The last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind in the advertising world thanks to the recent technological shifts. Now the dust has settled, it seems like marketers have slowly gotten back up to speed with these new changes. And if the pandemic taught us anything, it is that resilience and adaptability are critical.
A common thread that has emerged as a result of this frantic time is the need for centralized systems. Building a cohesive centralized data ecosystem helps you manage all your information effectively and remain as resilient as possible to future shifts while saving yourself some resources.
Your Golden Ticket: Centralizing Your Sources
As marketers, we have a plethora of tools that we tap into daily. However, these tools seldom talk to each other and using them in isolation doesn’t allow us to maximize their effectiveness. Centralizing your sources can help in getting ahead of that challenge. When data is layered on top of each other, it leads to new valuable insights which can significantly improve our marketing efforts. For example, while open rates tied to a fan from your email marketing software is valuable in isolation, combining with sales data and engagement data leads to the uncovering of new insights that can help further personalize your fan journey.
Data by itself doesn’t speak per se, but when collected and organized in a way that makes sense, the opportunities will jump off the screen. Getting all your systems to talk to each other leads to a more accurate, holistic understanding of your fans which in turn lets you hyper-target and increase conversions considerably.
Doing More with Less
In addition to being able to build highly personalized fan journeys, having centralized sources also saves your organization time and resources when it comes to cross-referencing or identifying audience members. When you have a centralized data ecosystem, making a change or looking for insights takes minutes as opposed to the hours needed to scour 10 different sources. Trust us, your team will thank you!
When you operate out of a single cohesive ecosystem you have visibility on metrics such as attribution and engagement tied to an identifiable user in one location. This immediately informs you on whether your strategy is working, and how your strategy is performing against certain segments of your audience, so you can pivot where needed. Being able to identify strategies that are performing incredibly well or poorly early can help you significantly maximize your gains and minimize losses.
A cohesive data ecosystem makes you more resilient
Working with first-party data and owning the fan networks spreads your risk across multiple sources and minimizes consequences in case any network upsets the applecart (pun absolutely intended). A prime example is the breakdown of advertising systems we’ve seen recently, due to an over-reliance on Facebook audiences. Adopting a cohesive data ecosystem powered by first-party data that you own, minimizes your reliance on players like Facebook and Google, and helps claw back a little control over your marketing future.
Speaking of increased privacy and changes, a centralized ecosystem also better protects you from missing things that would make you non-compliant with GDPR standards. If a fan wants some of their data deleted, it should be a breeze for you to go into a single location and make it happen. The current process of having to update preferences and setting across multiple systems is bound to cause a few things to fall through the cracks. Stay ahead of the curve on evolving privacy regulations and stay compliant with a single ecosystem.
Change is a constant and nobody knows that better than marketers. The changes that we have recently seen are just the beginning and there are more on the horizon. We’ve got a little window until those changes reach our shore and the organizations that establish systems today to navigate this new world are the ones that will come out on top.
Ready to start implementing some of these ideas? Brainstorm what’s possible with our team today!