Not all identity is created equal – identity resolution and data ethics are the cornerstones of building trust and driving meaningful customer experiences.
Identity resolution has always been a foundational part of any customer-centric business, but changes sweeping today’s ecosystem make an accurate identity strategy more important than ever before.
The benefits of identity resolution go far beyond customer experiences and marketing. As the privacy landscape becomes more complex, a durable identifier can help organizations honor consumer choices to stay on the right side of consumers’ trust, as well as with regulators.
While the advertising ecosystem enters a critical moment for data-driven marketing, choosing an identity solution to connect and optimize your organization’s data will help you proactively set up the next phase of your business’ growth.
Why trustworthy identity resolution is critical
Modern companies need an accurate, secure identifier to keep pace with changes in the rapidly-evolving ecosystem, including:
1. Digital transformation
- Why identity matters: With the onset of AI and machine learning, many companies are well-underway with digital transformation. One result of digital transformation is richer customer, marketing, and sales data, which needs to be organized into actionable insights. When you consider the number of touchpoints a consumer has with a brand, and multiply that by the millions of consumers you hope to reach across channels, a trusted identifier is essential to resolving this magnitude of data points into accurate insights for data-driven decision making.
- What identity solves: With a trustworthy enterprise identity as the source of customer truth, every team in your organization can work together to power more informed business decisions. Marketing campaigns, R&D, financial models, and other forecasts can all be based on real-time customer insights, driving better business results and greater innovation.
2. Signal loss
- Why identity matters: Data-driven marketers know that third-party signals are becoming less reliable. For instance, some of the fastest-growing marketing channels, such as commerce media and CTV, don’t use cookies at all. Unfortunately, many organizations lack the ability to connect disparate data points into a unified customer view. Even with considerable investment, data strategies that rely on third-party signals lack accuracy compared to identity solutions that take offline data into account.
- What identity solves: Leading enterprise identity solutions leverage offline data and work with offline data providers and other stakeholders to strengthen data-driven marketing strategies and customer insights. An enterprise identity solution helps marketers understand the real people you advertise to, so you can better personalize touchpoints and drive better results.
3. Audience targeting
- Why identity matters: When it comes to marketing campaigns and touchpoints, reaching the right consumers everywhere they spend time isn’t easy. Individuals, households, and even social groups share devices like mobile phones, tablets, computers, and TVs, and they often share touchpoints like addresses, emails, and phone numbers. Without understanding how this data connects to each person and audience, companies have limited success with targeting high-impact audiences and measuring marketing performance.
- What identity solves: Taking the popular approach of solely relying on a single identifier, like a hashed email or your own first-party graph, can limit your audience insights. For example, when devices and touchpoints are shared, your first-party data alone can’t capture the full customer picture and buying journey. If you target a woman based on your ideal audience, but her husband purchases the product, that conversion won’t be recorded. An identity solution that connects data across channels captures both individual and household purchases, leading to more efficient marketing campaigns and investments.
4. Responsible use of data
- Why identity matters: In addition to changing consumer preferences, as well as an overarching need to be ethical and trustworthy with consumers’ data, companies must manage customer data opt-outs accurately. With more channels to consider than ever before, companies must be able to pinpoint consumer opt-outs and adhere to opt-outs across channels.
- What identity solves: An identity solution helps connect opt-outs to a real person in a secure, responsible way for your organization. By properly managing opt-outs, companies can align with regulatory changes but, more importantly, respect consumer preferences and maintain brand loyalty and trust.
Next steps for identity resolution
Selecting a trustworthy identity solution that enables accurate marketing while also focusing on data ethics has exponential benefits for your business, and most importantly, your customers. Understanding the critical importance of the right identity solution is the first step in choosing a partner who can help.
Learn how our Enterprise Identity solution can help you improve customer experiences while maintaining security and privacy. Connect with an expert today.
