LONDON: Modern marketing is all about data, but collecting that from a multiplicity of sources and then making sense of it is a major challenge for businesses which really need to consider investing in a data management platform, an industry figure suggests.

In a WARC Best Practice paper, How to build an effective Data Management Platform, Michael Plimsoll of Adobe’s Product & Industry Marketing team, notes that many organisations continue to face the problem that data “resides in separate silos across the business, in systems that do not allow for marketers to access and take action against it in a timely way”.

The answer is a Data Management Platform (DMP) that enables the creation of a unified view of customers across all channels and touch points.

This not only brings together an organisation or brand’s own data, but allows the addition of third-party data and partner data in order to further enrich the view of its customers.

“A DMP also ensures that the segments created from this data can be activated across any and all channels,” Plimsoll adds – leading to significant benefits for both advertisers and publishers.

The DMP market is growing, in part because of the growth of programmatic buying. “To succeed at programmatic, marketers need to be able to identify their own customers, predict who prospects are and target them all with relevant messages,” says Plimsoll.

As the media-buying focus shifts away from placements to audiences, it becomes essential to have access to the best quality data to ensure better buying decisions are made – leading to better Return on Media Investment.

“This is exactly what the DMP delivers,” he states, “as well as the ability to extend the audience reach through the addition of third-party data and algorithmic modelling.”

A unified customer view helps both advertisers and publishers deliver better on-site personalisation and content optimisation to their customers, driving better engagement, conversion and therefore customer growth.

While there are benefits in this approach, Plimsoll cautions that businesses need to consider not only why they need a DMP – in terms of business requirements or objectives – but whether their organisation is ready for one.

“Owning a DMP requires a true collaborative workflow and a platform approach, breaking silos and setting a new way of working between teams,” he says.

Data sourced from WARC