The Hunt

According to recently released data collected by Oracle Marketing Cloud and ExchangeWire, the popularity of data management platforms (DMPs) among marketers is rising fast. The research showed that 73 percent of respondents were very familiar with the benefits of DMPs. And even though only 48% of respondents currently use a DMP, 90 percent of those who do experienced a positive ROI within the first year. This suggests that the use of DMPs will continue to climb at a rapid pace. Here are a few of the reasons that this is quickly becoming an essential tool for marketers:

Understand Market Segments Better

The audience that’s interested in your company exists on a long spectrum. At one end you have customers/clients who seek you out eager to make an immediate purchase. At the other end you have customers who never make a purchase but are aware of your company and follow along as a dispassionate observer. These are wildly different types of consumers, but your marketing efforts can’t exclusively target motivated buyers. A DMP allows you to integrate disparate data sets related to your entire consumer base and then analyze and organize them in a way that produces broader and deeper insights. By embracing the full range of your customer spectrum, you’re able to shrink it in your favor.

Rely on Targeted Messaging

Unlike the past, today’s shoppers are not passive consumers of marketing messages. They have the power to seek out the messages that are relevant and exciting, and filter out all the rest. That is a big advantage for consumers but a big headache for marketers who often find themselves making a sales pitch to an empty room. Since DMPs allow you to segment your audience in more detail and understand them on a more acute level, you can design targeted marketing messages that are more resonant and compelling. Creative messaging is built on a foundation of useful data.

Integrate Disparate Data Sets

Collecting and analyzing data is nothing new in marketing. The historic challenge, however, is integrating data collected from disparate sources in meaningful ways. Isolated data silos have produced  incomplete and convoluted insights and increased the administrative burden significantly. A major advantage of DMPs is that they make it easy to integrate all data sets in a meaningful way and with a minimum amount of input. Once the fragmentation has been eliminated, you can devise strategies that apply to all customers in all channels. For the first time, marketing can truly operate on the macro level.

Remember that a DMP is not a magic bullet. First you need to implement the best platform, then you need to manage it with the help of the best IT talent available. That may require you to add staff, but over the long run the returns outweigh the costs. When you’re ready to make a hire, partner with the IT recruiting experts at Artemis Consultants.