A Data Management Platform helps organizations conduct centralized data management and data sorting, giving businesses greater control over their consumer data. For example, in marketing, a DMS tool can collect, segregate, and analyze data for the optimization, targeting, and deployment of campaigns to the correct target audience.
Data Management Platforms gather information from first-parties such as mobile apps, websites, internet transactions, mailing lists, CRM software, and others. These sources are used by organizations to find their ideal customers and manage them. Apart from using first-party sources, they also use third-party sources such as online interactions and user data.
A Data Management Platform can use applications for customer research with the help of customized content. The data is then merged from both online and offline sources to create a repository that can be used to detect buying behaviors of consumers. The trends and insights gathered over time can help organizations create effective campaigns and strategies to improve their ROI.
For several reasons, getting integrated with a Data Management Platform can be a game-changer for organizations, bringing them not just actionable insights but also the possibility for exponential growth. If you’re looking for a guide before picking a data management platform for your company, this is the blog you need. Rather than focusing on buying tips, we are going to talk about the factors that will influence your investment in a DMP.
Here is a list of questions that you must answer for your business to gain great clarity over the ideal DMP for your organization. Read on to know all about it!
Factors to Pay Attention to While Picking a Data Management Platform for Your Business
Local support
Deploying a data management platform is going to be a lengthy process, so it is essential that you have a local team to support you and professionals who can effectively work together. Can you expect constant support throughout Data Management Platform integration and even after that? Can you meet your contacts regularly to assure streamlined communications?
Data collection & organization
Can the Data Management Platform collect and arrange the first-party data from all sources, be it offline, online, CRM, mobile, subscriptions, or others? Will it be able to adjust the data hierarchy as per your demands or will you need support to get it done? Are parent/child accounts available for your business while managing multiple data sets?
Audience building
Can you build complex audiences by choosing factors you need such as behavior, demographics, interests, content consumption, and motives? Is it possible to layer in third-party data as per the customer scale? Can you use the platform to forecast available opportunities and nooks for the chosen target audience?
Audience insights & reporting
Is there any range of analytics tools offered by this data management platform? Is it possible to make deep comparisons between the first source and third party sourced data for actionable insights? What are the solutions offered to you and how well can these reports be used by the teams to create better strategies?
Retargeting
Apart from creating targeting campaigns, can your Data Management Platform make retargeting effective for audiences, both offline and online, based on a certain trigger?
Campaign optimization
Make sure that the chosen DMP has manual and automatic optimizations available to make campaigns work more effectively using the toolkit integrations. The apt platform will be able to analyze your data and find people from the audience who will show an active interest and intent to purchase your products and services, thereby reducing your overall campaign costs. How well does your DMP intend to optimize campaigns, making them laser-focused yet cost-effective?
Content personalization
By using the correct DMP, you will be able to use the organization’s CRM to bring personalized content to site viewers based on their surfing behavior and motivations. You can talk about customization of content by Data Management Platforms with the vendors to clarify how they can assist you to provide a customized website experience to the visitors.
Multiple device channels
Today, users want organizations to reach them where they are available, be it an app, a social media site, or a website. An ideal DMP will be able to find and recognize customers across channels to give you a multi-device campaign across channels. It also asks the question of how this integration is made possible, whether through a third-party system or the DMP directly. It would also help if the Data Management Platform has its own extensive third-party network to expand the cross-device campaign’s capabilities.
Second-party data
Collecting second-party data apart from the first and third party sources is necessary too, but how does a business get access to such interested organizations? It would be of great utility if your DMP could gather such affiliates by itself rather than having you reach out and depend more on costs.
Flexibility
From a general perspective, most of the Data Management Platforms perform all the main functions. But what is the extra edge that your provider of choice is willing to offer? The factor that would influence this the most is the degree of flexibility, which means how well it can change and adapt as per the changing nature and demands of the customer. As the customer behavior change, given market conditions, your DMP will be required to switch approaches to help you provide better campaigns and services.
Deployment
Make sure that you have a specialized data management platform team in place for a strong initial integration. Ensure that your vendor possesses great training resources, completes the documentation with all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted, and also provides active service and support in case your teams need help. Also, look into getting stellar cross-device integration if your job is more focused on deploying campaigns so that you can get the best out of the data collected.
Conclusion:
When you’re on the lookout for a technological partner, it is crucial to ensure that there is a meeting of minds in the way you both operate. Ask all the questions you think are relevant from the above-mentioned discussion to get the best value out of the data management platform you have been scoping. Think of it as an interview for long-term investments, where this integration is meant to bring you well-defined and tangible returns.
About Artha Solutions:
Artha Solutions is a premier business and technology consulting firm providing insights and expertise in both business strategy and technical implementations. Artha brings forward thinking and innovation to a new level with years of technical and industry expertise and complete transparency. Artha has a proven track record working with SMB (small to medium businesses) to Fortune 500 enterprises turning their business and technology challenges into business value.
