because it's coming from a wide variety of sources, is clean, consistent and actionable.
 
By merging data resources such as demographics, customer activity including past purchase behavior, stated preferences such as channel preferences, preferred day and time of contact, and more, marketers not only have a full view of their customer, but they also can develop in-depth personas - or categories assigned to customers that share attributes. This opens the door to all kinds of opportunities including modeling and deep analytics.
 
With the technology currently available, it truly is a marketer's utopia. Real-time marketing tools and automation allow both data and the marketing messages they trigger to be managed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As customers engage in any channel, data can be pulled into a virtual data warehouse, and we can immediately apply advanced analytics, real-time standardization, and demographic overlays and create a complete, 360-degree view of the individual.
 
Once we have all of the data at our fingertips, the real fun begins. Marketing strategies can be developed and tested to enable us to communicate effectively with the right media mix to optimize customer cadence. These communications can feature targeted offers and personalized messages, all in real-time with highly measurable results.
The Takeaway: Today's technology allows for real-time marketing and better data automation
 
Marketers face a daunting task of integrating online and offline customer data to create a complete view of their customers. Despite the challenge, it is a necessary process in order to execute successful marketing initiatives. Each individual customer engages across multiple channels, and has expectations about the way a brand interacts back to them in each of these channels.