Screen usage among consumers has soared to five to seven different screens per day, making it more and more difficult to provide consistent cross-device experiences.
To stand apart, brands must identify each consumer across multiple devices, using each touchpoint to piece together specific needs of the desired buyer. Being unable to identify across devices limits a brand’s ability to tell sequential stories and move customers through the sales journey. This makes ad and marketing spend wasteful and inefficient.
A recent study conducted by the Data & Marketing Association reports only nine percent of respondents are currently able to recognize customers across media channels on a consistent basis. This finding prompted DMA to prioritize cross-device identity and attribution as a critical aspect of the Structured Innovation initiative underway among DMA members, with the goal of helping marketers to create seamless experiences for their customers.
For most marketers, effective partnerships with third party martech solution providers are key to cross-device excellence. There are several factors necessary to foster productive partnerships:
Marketers and Technology Suppliers Need to Speak the Same Language
Tech buyers and sellers often feel like they are speaking a different language. Common terms such as “accuracy” and “precision” have multiple meanings depending on the type of modeling or targeting used in the technology solution.
Bridging this language gap advances a company’s efforts to connect with customers. When common definitions are agreed upon, it allows two organizations to communicate common goals and advance the strategic marketing efforts of the brand-side company.
Marketers Can Arm Themselves with the Right Questions
When building a successful relationship with a new service provider, it is imperative to have a clear vision of what that partnership will look like. To this end, asking the right questions in the review and onboarding process will inform you and your team about the company, its product and how collaboration will work.
Consider these simple questions when evaluating a potential partner:
- Scope of Services – Know the full picture of services provided by the company. Is the solution “open” and usable across third parties? What are the capabilities across channels?
- Data Sources – Ask the company to describe the scope of their identity graph. What data sources are utilized? How is quality maintained?
- Privacy – Get a handle on the company’s privacy policies and how they handle consumer notice and choice. What self-regulatory codes do they follow? Are they monitoring potential emerging regulatory standards?
In Martech, One Size Does NOT Fit All
This year, Scott Brinker’s Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic expanded to include 5,300 distinct companies offering marketing technology solutions. If you took half a day to research and meet with each company, it would take more than 10 years to complete your research (not to mention the new companies that would pop up along the way). Effectively, there are an infinite number of solutions out there.
With distinctive methodologies and techniques, what may work for one marketer or publisher may not be an appropriate solution for another. By having a clear picture of your intended use cases – including retargeting, sequential messaging of real-time signaling – you can narrow your field of research to companies with expertise in those areas.
Neil O’Keefe is senior vice president of content and marketing for the Data & Marketing Association (DMA). To download the DMA’s Cross-Device Identification RFI Template to help evaluate cross-device technology partners, click here.
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