Companies are sitting on goldmines of data, but putting that data into action across teams has its challenges. Adding to the complexity is Google’s plan to end third-party (3P) cookies. While the cookiepocalypse was recently delayed (again), marketers are preparing for the inevitable by shifting focus to first-party (1P) data for sustainable audience targeting and campaign effectiveness.
Chris Sell and I started GrowthLoop after leaving Google because we as marketers were struggling to activate our first-party data due to a lack of access and visibility into the data.
Over the years, I’ve seen firsthand some common missteps that not only prevent marketing teams from fully realizing the value of their first-party data but can also wind up costing them unnecessary time and money.
Let’s explore what not to do in order to harness the full potential of your first-party customer data.
Don’t Try To Load Your Customer Data Warehouse Into Your MarTech System
Think of your cloud data warehouse like a library and your MarTech platforms as your patrons. Instead of transporting copies of all the books to each cardholder’s house, you keep the library organized and accessible. You only provide copies of the specific pages or books needed by the readers, ensuring they get exactly what they want without overwhelming them with unnecessary volumes.
Loading your entire customer data warehouse into a MartTech system is attempting to use a platform beyond its inherent capabilities for many reasons.
Scalability and Cost
A big issue here is scale. Companies today have vast amounts of information on their customers, from prospective leads to loyal clients. Dumping that data into an email or engagement platform leaves companies with multiple copies of data in siloed systems and no central source of truth to track and optimize cross-channel customer journeys. This not only drives up costs but can also strain the platform’s capabilities.
A Shadow of Your Customer Profile
Another major problem is data modeling. First party customer data is often rich with insights, offering a three-dimensional portrait of a customer across channels. But engagement platforms typically require a simplified representation of customer data. By reducing the data to fit a flat table, you wind up with a mere shadow of that customer — not the robust profile you need to launch highly personalized campaigns.
The solution? A centralized view of your customers in a cloud data warehouse and an activation layer like a composable customer data platform (CDP) to sync only what’s necessary for your marketing efforts. You retain all of your valuable customer insights across channels with the ability to personalize and scale your campaigns efficiently for stronger ROI.
Don’t Build Everything Just Because You Can
Just because you can do something doesn’t always mean you should. Would you buy sushi at a gas station when there is a Japanese restaurant down the street? Likewise, when it comes to MartTech, I caution companies against the allure of building their own bespoke solutions.
Companies that are used to building solutions internally often opt to develop marketing technology components without considering existing tools that could meet their needs more efficiently. This can lead to unnecessary complexity and resource drain.
You might wonder why companies choose to build a fully bespoke solution when there is a wide array of them on the market.
First, if their needs are extremely simple, such as having just one destination to manage (e.g., they use an all-in-one CRM). This scenario is rare and generally applies only to very small companies with minimal requirements.
The second, more common scenario is when building marketing technology aligns with the company’s core mission. If they’re a MartTech provider, developing useful tools and integrations for their product line might be part of their value proposition.
But in most other cases, going down this road will lead to unforeseen challenges. Companies underestimate the maintenance burden and overestimate the initial benefits of internal builds. I’ve seen fintech and retail companies, among others, embark on ambitious projects constructing audience platforms and integration layers, only to struggle with ongoing maintenance and operational inefficiencies.
The Buy-Build Approach
The reality is that building bespoke solutions in-house can divert resources away from core business objectives. Engineering teams that spearhead such projects may move on to other priorities once the initial launch is complete, leaving marketing teams to grapple with a tech stack that falls short of expectations.
In working with enterprise customers at GrowthLoop, I advise companies to take a buy-build approach. Build what’s truly unique to their business – their data – while leveraging pre-built solutions for connectivity and integration. This approach focuses valuable resources on core competencies, allowing companies to leverage their customer data across channels without reinventing the wheel.
Don’t Rely on Manual Efforts for Campaigns and Audience Targeting
One of the most common pitfalls I’ve seen marketing teams make is relying too much on manual efforts for campaign execution and audience targeting. It’s akin to trying to navigate a new city during rush hour using a paper map when GPS is readily available.
Relying solely on manual efforts results in missed opportunities and disjointed customer experiences.
One major financial institution we partnered with at GrowthLoop relied on manual efforts to pull audience lists and personalization attributes and upload them into a marketing cloud, which only allowed them to launch a few marketing campaigns per year.
Similarly, we work with multiple major sports leagues that faced challenges in sharing critical league and team-level data due to siloed, manual processes. This reliance on disparate data sources hindered audience segmentation and targeted outreach.
Streamlining Data Activation
In both cases, implementing a central audience hub enabled these teams to launch dynamic campaigns with ongoing refining based on real-time customer activity. This ensured timely and relevant messaging across multiple channels, with full transparency on audience performance. Instead of operating on the channel level, marketers could strategize at the audience level and continuously fine-tune campaigns.
Unlocking the Power of First-Party Data
First-party data can be a marketer’s most valuable asset – if used correctly. With the ever-multiplying number of MartTech platforms available, retaining a central source of truth for your data and seamlessly syncing it across your full stack is critical for orchestrating effective cross-channel campaigns.
Avoid common pitfalls by embracing solutions that efficiently leverage the power of your data to build impactful, personalized experiences at scale.
Take every chance to learn from the mistakes of others. I have, and it’s made a world of difference.
©2024 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved.
Originally Published on Martech Zone: What Not To Do with First Party Data: Common Mistakes with MarTech
