4 Modern Pillars of Marketing Data That Move the Needle Now

B2B brands that are confident in their data strategies expect to see their marketing budgets rise this year, according to the 2024 B2B Marketing Outlook: The Data Confidence Divide, a study from Anteriad, conducted by Ascend2. 

 

So how do you boost your confidence in your approach to data? Whether it's understanding buyer behavior, optimizing ad targeting, or measuring campaign effectiveness, here are four modern pillars of marketing data that every CMO needs to master to move the needle for their business.

 

1. Data Collaboration

When it comes to achieving marketing goals, you can never have enough data. That’s why data collaboration is essential. It involves merging and analyzing data sets while maintaining privacy and compliance. This requires breaking down silos both within the organization and external to the organization--with trusted third-party data providers and other partners--to ensure data is shared seamlessly and securely.

 

Combining and analyzing data sets enables a more holistic view of customer behavior and preferences, leading to more personalized journeys and engagement, improved prospect targeting and lead gen, and much more. For example, with data from multiple sources in one location, an identity graph gives you deep insights into your prospect audience so that you can accurately identify the best targets, personalize your engagements with them, and more accurately measure your omni-channel campaigns. Go here for a look at how top brands are advancing their identity graph strategies today.

 

2. Data Integration

Making the most of your data while also gaining a holistic understanding of your audience hinges upon seamless integration. Today’s marketers rely upon many data sources, including customer relationship management (CRM) data, real-time analytics, cross-channel analytics, telemetry data, third-party business contact data, and intent data.

 

Building APIs to connect your data to popular tools and platforms to activate it quickly, easily and safely, is commonplace, and today’s marketers must also understand how to get this done effectively.

 

For example, by integrating intent data with prospect contact information, marketers can reach specific, qualified and interested prospects. This data can be integrated across an entire marketing technology stack and applied to targeted audience campaigns across email acquisition marketing, social networks, programmatic display ads, and more. As a result, precision targeting is amplified for more impactful engagement across multiple channels.

 

3. B2B and B2C Data Convergence and Matching

Marketers increasingly want the capability to connect with B2B prospects at work and at home to reach them wherever they are. This B2B2C convergence has created a new data matching movement, where personal contact data is matched to B2B data to power improved marketing resolution and more personalized campaigns while keeping the data anonymized at the execution interface.

 

Data matching is performed using an identity graph – and an effective identity graph needs both B2B and B2C attributes to achieve a complete view of the prospect's profile. Matching personal contact data to B2B data in this way enables brands to connect with their most promising prospects through an integrated or coordinated campaign model. 

 

As B2B2C convergence has become so crucial, some brands are merging their B2B and B2C data under one department internally. With all of their data in one place, the idea of brands building their own identity graphs – instead of using a third-party graph – is starting to catch on.

 

OMI is advancing our own data capabilities around B2B2C convergence to assist our brand clients with building their own identity graphs. We have achieved an outstanding 61% match rate when matching our B2B contacts to B2C data, including residential addresses and personal emails. 

 

Check out this recent case study on our work with a leading global tech company. OMI effectively bridged the B2B and B2C worlds of our audience of prospects, matching our B2B data to the Meta and LinkedIn social platforms. The campaign achieved exceptional match rates – 42% to Meta and 70% to LinkedIn.

 

Go here to read more about new trends in data matching and build-your-own identity graphs.

 

4. Data Quality

When it comes to marketing data, one thing will never change and that’s the importance of data quality. No amount of tools, tactics or strategy can compensate for poor data quality; it’s the driving force for new AI and Gen AI initiatives as well as ALL other marketing initiatives. Achieving data quality requires ongoing hygiene for the data you own, and forging trusted partnerships with data providers whose own data hygiene policies leave no stone unturned. Marketers that commit to ensuring high standards of data quality can feel confident in selecting the right audiences, trusting the insights and analytics derived from their digital marketing campaigns, and delivering personalized experiences that resonate with their audience.

 

At OMI, we view data as a Living File that is regularly maintained and updated so that it reflects the changing business environment. We are confident in the quality of our data, guaranteeing 95% email validity for 30 days.

 

Reach out to our team to learn more about mastering these modern pillars for a competitive advantage.