Brands are starting to invest a great deal in targeting technologies. Over $20 billion is being spent internationally on programmatic ads and data-driven marketing campaigns. But just how effective are these types of offers?
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To power these strategies, you need a lot of data. Big data. But with that type of volume comes responsibility. People are trusting you with their information and “I have too much to manage” is not an excuse to produce irrelevant content. The first step is understanding the data that drives good creative. Then you will best know how to activate it.
Data-Driven Creative
In the good ole’ days, marketers would simply meet and greet their audience and then use instinct to think up advertising offers. The system relied heavily on a “salesman’s intuition” and there really was no way to harness or regulate the process of creativity.
By activating your data and technology investments, you can cut through the clutter to provide real value to consumers, thus achieving high-performing campaigns. Creative driven by data simply implies you are using a customer’s information to create a connection to your brand message.
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Data-driven creative not only optimizes your content development resources, but it minimizes the dollars you waste on irrelevant or ineffective ads. Examples of data that can create deeper insight includes (but is not limited to):
- Localized data
- Demographics
- CRM information
- Customer journey stage
- Usage data
- Social media engagement metrics
Virtually any type of behavior or descriptive information can be used to segment and target the right audience. The more data you collect, the easier it is to paint the whole picture for people.
How Does This Creative Fit in?
As a subset of data-driven marketing, data-driven creative is the most informed type of messaging you can put out there. It fills a need in modern consumers to have a tailored experience with a brand that resonates; which is good because 71% of consumers prefer personalized ads. This is how you keep your customer retention figures high. Always be listening and meeting needs.
Thunder Experience Cloud
This type of innovative media fits into a digital marketing plan in two ways:
- Data-driven creative strategies: This involves the resource allocation and planning approach to achieving a data-enriched goal. Marketing leadership it typically in charge of the strategy stage, and includes roles like Brand Manager, Marketing Manager, or Content Lead. These people also consult with the Data, Media, and Creative departments to solidify a plan.
- Data-driven creative tactics: This is about producing the content itself. It involves specific execution and implementation of creative based on data analysis done in the planning phase. The teams in charge of this include Content Producers, Campaign Managers, Creative Managers, Writers, SEO Specialists, and Graphic Artists.
Customer data is a critical pillar in purchasing effective advertising and pleasing the masses. They are much more likely to click through an ad from an unknown company if it is tailored to their preferences. Modern consumers are increasingly expecting all of their ad experiences to be relevant and valuable.
To create compelling content across segmented audiences, marketers need to incorporate data-rich and personalized targeting in their messaging. Hyper-relative content delivered to the right viewers, at the right time, almost ensures a home run. People appreciate the thought.
The Cost of Incorrect Creative
97% of programmatic campaigns are not targeting their audience correctly and lack creative content that resonates with each segment. This means brands are really missing the mark. The idea behind data-driven creative is to leverage customer insights and to create custom ad executions that boost revenue and maximize ROI.
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Billions of dollars a year are wasted on investments in programmatic campaigns. There is no point in collecting the data if you are not using it correctly. Brands are spending a significant amount of their marketing budget to target audiences incorrectly. This is a major flaw in modern marketing. People are simply failing to activate all of the social data they collect.
Data Activation
The solution is to rethink your campaigns. Never stop investing in data. It is vital to maintaining an edge over the competition.
Companies cannot afford this type of waste on marketing. It’s considered massive data leakage. 91% of marketers today are worried about driving ROI from big data. Thus, it’s important to find solutions to stop the leak before it has a serious effect on your bottom line.
Collecting at a rapid rate turns information into “big data.” In laymen’s terms, it simply means you have a large amount of knowledge on your consumers (in a short amount of time). It builds up quickly.
This means you must find something to do with your big data besides storing it. That’s where the concept of “data activation” comes in. Once you have hung the sign (collected the data) now you have to turn it on to attract people (activate the data).
Technology is slightly to blame for this problem. It collects so much data, there are limitless ways to segment your audience. This can be overwhelming for some marketers.
PM360
Agencies like Social Industries can help a brand consolidate their digital advertising efforts into the appropriate channels with highly-relevant content. Not only do they offer strategic consulting, they can optimize your ads during the campaign and measure the performance as you go. This helps to identify any obstacles or challenges early and make more informed business decisions in real-time. It also streamlines workflow, which increases the speed of execution.
Reshaping Teams
Sometimes a company may find it challenging to activate their data because they have the wrong team. As the technology for a sales and marketing group expands, so do the roles required to maintain consumer expectations. The introduction of structured data means more jobs geared towards science and analysis or multi-disciplinary positions that require a variety of skills.
That means CMOs must reconsider how their teams are structured. They should hire professionals who can analyze the piles of big data and glean insight that powers informed marketing strategies. Data scientists and analysts are the newest types of marketers as they can coach creative teams on which direction to target and an idea of what to say.
Buyer personas are deeply enriched by big data and serve as the prime vehicle for establishing your tone and voice when addressing an audience. When analysts and creatives work together, they can develop campaigns that speak to an audience on a sincere level. This type of authentic interaction stimulates brand trust and loyalty.
Increasing Output
Once you know what you’re doing, you have to ramp it up. As the speed of data collection increases, your creative output must follow accordingly. Otherwise, you will be backed up with data and may ultimately lose some.
Data ages. The longer you take to use it, the less powerful it becomes. People change their email addresses. They move or switch jobs. Big data must be addressed immediately if it to effectively power creative campaigns.
According to a recent Global Review of Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising report, 79.6% of respondents assigned customer data as a crucial element to their marketing and advertising efforts. That means you cannot let it fall to the wayside. Time is of the essence here and deadlines for advertising with this information should be tight.
Micro Focus BlogTechnologies like a creative management platform (CMP), a customer relationship management tool (CRM), and a social monitoring system will all help increase the speed of production. You can also assign additional tasks to people already established on the team.
The same group that is responsible for targeting specific audience segments can take it a step further by creating relevant content for the campaign. After all, they are already familiar with the specifics of the audience, so it would seem sensible to have them manage messaging that makes sense (and matters).
IEEE Spectrum
Putting a few controls in place will ensure that you are making use along the entire workflow of a modern digital marketing campaign. Closing the gap between targeting strategies and creative capabilities is the first step. That takes motivated communication and open collaboration. An organization must have a flexible team in place to make this connection viable.
You owe it to your attentive audience to listen and then deliver content that counts. This type of marketing may sound complex, but it is easier than it has ever been before. Big data opens a door of possibilities, opportunities, and insight into who the people are that essentially buy into your story.
Who are the ones that support your brand? Follow that lead and you will consistently satisfy your audience and build a healthy customer base.