In the volatile times we live in, it can be difficult to focus on the future and make long-term plans. Yet, it is also during times of uncertainty that we as humans are most united in our desire for security, connection, and change.
These concepts were on my mind leading into LiveRamp’s first RampUp Virtual Marketing Summit, where I shared three ways to make better connections with consumers and drive meaningful change:
Secure your data
Data is the foundation of innovative companies. It’s important to secure your data foundation and make it work, not just for your brand but your customers as well. Spend this time developing a data strategy that includes collecting the right permissions for data use from your customers, figuring out your enterprise strategy for securing data such that you are minimizing where customer PII is getting sent, creating traceability and auditability of your data sets, and testing new technologies that allow you to get insights from your data at rest.
Use this time of uncertainty as a catalyst for improvement to focus on achieving a single view of the consumer and delivering better value to them. This value exchange is more important to consumers now than ever before, and it’s a point well made in this recent Forrester Research report.
Use data to build connections
We all know what a bad customer experience feels like and yet, putting our marketer hats on, we know how much data it takes to truly understand consumers’ context and environment. The issue is the relevant data just isn’t connected.
Use data to build connections and understand context to make better decisions bolstering brand equity and loyalty. Will this consumer find your ad more uplifting if they see it tonight while streaming their favorite show versus tomorrow as a display ad? Have you already shown content multiple times to an exhausted audience? The data can tell you once it’s connected.
Drive innovation
Some of the world’s most innovative companies launched during economic downturns: CNN, HP, Microsoft, Uber, and Venmo to name a few. You have permission to do things differently. Take the mantra of “test and learn” to heart—you are marketers, after all—and green light projects you might have put on the backburner or been apprehensive about before.
If we recognize the present as a collective call to action, we will meet today’s challenges with better solutions than any of us could have come up with on our own—and emerge stronger than before.
Watch the full opening remarks from the RampUp: Virtual Marketing Summit 2020.
Read on to learn more about what data connectivity can do for you.