Cleanse Your Data: Personalization in the New Year

Welcome to 2018. Personalization rules the world and nearly every business you can nav to on Google Maps has a method of harvesting customer data. Of course, these days it takes more than just downloading some basic CRM (customer relationship management) software onto your POS system to differentiate yourself. Since nearly every company has some method of pulling customer data, analytics alone aren’t effective until that data is cleansed, streamlined and put to work by personalizing your company’s customer experience in measurable ways. Maybe that’s why most of the conversation about data this year is focused more on cleansing your existing customer data than on blindly accumulating info just to stash it away in siloes.

While it may be tempting to take the “more is more” approach when it comes to accumulating customer information, data security is a hot-button issue right now, so it’s important to get your technology up to code. Especially in light of the new GDPR regulations which will require companies doing business within EU countries to revamp their data security measures by May of ’18. In addition to the soon-to-be-implemented GDPR regulations, most companies straight up don’t have time to waste on CRM systems that are lagging due to useless data hoarding.

With this said, here are actionable tips on how you can cleanse your company’s data systems to implement safer and more effective personalization strategies in the new year.

Build a Master Data Strategy

A master data strategy, or MDM, is essential to making sure that the right people in your organization can access the data they need at the right time. Building a MDM also helps ensure that your information is safe from piracy, and the data presented to each individual at your company is whittled down to suit their specific needs. This helps prevent shrinkage, while empowering both you and your employees to make better decisions for your business in a fraction of the time.

CMO by Adobe suggests 5 steps to building an effective MDM: 1) Establish data governance policies (or set of procedures by which to implement your data strategy), 2) identify an owner (someone responsible for the data and how it’s dispensed), 3) define the data (choose universal terms and data conventions to use across your organization) 4) map it out (identify who will be using the data and how), and 5) start small and scale (be patient – it is a process to implement a change of this magnitude).

Assess Relevance with Regular Reviews  

Of course, before you implement a MDM within your organization, you’ll need to determine which data remains pertinent to your company’s needs… and what you can do without. Conducting a regular data review and eliminating unnecessary and/or dated customer information can help to increase your business’s connection speeds, as well as help your employees better locate and utilize relevant information. According to Campaign Live, two-thirds of organizations do not regularly review their data, which means that 75 percent of marketing data within the UK will be rendered obsolete once GDPR restrictions go into effect in May ’18.

It’s essential to conduct reviews regularly for your data to remain relevant, usable, and compliant with all of the evolving privacy laws pertaining to countries where your company does business. Set an internal precedent for, at minimum, an annual data review across all branches of your organization to empower your employees to easily access the information they need.

Use a Single Data Management Platform

So, what do you do with data once it’s cleansed and processed? It’s time to put that data to work to help you gain a better understanding of each customers and tailor your marketing campaigns to suit their specific needs. This sounds more complex than it is, since the right data management platform (DMP) will do most of the work for you. In fact, Nectarom’s DMP creates a centralized channel for all of your data across platforms, while also providing you with a 360-degree profile of each unique customer. In other words, it simplifies your marketing efforts by segmenting customer information and automatically updating customer profiles based on both their recent activity and their phase in the customer lifecycle.

Although it may feel like it sometimes, creating an effective personalization strategy really isn’t rocket science. Put cleansing and streamlining your company’s data at the forefront of your omni-channel efforts for 2018, so that all of the branches of your organization can come together to operate at maximum efficiency!