By now, marketers everywhere understand the value of data management. We all bank on customer data to deliver business intelligence that’s crucial to marketing strategy, analytics, and campaign optimization, and we know that requires a platform designed to enable informed decision-making every time.
When it comes to selecting that platform, however, many still struggle to gain a foothold. What types of tools and expertise should you strive to identify in a long-term data management partner? What do you stand to gain from selecting the right company? Questions like these can cause confusion and delay that much-needed data management game plan.
When you’re seeking a partner, remember the three Cs of superior business intelligence. Keeping these characteristics top of mind throughout your search will ensure that your choice can deliver exactly what you’re looking for.
Current information
There’s no question about it: to make smart decisions, you’ve got to have data that’s upto-the-minute and available in real time. Some data management platforms are slow to refresh, or fail to provide the current insights needed to effectively connect with customers. That can make it incredibly difficult for you to do your job well.
Always look for a partner that prioritizes fresh data and makes it easily accessible at all times. With a data management firm that cuts down on latency, you’re better able to optimize your ad spend, and can rest assured the marketing choices you make are right for both your customers and your brand.
Complete insights
There are many situations in which listening to your gut is a great idea. Applying insights gleaned from your data to your marketing strategy isn’t one of them.
Rather, such decisions should be based on hard and fast information that provides a complete overview of your market, audience, customer behavior, third-party sources, and more. The data that’s made available through your management platform should offer a holistic view of every aspect of your campaign. It’s the only way to ensure that your outcomes meet your objectives and actively propel your business forward.
Collaboration
Now more than ever, marketers must be prepared to collaborate with their peers in sales, merchandising, and operations, sharing vital information across departments and leveraging what they learn for the good of the business as a whole. With that in mind, look for tools that make it easy to securely share data, not just with others within your organization, but with vendors and ad tech partners as well.
A platform with powerful data visualization capabilities that help to tell the customer story is key in this respect. The same can be said of features like custom alerts and notifications that keep everyone abreast of changes to KPIs, along with platform security that includes multi-factor authentication to facilitate data-driven conversations in a safe environment.
To truly maximize your marketing data, pick a data management partner that’s equipped to reveal every insight quickly and completely, to every decision-maker at your company. That way, you can get back to the business of turning that data into a winning strategy.