The BDEX Data Difference on bdex.com

The BDEX Data Difference
October 31, 2018| | in category analysis methods, Analytics, bdex, Big Data, business, buy data, Data Exchange Platform, digital marketing, Email Marketing, email retargeting, in-market data, Internet of Things, IT, location-based data, Mobile Marketing, Real Time Data, Third party Data, Web Design, Web Hosting, website re-targeting Comments Off on The BDEX Data Difference

5 things that set BDEX apart

Customer data drives so much of our commerce. The ability to collect and track information on buying habits, online search activity, and past purchases, as well as personal and demographic data such as location, age, gender, occupation, and marital status, means we know more about consumer activity – and consumers themselves – than ever before.

And while there are many data companies and various sources out there, BDEX’s platforms and services work in a different, better way. Here are four things that set us apart:

1.  Real-time targeting

BDEX offers market-driven information with consumer scoring, customer purchasing information, and real-time data based on recent Internet search activity and purchases for everything from airline tickets and cars to apparel and furniture. We also have to ability to collect data via Point-of-Service (POS) systems from brick-and-mortar stores, as well as geofencing technology, a location-based service that uses GPS, RFID (radio frequency identifiers), Wi-Fi, and cellular data to track stores that consumers have visited.

This information is gathered the moment a prospect starts shopping, allowing you to target individuals who are already in the market for your product or service. You can create personalized messages or even develop new offers that speak directly to customers’ needs. No matter your business or industry, we have data that can help you reach your target audience at the very moment they are looking.

2.  Accurate, specific, and processed data

One problem within our industry is the overuse of data. Many companies collect or buy the same data from the same sources, so information simply gets passed around. It often comes in a variety of files and formats that must be aggregated and categorized, which can lead to errors or significant manual work to find what you’re looking for. BDEX avoids this time-consuming, error-prone method by immediately sorting and identifying the data points that come into our exchange platform to ensure its accuracy and relevance to our clients.

Check out this BDEX blog to learn more about the overuse of 3rd-Party Data.

Read another insightful blog about getting better data with better sources.

3.  Data downloading, uploading, selling, and management made easy

Most data exchange companies that are interested in purchasing your data require you to organize and format this information in a certain way, within a custom set of distinct parameters. BDEX simplifies the process of you monetizing your valuable data with our Platform as a Service (PaaS). Our system eases managing and formatting your data, and can even transmit it to buyers according to their required specifications.

For more information about monetizing your data, see this previous BDEX blog.

In addition, our Data Download Module allows you to select and download the data you buy from BDEX straight from us – and only in the format in which you need it – rather than deal with an email file or a data set that is non-specific. You can reuse data that was saved from a previous campaign or simply use the latest leads for an entirely new effort. Files are available in CSV or XML formats, which are easy to open and use on almost any device.

4.  Cross-device matching

Our data gives you the ability to market to consumers via multiple devices and channels, including email, social media, direct mail, and mobile. We utilize information from more than 75 vetted partners and 400 million mobile-to-email ID connections – matching up different sources with the same consumers on different devices –  to help you find and target prospects across different platforms.

5.  The BDEX Data Exchange Platform

BDEX manages a complex data exchange that ingests real-time info from disparate sources and integrates them – and it has access to unique data from our partners who contribute to the platform. This means our clients get unique, highly-targeted, and actionable marketing information that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. The BDEX Data Exchange Platform features real-time data collected from over 700 million device ID connections and more than 900 billion data signals.

Call us at 917-410-6616 or send an email to info@bdex.com to start putting this information to work for your business.

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Find Your Ideal Customers with Our Taxonomy Explorer Tool on bdex.com

Find Your Ideal Customers with Our Taxonomy Explorer Tool
October 24, 2018| | in category analysis methods, bdex, Big Data, business, Data Exchange Platform, Data Industry News, digital marketing, Direct mail, Email Marketing, General, in-market data, Internet of Things, Real Time Data, Thick Data, Third party Data, Web Design, website re-targeting Comments Off on Find Your Ideal Customers with Our Taxonomy Explorer Tool

See how quickly you’ll be able to gain valuable insight

These days, it’s impossible to talk about marketing without mentioning data. We now live in a world where almost everybody has information somewhere online, and smart organizations know that most of it is readily accessible.

It used to be difficult for businesses to gather detailed data on their customers, but that’s no longer the case. In fact, one of the biggest issues now is the opposite: there’s just too much of it. You can easily collect pages and pages of demographics, past behaviors, and numbers, but then there’s the matter of wading through everything in order to find the stuff that’s relevant to your business. And when you do find what could be useful, it may be outdated, incomplete, or too vague.

The key to using data effectively is specificity.

It’s not enough anymore to get a general idea of the wants and needs of your customers; painting them with a broad brush won’t give you the results you are looking for. But knowing what individual people are interested in buying can immediately give you the most fruitful leads, and this is where our Taxonomy Explorer tool can be a huge asset.

How the Taxonomy Explorer tool works

At BDEX, we have more than 900 billion data points businesses can use. While that’s certainly a lot of data to sift through, our Taxonomy Explorer tool makes it simple to find detailed and pertinent information. This allows you to locate your ideal customers while saving time and money.

Unique users

The first thing to think about when utilizing the Taxonomy Explorer is what type of unique users you’re looking for. You can search for people through email, mobile devices, browser cookies, and postal addresses. You can choose one, all, or a combination.

Industry

The next step is selecting an industry. We have more than 300 industries to pick from, and you can also put in a search term to narrow down the results. For example, let’s say that your business involves something related to kitchens. Choosing Home/Kitchen from the list – with every user category selected – brings up a total dataset class of over 74,000.

Digging a little deeper

Okay, so now you’ve got 74,000+ possible people to target, so you’ll want to whittle this number down to find your ideal customers. Just keeping the Email box checked immediately cuts the list to about 17,000. If you’re interested in using direct mail for marketing purposes, you’ll see that around 10,000 of these consumers have postal addresses you’ll be able to get. For strictly mobile purposes – both AAID and IDFA – that number goes back up to just over 39,000.

See what your customers are up to in real-time

One of the biggest benefits of this targeting is that you can learn about individual search and buying habits as they are happening. For example, if certain individuals buy a cookbook online, you will know about it immediately. And, if you sell cookware, you can right away serve them an ad or send a promotion for your products. Real-time targeting will get you on someone’s radar exactly when they’re in the buying mood.

Find customers wherever they are

In addition, through cross-device matching, you can keep tabs on buyer behavior across all of their devices, including computers, tablets, and phones. This also includes other avenues, such as browser cookies, email address, and postal address. No matter what they’re doing or where they are, you will be able to find people who are most interested in what you’re selling.

Take our Taxonomy Explorer tool for a test drive

Whatever industry your business is in, our database is almost certainly full of people who would make great customers. Test it out here, and for more information, please contact us.

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The Importance of Cybersecurity for Your Company’s Data on bdex.com

The Importance of Cybersecurity for Your Company’s Data
October 17, 2018| | in category analysis methods, Analytics, bdex, Big Data, business, Data Exchange Platform, data marketplace, digital marketing, Email Marketing, First Party Data, Mobile Marketing, Thick Data, Web Design, Web Hosting Comments Off on The Importance of Cybersecurity for Your Company’s Data

Is your information – including your marketing data – safe from cyber-attacks?

In this digital era where data containing private information is stored in the cloud or on in-house servers, cybercrime has become one of the most pressing issues around the world. Brazen cyberattacks have become big news, from those targeting retail chains and highly-trafficked websites to the data breach at Equifax, one of the main credit rating agencies, which compromised nearly 150 million people.

It is clear that data firms and the organizations that use that data need to be vigilant and take greater steps to protect their information from hackers and cybercriminals.

The cornerstone of cybersecurity is PDR

The key to protecting data is PDR: Prevent, Detect, and Respond. Companies must establish protocols to detect and stop breaches from within and from outside sources. This should include software that can detect anomalies within the system and employee education about cybersecurity.

Using data analytics to protect your data

Data analytics can detect patterns. In the case of BDEX, it’s used to spot real-time consumer activity both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. BDEX data tells you that someone has been searching for a new car, purchased concert tickets, or bought baby food.

A similar technology can also be programmed to search for anomalies in device behavior to detect potential breaches. In other words, the same programs that search for buying patterns can be taught how to spot abnormal or suspicious network behavior. Systems can be programmed to detect threats from someone using an unknown signature. Analytics programs can also collect data from various sources and silos to “learn” how different kinds of attacks occur – so those attacks will be quickly recognized and shut down.

Employee activity monitoring and training

Though no one wants to think that an employee could be the source of a cyber attack, it is a very real possibility. In fact, the Harvard Business Review cited a 2016 Cyber Security Intelligence Index from IBM, which found that “60% of all attacks were carried out by insiders. Of these attacks, three-quarters involved malicious intent, and one-quarter involved inadvertent actors.”

Data analytics can be used to detect unusual activity on the part of employees, such as downloading large amounts of data or activity that takes place at unusual times. But as critical is training employees basic cybersecurity, such as not exchanging sensitive data over unsecured networks and how to avoid vishing and phishing attacks. Vishing is when hackers try to “human engineer” their way into getting credentials or other information through a phone call, while phishing attempts the same thing using fraudulent emails that spoof reputable senders.

Employees should only accept emails that:

  • Come from someone they know
  • They expected to receive
  • Look normal with no unusual email addresses, spellings, wording or suspicious content or links
  • Pass anti-malware tests

Employees must understand the risks of certain behaviors, such as clicking unknown links, downloading content or software from unknown or unverified sources, and visiting certain websites. Any of these behaviors can lead to computers becoming infected with a virus or malicious software that can corrupt or steal data.

There should also be proper training in document management and data management, as well as training on how to recognize and report computer problems that could be related to a virus, malware, or other threat.

Monitoring outside threats with intrusion detection

Many types of threats come from beyond the perimeter of your company’s network. Companies must have adequate perimeter protections to stop the intrusion, which typically involves a professional-grade firewall. Other security steps include using multi-factor authentication, which requires at least two distinct forms of identity to log in to a system, and the use of data encryption. Encryption is particularly valuable, as even if hackers successfully steal data, they simply can’t read or use it without the encryption key.

Cybersecurity is now crucial – and growing in importance

With cybercrime costing organizations and individuals as much as $600 billion in 2017 alone, security is more important than ever. It is essential that every company take action to prevent, detect and respond to cyber attacks. From data analytics designed to spot threats to adequate employee training, being vigilant now may safeguard your data – as well as your company’s reputation.

BDEX provides real-time data via over 700 million device ID connections and more than 900 billion data signals available through our proprietary Data Exchange Platform. Call us at 917-410-6616 or send an email to info@bdex.com to start putting this information to work for your next marketing campaign.

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Which Vehicles Will Drive the Success of Your Marketing Campaign on bdex.com

Which Vehicles Will Drive the Success of Your Marketing Campaign?
October 10, 2018| | in category analysis methods, bdex, Big Data, business, buy data, Data Exchange Platform, data management platform, data marketplace, Data Vendors, digital marketing, Direct mail, direct mail targeting, Email Marketing, email retargeting, in-market data, Mobile Marketing, new website, Real Time Data, sell data, Thick Data, Third party Data, Web Hosting, website re-targeting Comments Off on Which Vehicles Will Drive the Success of Your Marketing Campaign?

The pros and cons of marketing media

A successful marketing campaign depends on several elements. You need to create a marketing plan, determine your target market, and then decide the best way to reach those potential customers. Data from BDEX will give you great insight into who is most likely to be interested in your product or service. We collect real-time data based on actual customer behavior, from recent online activity, via store POS (point of service) systems, plus geofencing technology, which tracks when people have visited a physical store.

Choosing the right marketing media

Once you have your target market, you must choose marketing media that will give you the best results. Which ones you choose will depend on several factors, including your budget and the “personality” and preferences of your target market. The vehicles you choose to target millennial males will be very different than if you’re targeting women 65 and older. Targeted marketing media can include email, direct mail, social media advertising, mobile advertising, website ads, and telemarketing, among others.

Let’s take a look at various marketing mediums and discuss the best practices for each

Email marketing

Targeted emails deliver your message directly to existing or potential customers. Email campaigns are one of the most effective marketing vehicles, as the open rates for a well-targeted and executed campaign can be pretty high. According to Adobe.com, email open rates can be as high as 20-30 percent.

Here are more email marketing statistics from HubSpot.com:

  • Consumers who purchase products through email spend 138% more money
  • Sales emails have eight times more opens and clicks and can produce six times more ROI than other types of email
  • Email is the third-most-influential source of information for B2B audiences

One thing to note is that you need permission to send emails. Every country has different rules and some are much more strict than others. For instance, the European Union recently enacted GDPR, which set new rules on how personal information can be used. If you violate the terms, your company could face fines or worse. Canada and the US also have their own laws. Basically, you shouldn’t send marketing emails unless someone has opted in or subscribed, whether the person provides an email at a physical store or fills out an online form. The alternative is to work with an Email Service Provider or ESP that maintains an email opt-in list. In this case, they can send the emails for you to their opted-in users.

Online and social media campaigns

Online marketing campaigns can include digital ads on related websites or blogs frequented by your target market. Online marketing can also include served ads that appear based on the online activity of your potential customers, including purchases or Internet searches. Your campaign might also include paid advertising on a search engine like Google. Basically, you pay Google to advertise your content to customers based on keyword searches, which captures them at the very moment they are most likely to take action.

Another effective means of online marketing is advertising on social media sites. These sites allow you to target ads based on factors like location, gender, age, marital status, and hobbies/interests. You can reach a relatively large number of people without spending a lot of money. Which social media site you choose will depend greatly on your target audience. Teens and millennials tend to use Instagram over Facebook, for instance.

Direct mail marketing

Direct mail remains an effective marketing medium, especially with certain target segments. For instance, senior citizens might not be online as much or be as tech savvy with their phones, but they are more likely to read their mail. A big advantage of this medium is that you don’t need any sort of opt-in or permission to send a postcard. On the other hand, your piece can easily go straight in the trash. This medium is also more expensive as you must pay to have the piece produced, printed (by the thousands), and then mailed.

Phone marketing

Although telemarketing has gotten a bad rap, phone calls can still be an effective method of reaching your target audience. It can be even more effective when applied to B2B marketing. However, be aware that there are regulations you need to follow in order to avoid fines. You must get permission in order to call cell phones. You also want to make sure your data is as up to date as possible. Check for things like a change of phone number or address. If you are calling a business, ensure your contact is still with that company or if they have changed positions. Generally speaking, businesses do have the ability to call past or existing customers.

An effective marketing campaign is all about determining your target market and then deciding which marketing vehicles will best reach those people. Each vehicle has pros and cons, so you must decide which will be the most cost-effective and give you a better ROI.

BDEX can help you create an effective marketing campaign by providing real-time data via over 700 million device ID connections and more than 900 billion data signals available through our proprietary Data Exchange Platform. Call us at 917-410-6616 or send an email to info@bdex.com to start putting this information to work for your business.

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