Is Your Business Ready for Identity-Based Marketing? on bdex.com

Is Your Business Ready for Identity-Based Marketing?
July 31, 2019| | in category analysis methods, Analytics, bdex, Big Data, buy data, custom segment building, daas, Data Exchange Platform, data management platform, data marketplace, Data Vendors, digital marketing, Direct mail, in-market data, Internet of Things, Launch Advertising, Mobile Marketing, sell data, Thick Data, Web Design, Web Hosting, website re-targeting Comments Off on Is Your Business Ready for Identity-Based Marketing?

Identity marketing promises more-effective and more-efficient efforts to engage your best customers. Is your company prepared to make the most of it?

Most businesses nowadays have a grasp of the basics of who their best customers are. But how much do they really know about what motivates them? The better they know their best customers, the more likely they are to be able to reach them with relevant experiences that will deepen the relationship.

“Personalization is more important today than ever before. The proliferation of devices and channels, such as mobile and social, has fundamentally changed the way that customers interact with companies and brands. This has led to what Forrester calls the mobile mind shift: the expectation that you can get exactly what you want in your immediate context and at your immediate moment of need.”
“The Power of Personalization” Forrester Consulting for PwC, December 2015

Meeting these expectations requires the integration of data sources to form a tangible collection of information that accurately identifies the behavior of a single prospect, which then allows real personalization of sales approaches to them and makes the interaction as meaningful as possible.

Do you think you’re ready to get started on the path to real human connectivity? Here are some of the items to think about before you embark on this worthy undertaking.

Is the customer experience you hope to provide the one they perceive?

In business, we all like to think that the things we strive to be known for are, in actuality, what customers take away from each interaction with us. That thought could be spot-on, or it might be way off. It’s important for companies to know where they stand with their customers and how successful they are in actually delivering their desired customer experience. It will allow them to proceed with confidence or alter their methods to be able to achieve the experience they’re after.

Does your company continuously develop and expand its knowledge of its audience?

This level of curiosity is crucial for a successful identity-marketing campaign. Companies have to know their customers to the point that they can recognize individuals across different platforms. That way, they can identify buying patterns and get a sense of how they buy and what their lifestyle is really like. What makes customers interested in what the business has to offer and keeps them loyal in the long run? BDEX can help reveal those answers.

Does your company wish it had even deeper insights?

Identity resolution provides the opportunity to examine customer data in context and get a real sense of customers’ relevant behaviors in the course of their daily lives. BDEX delivers access to this more in-depth understanding and helps companies realize how they can serve customer needs, and how to strengthen and solidify the ongoing relationships they have with them.

Is your company a stickler for contact management?

Companies often keep an extensive customer database, chock full of contact details and transaction data. They also often know they’re not putting that data to work in the most effective way possible. Despite this wealth of data, they have only the most superficial knowledge of what makes their customers tick, never mind what makes them buy, and even less about what makes them loyal.

In the end, the realization of these blind spots, despite the wealth of data they have in their possession, is the biggest sign that their organization is ready to embrace identity marketing.

It sounds like you’re ready for us

Sometimes you have to learn what you don’t know before you can kick-start your business’s growth curve. Partner with BDEX and see what the landscape looks like when you’ve filled the gaps in your knowledge, and things start moving forward and upward.

BDEX endows your marketing with the power and insight that comes from human connectivity. Call 917-410-6616 or contact us to learn how marketing solutions from BDEX can help you with your present and future marketing data needs.

Learn More
Marketing: In Our World of Data, Be the Human Touch on bdex.com

Marketing: In Our World of Data, Be the Human Touch
July 10, 2019| | in category analysis methods, Analytics, bdex, Big Data, business, buy data, Data Exchange Platform, Data Industry News, data management platform, data marketplace, Data Vendors, digital marketing, direct mail targeting, Email Marketing, email retargeting, First Party Data, in-market data, Internet of Things, location-based data, Mobile Marketing, Real Time Data, sell data, Thick Data, Third party Data, Web Design, Web Hosting, website re-targeting Comments Off on Marketing: In Our World of Data, Be the Human Touch

The future is in people-based marketing, which targets individuals no matter the device they’re using

The modern consumer doesn’t just connect with brands via their smartphone or desktop computer. GlobalWebIndex says a typical digital consumer owns 3.23 devices, and MarTech Advisor says by 2030, there will be 15 connected devices for every consumer.

What does this mean for marketers? That it’s more important than ever to target the individual, across the devices that he or she may be used in a given time period. Human connectivity is crucial.

But that human touch is missing from many marketers’ strategies. Here’s why people-based marketing is the future and how you can create that necessary human connection in your efforts.

People are the future of marketing

Because the modern consumer uses a variety of devices, this means they may see an ad on their smartphone, then view a website on their laptop, then actually make a purchase on a tablet. This is multi-channel shopping, which has created a challenge for marketers who are trying to track consumer behavior.

Cookie-based marketing isn’t always effective in this kind of environment since this approach doesn’t “differentiate situations,” as Instapage puts it. With traditional marketing approaches, actionable customer information could be lost if the user isn’t tracked effectively, making each of those valuable connections to your website or products seem unrelated – and leaving you with an underwhelming marketing strategy.

Multi-channel marketing for multi-channel customers

Instead, marketers need to gather customer data from a variety of sources, both offline and online, to create a comprehensive profile that’s sufficiently accurate to better reach customers across devices. Users need to be tracked across multiple channels, which is why people-based marketing is also called cross-channel marketing or multi-channel marketing. It just makes sense—a multi-channel shopper will be the most effectively reached by a multi-channel marketing approach.

The idea is that if a consumer is watching television while engaging with social media on a smartphone, these experiences are able to be linked, producing real-time data that can help companies market to the consumer based on their actual current behavior. This is important, as Consumer Technology Association reported that the majority of millennials (88 percent) engage with a second screen while watching video content.

Cross-device identification is thus a must if marketers want to engage with first-party data, such as social media logins, instead of just third-party data such as cookies, as Inc.com points out.

An effective strategy would be to show consumers personalized ads and experiences across their devices based on their past viewing history and interests, using real ID information. And ID personalization is key – an ad by itself across devices won’t mean anything to a consumer unless it’s actually related to what they’ve shown an interest in.

Stats show people-based marketing works

Over the past couple of years, people-based marketing has proven extremely effective for marketers. Recent data shows that 83 percent of media buyers say this marketing strategy is more effective than traditional campaigns. This is why almost all media buyers (90 percent) have increased their people-based ad purchases over the last year.

According to an Accenture report, 91 percent of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that provide relevant offers to them. Other recent research shows that consumers are much more likely to buy from brands that offer personalized experiences for them.

To stay competitive, it’s important to start implementing a cross-channel marketing strategy. With all the different ways people are marketed to these days, the modern consumer cares about that human touch.

The BDEX difference: empowering human connectivity

BDEX solutions allow you to implement a people-based marketing strategy that connects you to individuals. Using our cross-device matching service, you can reach the same consumer across multiple channels, whether mobile, direct mail, social media, or other means. We bring you over 800 million mobile-to-email ID connections, making our solution the most comprehensive option out there.

Our real-time targeting tools allow you to get real-time data about individuals so you can implement up-to-the-minute marketing to better reach customers who are ready to buy.

No matter the type of enterprise you run, the BDEX Data Exchange Platform (DXP) allows you to pull together the data you need about individuals. All you have to do is figure out the type of user you’d like to reach, whether via mobile, email or direct mail, and you can select from nearly 500 different industries. We make it easy to reach your ideal audience and empower you to make real human connections.

To learn more about the DXP and our cross-device matching service, get in touch with the team at BDEX.

Learn More
Marketing: How Data Drives Human Connectivity on bdex.com

Marketing: How Data Drives Human Connectivity
May 22, 2019| | in category analysis methods, Analytics, bdex, Big Data, business, buy data, Data Exchange Platform, Data Industry News, data management platform, data marketplace, digital marketing, Email Marketing, email retargeting, First Party Data, in-market data, Internet of Things, IT, location-based data, Mobile Marketing, Real Time Data, sell data, Thick Data, Third party Data, Web Design, Web Hosting, website re-targeting Comments Off on Marketing: How Data Drives Human Connectivity

Big brands are using data to build better connections with their customers. Learn why user data is now a crucial part of any brand’s marketing strategy, and how the BDEX DXP drives human connectivity

Many major brands out there are using data analytics to gain valuable insights from what people are buying, their interactions with products, and other shopping behaviors. These data points then inform how they structure their marketing tactics, and the customer remains the most important part of their strategy.

But these companies often have just one way of connecting to customers, whether with email newsletters or through their website. These brands may know that data collection is important, but they don’t know how to use it to the best of their advantage. Savvy operators are finding ways to match user IDs across channels instead of just interacting one way.

Here are examples of how brands are using data in their marketing strategies to develop crucial new opportunities for connection.

Pinpointing what drives customers’ behaviors

Data analytics can now provide invaluable insight into not just what users do, but what they want. A great example of this in action is the company Stitch Fix. This online clothing retailer sends personalized boxes to customers with different clothing and fashion items, and customers can pick and choose what they keep from the selection.

Stitch Fix has implemented advanced data technology that allows them to see what the customer has been shopping for, what they actually end up buying, and what they don’t keep from the preselected bundle. The company’s technology is also able to show them why the customer chose not to keep certain items.

Homing in on user preferences

Many big brands, such as Netflix and Coca-Cola, gather as much data as they can from the customer by asking them questions along their product path. Netflix sends suggestions to users for movies and television shows based on what they’ve watched in the past. Netflix can then see what their users choose to watch and what their preferences are, and use that information to inform their strategy. This helps brands create successfully targeted ads.

Location-based targeting

Another benefit of using data in marketing strategy is the ability to adapt products to a specific demographic, living in a specific location across the globe.

For example, Adidas released running shoes that are specifically made for runners living in big cities. They used data such as weather patterns and terrain to design shoes that inhabitants would be drawn to.

Survey data

Another effective way to gather and use customer data is through survey research. This approach can reveal something as simple as a flavor preference across a population.

Mars and Alibaba paired up to evaluate consumer research using a survey, in tandem with Alibaba’s user data, which ended up showing that their consumers wanted more spicy flavors. They created a fiery version of the Snickers bar to meet this growing preference.

Integrating humorous trends

Two big brands used data to discover that their users are quirky, so they cranked up the humor in their marketing campaigns. OkCupid found when mining through user data that 888,000 usernames contained the word “cat,” outnumbering the dog lovers. The online dating company used the data in an entertaining blog post to explain why they ended the use of usernames in their app.

Spotify found that many of their listeners create weird playlist names and exhibit odd music preferences, so they build campaigns to play on that tendency. One of their ad campaigns, for instance, honored “the 3,445 people who streamed the ‘Boozy Brunch’ playlist on a Wednesday this year.”

These are great examples of how brands are using data to truly connect with their customers. Using humor can be a fun and effective strategy to connect with people of any generation.

How BDEX can help

At BDEX, our data helps power human connectivity. The BDEX Data Exchange Platform (DXP) can use customer IDs to create a multichannel strategy for companies to better reach their audience, whether through social platforms, email, mobile or postal – not just through a single venue.

The BDEX DXP is simple to use: You just decide if you want to reach mobile, email, and/or other user types, and you choose from nearly 500 different industries and over 5,500 different categories. We have over 900 billion data signals from consumers in the U.S., and those customer IDs can be linked across platforms with our 800 million connections between email, mobile, and cookie IDs.

Our platform helps brands connect with their ideal audience, making real-time targeting that much more efficient. Keep putting the customer first and fostering those valuable human connections with BDEX DXP.

To learn more about our data, get in touch with our team.

Learn More
Restaurant Marketing: How to Use Real-Time Data to Increase Loyalty on bdex.com

Restaurant Marketing: How to Use Real-Time Data to Increase Loyalty
May 15, 2019| | in category Analytics, bdex, Big Data, business, daas, Data Exchange Platform, Data Industry News, data management platform, data marketplace, Direct mail, Internet of Things, Launch Advertising, linear analysis, Real Time Data, Thick Data, Third party Data Comments Off on Restaurant Marketing: How to Use Real-Time Data to Increase Loyalty

Readily available data can help restaurants connect with their customers and strengthen those relationships online – which can be key to remaining competitive

The competitive landscape for restaurants is as intense as ever. No eatery – whether chain or “mom and pop” – can afford to ignore the wealth of data that can help them create and maintain ongoing customer relationships.

At BDEX, we consider this a principle: The more competitive an industry is, the more those in it will need real-time data to enrich those customer relationships. And when we think of competitive business segments, few can beat the restaurant game, with its endless number and variety of competitors.

The winners in any marketplace are the ones who dynamically identify customer wants and needs and fulfill those desires elegantly. But whether it’s an established local chain or the new upscale brasserie in town, how can a restaurant hope to contend with big brands – on both the low and high end – that can dedicate considerable sums to their data-gathering efforts?

First, size isn’t everything

A local restaurant or small chain – where the owners are often on premises and the staff is encouraged to bond with and get to know the patrons – is better able to form real person-to-person relationships with them. This gives them a significant advantage over the large national chains when it comes to creating customer loyalty.

Smaller operations are also closer to the ground. The person using the data is far less removed from the customer than the people running that competing chain from a distant corporate office. This gives small restaurants or groups a massive advantage because when they get their hands on the data, they can understand how it applies to the real world and gain actionable insights from it.

That puts them way ahead of most companies. Case in point: A study from Forrester and DataStax found that 95 percent of companies can’t make sense of customer data and struggle to get much meaningful insight from it.

Fostering “Human Connectivity”

It’s probably a good bet that any successful restaurateur is a good host, adept at making people feel welcome and connecting with them. An effective customer marketing plan supercharges that ability by enabling them to connect beyond their doors and invite customers to come back for new dining experiences.

That begins with the customer list, which operators can cull from point-of-sale data. Transaction data can give restaurants a picture of those patrons, revealing how often they dine at the restaurant, how much they spend, what time of the day they prefer, whether they tend to order from the wine list and those who have visited just once.

By matching that list to customers’ online accounts, restaurants can:

  • Connect with them online, through such avenues as social media, email, and newsletters, as well as offline.
  • Tailor marketing messages to the customer’s profile to entice them to come in more often.
  • Keep the lines of communication open between visits, and even create an opt-in email list that will keep the eatery’s biggest fans in the know on its latest offerings, promotions, and general news.
  • Through geofencing, restaurants can use location data to know when customers, or even prospective diners, are nearby and then make efforts to get them to visit.

The most successful restaurant operations will use data to cultivate repeat customers and keep them loyal – which is one of the first things investors look for. Being able to connect with your diners often means they’ll visit more often, spend more and refer their friends and colleagues. That means, of course, more customers. And in such a competitive industry, that can translate to not only surviving but thriving.

BDEX is committed to building the data infrastructure restaurants need to power human connectivity. Call 917-410-6616 or use our website contact form to learn how marketing solutions from BDEX can help you reach out to your best customers and keep them in the fold.

Learn More
Why GDPR Won’t Stop Programmatic Advertising on bdex.com

Why GDPR Won’t Stop Programmatic Advertising
May 8, 2019| | in category analysis methods, Analytics, Big Data, business, buy data, custom segment building, daas, Data Exchange Platform, Data Industry News, data management platform, data marketplace, digital marketing, direct mail targeting, Email Marketing, First Party Data, General, in-market data, Internet of Things, location-based data, Mobile Marketing, sell data, Thick Data, Third party Data, Web Design, Web Hosting, website re-targeting Comments Off on Why GDPR Won’t Stop Programmatic Advertising

Learn the impacts of GDPR on marketing technology, and why programmatic advertising is stronger than ever

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect on May 25, 2018, and since then organizations around the world have been updating privacy policies, and consumers have become even more concerned about online transparency and confidentiality.

The privacy changes have proven to be especially relevant to marketers and advertisers, industries that already had to manage a delicate balance between consumer data and privacy compliance.

What follows is a look at how GDPR is affecting marketing technology (MarTech) and why brands are actually continuing to increase programmatic advertising, despite rumors that it was on the way out.

Impacts of GDPR on MarTech

The implementation of GDPR got many in the marketing industry talking about how it may be the end of programmatic advertising. With the stricter privacy laws, many thought programmatic would be too complex to monitor and too prone to violating the new regulations.

Because GDPR requires the consent of consumers if their personal data is involved in an interaction, it was said that it would be too complicated for marketers to have an “entirely opted-in subscriber base,” as Global Web Index put it, making it impossible to continue targeted digital advertising.

Most respondents (79 percent) in a report conducted by London Research and Truth said they were worried about levels of transparency in programmatic advertising. The research surveyed over 100 executives at well-known brands and senior marketers and only 14 percent of respondents said they had a good understanding of the portion of their budget that actually gets to the consumer. One of the biggest industry concerns was a lack of visibility into third parties.

However, programmatic advertising isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, it’s been increasing since GDPR was implemented last year. The use of third-party data on social media platforms, after a decrease following the implementation of GDPR, started rising again in October 2018. Data from Adaptly shows that 15 percent of Facebook media is purchased with third-party data and that data usage has increased almost three times since the initial decrease.

eMarketer predicts that by 2020, U.S. advertisers will see $69 billion in digital display ad spending programmatically, which will make up 86.3 percent of the entire digital display spending.

Why brands are continuing with programmatic advertising

Programmatic advertising is still going strong because it’s such an effective method. Using data like demographics, geography, personal interests, behaviors, and even weather conditions, programmatic advertising platforms can use this real-time data to identify the right audiences and cater ads to devices specific to that audience.

The accurate, real-time data that programmatic advertising takes advantage of has been the foundation to the method’s success. These ads are personalized to each consumer’s unique interests, behaviors, location, and demographics. Put simply, programmatic advertising allows marketers to put a message in front of a person based on what they’re doing at that exact moment.

In the aforementioned London Research survey, 61 percent of respondents said the greatest benefit of programmatic is the ability to target and optimize effectively. Programmatic enhance personalization and improves the overall brand experience for the consumer while increasing marketing ROI.

So how can these benefits be taken advantage of while following GDPR?

First, marketers must address that consent concern. Make it a priority to receive consent from consumers in everything on your website, including cookies, newsletters, or other subscriptions. Adaptly research shows that 3 in 4 consumers in the UK welcome the changes that GDPR brings, so they’re going to be grateful for your transparency and often willing to give their consent.

Updated privacy regulations also mean quality standards are rising. It’s thus more important than ever to put more energy into creating high-quality ads that are competitive and relevant. It’s a great time for marketers to revisit their entire ad strategy along with updating privacy concerns.

And remember that it’s impossible to produce quality ads without quality data. The BDEX Data Exchange Platform (BDEX DXP) has 900 million searchable data points on tens of millions of U.S. consumers. These data points span 19 categories of shoppers and 5,000 additional categories, such as science, sports, and health, to help marketers home in on the audience they need for effective real-time marketing.

Take advantage of programmatic advertising that’s backed by quality, accurate real-time data. Learn more about how BDEX can help you get the data you need to push your real-time targeting strategy forward. Contact us today to learn more about our advanced data platform.

Learn More
The Martech Training Boom on bdex.com

The Martech Training Boom
April 10, 2019| | in category analysis methods, Analytics, bdex, Big Data, business, buy data, custom segment building, Data Exchange Platform, Data Industry News, data management platform, digital marketing, Direct mail, email retargeting, First Party Data, in-market data, Internet of Things, Launch Advertising, location-based data, Mobile Marketing, Real Time Data, sell data, Thick Data, Third party Data, Web Design, Web Hosting Comments Off on The Martech Training Boom

The Martech arms race is creating tremendous demand for trained and certified digital marketing professionals. Trade organizations, for-profit companies, colleges, and universities are responding with a growing array of online and in-person options.

One of the primary challenges facing CMOs today is developing in-house digital marketing expertise needed to harness the power of in-house and third-party data.

Many companies are working to bring core data marketing technologies as well as digital marketing and advertising functions in-house. The effort will require not only spending billions of dollars on IT infrastructure but training or recruiting thousands of employees needed to build, maintain and run highly complex and often AI-enabled systems.

Marketers need new skills

A traditional marketing or advertising education consists of a bachelor’s degree in advertising, marketing, or journalism, with classes on consumer behavior, market research, sales, and the like. As marketing has become increasingly data-driven, marketers must continually build upon that foundation by becoming fluent in a wide and rapidly changing array of technologies and platforms.

Today’s marketing ecosystem is complex and poised to get more so as data continues to grow exponentially. In 2019, digital voice assistants and smart TVs will swell the amount of real-time data signals available to marketers. As the torrent of consumer data grows, companies need employees who can decide which data matter and how to integrate it into an increasingly complex data marketing infrastructure and strategy.

To stay competitive, CMOs are increasingly turning towards training and certification programs. Below we highlight just a few being offered by reputable trade organizations, companies, and academic institutions.

MarTech® Conference Workshops

MarTech® offers a variety of workshops at its conferences designed to provide marketers a deep dive into such topics as agile marketing, customer data platforms, buying marketing technology, creating connected experiences, or building a marketing team with talent optimization. Workshops offered at MarTech’s recently concluded conference in San Jose, California included “The Right Way to Buy Marketing Technology,” “Using CDP to Make the Most of Your Customer Data,” and “Agile Marketing Advantage.” The company’s next conference, MarTech® East, is scheduled to take place in Boston in September 2019.

IAB training certifications

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) offers certifications in Digital Media Sales, Digital Media Buying and Planning and Digital Ad Operations.

More than 9,500 participants representing more than 300 publishers, agencies, and ad technology vendors have enrolled in IAB’s certification programs since they were established in 2012. Many of the nation’s leading media companies—including AOL, Bloomberg, CBS Interactive, Collective, Condé Nast, Discovery Communications, NBCUniversal, Time Inc., Time Warner Cable Media, and Tremor Video—have pledged to have all eligible digital sellers across their organizations become IAB-certified.

The Digital Media Sales and Digital Ad Operations programs earned the American National Standard Institute’s (ANSI) first accreditation in digital advertising in 2015. The ANSI accreditation process, based on international benchmarks, increases the integrity, confidence, and mobility of certified professionals, and represents the highest standard in personnel certification.

Shoptalk

Shoptalk launched two education initiatives at its 2019 conference, which drew 8,400 people to Las Vegas from March 3-6. The first is a standardized set of sessions referred to as Shoptalk’s Core Curriculum, which covers many of the fundamentals of retail and will be repeated annually with updated perspectives and examples.

Shoptalk also launched an Annual Retail Education Certificate which is awarded to those individuals who complete 10 credits of continuing education at Shoptalk conferences. This certificate helps recipients distinguish themselves at a time when there is a significant divide in retail industry professionals’ knowledge of digital innovation.

Collegiate degree and certificate programs

A growing number of academic institutions are offering certification programs, ranging from community colleges to elite business schools such as Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern.

Duke University has partnered with Simplilearn, an online training provider, to deliver a curriculum that provides students with advanced knowledge of the eight most important digital marketing domains and includes real-world projects and virtual simulations for practical experience. The program offers hands-on simulation labs and projects for practical learning with 350 combined instruction/study hours. Completion of the program meets the course criteria to sit for the Online Marketing Certified Professional certification exam.

As one of the world’s first data exchange platforms, BDEX is dedicated to building the infrastructure to power human connectivity. Contact us today to learn how we marketers access the best third-party data inexpensively, quickly and easily.

Learn More
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories