How to Get Your Data Out of Silos, Put It to Work, and Get Help Doing It

If you’ve got vast stores of data sitting around, in silos, just waiting for the day when you finally do something with it, you’re likely missing out.

Look beyond how you’re using data to target ads and consider the possible applications. If you’re collecting more data than you’re currently using, get innovative and find new ways to use it across your business.

“Activating your data is well and good, but that’s only one small piece of the picture,” writes Matt Westover at Turn in an August 1 guest post on VentureBeat. “The data that resides in your data management platform is good for a lot more than targeting ads. With the right DMP marketers today can know so much more about their customers. Applying this knowledge across the business can drive not just smarter marketing decisions, but smarter business decisions and, ultimately, competitive advantage.”

Look at your budget allocation, merchandising strategies and your messaging, he suggests. When choosing a DMP, it’s important to look at what it offers.

“Where I ultimately want to get with my client is to link conversion data when we see an audience down-funnel–what they look like from a lead dispositioning perspective… and then start to optimize toward lifetime value for a client,” Annalect CEO Scott Hagedorn said in a Q&A with AdExchanger last year.

For example, agencies can use Annalect’s tie-in with Salesforce to leverage CRM data, potentially spotting cost efficiencies, getting better audience benchmarks and making smarter strategic buying decisions.

And with marketers often now controlling the largest tech budgets outside of the IT department, you should leverage your relationships with IT in order to be more effective.

When it comes to Big Data, a strong link between IT and marketing often sets organizations up for success. “Marketing is the driver of the big data car,” Todd Merry, CMO of global hospitality and food service company Delaware North, told CIO magazine in an August 5 article. But IT is often needed to help the car run and drive in the proper direction.

“It’s at the top of the list,” Nadine Dietz, President of the CMO Club said about partnering with IT while speaking on the VentureBeat sponsored panel on marketing tech. “This goes beyond the CIO and across the entire C-suite. It’s about shifting from being product-oriented to being customer-oriented.”

Take the example of KidZania, which builds theme parks for kids where they can try out different jobs, everything from being a cop to a doctor and beyond. The company uses data in a wide variety of ways, according to CMO Cammie Dunaway, who spoke on the same panel as Dietz.

Using that loyalty program data collected via radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, KidZania can greet kids by name, wish them a happy birthday and interact with them after they leave the park (with their parental permission).

“Getting big ideas is the easy part,” Dunaway said. “Making it work is where the challenge comes in. Before, queries took a day to run. Data was in different silos. Now we are able to change the experience for the consumer, based on what we know.”

The key to getting it done was ripping down the silos and working closely with her CIO, she said. In fact, they now pitch the CEO for more resources and they do it together—a move that could benefit many CMOs.

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