Why Personalized Mobile Marketing Isn’t Possible Without Big Data

As marketers look towards 2016, building an improved mobile strategy will be a key priority for many teams. Mobile technology writer Emma Sarran Webster predicts rising consumer adoption of wearable technologies and mobile videos will lead to new delivery methods over the next twelve months. As teams navigate the new landscape of mobile advertising, the biggest pain points of 2015 are also likely to persist throughout 2016. According to VentureBeat, contemporary teams are most likely to struggle with:

  • A hypercompetitive market due to sky-high mobile adoption rates
  • App and platform abandonment on mobile devices
  • Creating seamless, disruption-free mobile experiences

Creating engaging, high-return mobile marketing experiences requires accurate personalization. Currently, only 13% of marketing teams are delivering segmented mobile experiences, compared to 43% of desktop campaigns.

As more brands adopt mobile marketing, data-driven personalization is necessary for results in an increasingly competitive landscape. Offering effective product recommendations, results for on-site search, and other customization requires knowledge of your customer segments across platforms. Without big data insights, sufficient mobile marketing personalization is impossible.

Capture the Big Picture of Your Customer’s Behavior

Few modern consumers rely solely on a smartphone or tablet to use social media, perform searches, and make purchases. If your customers are anything like the average consumer, they use a mix of desktop and mobile devices, depending on the situation, task, convenience and device proximity. According to Direct Marketing news, the best mobile marketers capture big data trails from each of these platforms to generate truly-comprehensive, multi-channel understanding of their clients.

Most sophisticated marketing teams already have a centralized database of customer insights from transactional, social, and web analytic sources, which is typically housed in a data management platform (DMP). However, if your attempts at segmentation or personalization have been met with mediocre results, it’s not due to your competitors or the quality of your tools. Most likely, the culprit is your insights.

Mobile technology has opened up a wealth of new insights to marketers who are savvy enough to acquire the right third-party data. Studies reveal that 91% of adult smartphone users keep their devices within arm’s reach at all times. Location-enabled smartphones generate a continual stream of geo-targeted insights that marketers can use to pinpoint consumer habits with precision. If your mobile targeting is based on exclusively first-party insights or dated third-party offerings, your personalization efforts will be inaccurate.

Real-Time Data Exchange for Mobile Personalization

In a case study of travel retailer Orbitz, the brand successfully introduced device differentiation, the practice of delivering price and format-sensitive search results to consumers. Implementing this improvement in segmentation required the analysis of 1.5 petabytes of consumer behavioral insights from multiple devices.

Some 68% of marketing teams complain they lack enough data or their existing data assets aren’t usable. Participating in a real-time Data Exchange Platform such as BDEX can provide your organization with the right assets to achieve similar success in personalization to Orbitz and other major brands who have achieved milestones in personalized mobile marketing campaigns.

By connecting directly with third-party sellers of data assets, mobile marketing teams can set budgets and buy insights that are seconds old to generate marketing offers in real-time. As mobile marketing grows more and more competitive, big data is a critical means to success.

For more insights on real-time marketing, check out our recent blog: Is Your Big Data Dated? The Importance of Truly Real-Time Email Marketing.

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