Why Data is at the Core of Every Business Transaction

Data touches every decision maker within an organization. It’s beguiling and elusive all at once and leveraging its value comes with a lot of moving parts. Get it right and everything from forecasting to channel selection renders positive results. Miss something, or skip a step, and it can upend even the most sophisticated technology, predictive modeling, or award winning creative.  From inaccurate information, disparate collecting systems, and the imminent demise of third-party cookies, building the right audience is the core to success. 

How to Connect the Dots to Make it Work

With thousands of data points to parse, making sense of the information coming in from the beginning means having a process for collecting, cleansing, and warehousing data that is accessible to multiple teams within a company or organization. Having an accurate account of who your audience is leads to profiling the right customers and associating the corresponding message to each segment, developing personas that go beyond basic demographics, and creating an omni-channel strategy for each stage of the customer journey that targets your most likely buyer. Each step enables the information to be optimized, recognized, intensified, and mobilized by all stakeholders.  

Step 1. Validate, Normalize and Cleanse. 

According to a Gartner report, every year poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9 million in revenue loss and can lead to poor decisions. Minimize the issues at the onset by standardizing and parsing key elements, identifying and correcting anomalies, and updating basic information such as address, email, and phone numbers.

Step 2. Connect disparate data across databases and touchpoints.

Using advanced Identity resolution and data platforms can accelerate preparation and integration. Connecting the Identity of a lead to the household and synchronizing these identifiers accurately across multiple channels helps to establish a ‘golden’ representation of the customer. A valid customer identity is a key building block to future analysis for attribution, scoring, and modeling.

Step 3.  Enhance customer profiles with known elements and predictors.

Defining the right audience goes beyond where they live, how old they are, and how much money they earn. Collecting zero-party data, i.e., consented data, through digital experiences, provides opportunities to learn preferences, motivations, earn trust, and create a mutually beneficial value exchange.

When sourcing third-party data, work with a provider that has access to many resources and experience in building an audience that is 100% customized to your industry, business, and campaign. Assets should be built upon/based on/derived from your business objectives to develop a holistic view of your consumer and business customer profiles.

Step 4. Deploy a customer journey.

Once an accurate data acquisition and assembly process is established, it’s ready to be activated for journey orchestration. New leads and markets acquired are incorporated into a well-organized database primed for success. Activation converts your audience into customers, while retention deepens and expands the value of the brand. Continued two-way engagement leads to customer lifetime value and loyalty.  

Going from an anonymous website visitor to a loyal customer relies on a rigorous process and a system that is put in place to acquire, assemble, aggregate, and easily activate data to deliver the insights and outcomes you are looking for a long each stage of the customer journey. See how Allant Data Solutions converts Big Data into the Right Data. Fast.