People-based marketing. Cool phrase. An even cooler concept.
You know all those leads you’ve spent so much time and effort chasing and collecting? Believe it or not, those are actual people.
Shocking, right? Living, breathing human beings.
And if you really want to convert them into customers and build lasting relationships with them, you need to develop a better method of determining who they are as individual people.
For years, cookies have been a marketer’s go-to tool for following potential customers. Only, in this always changing world of mobile technology, cookies aren’t as reliable as they used to be.
Not that they were that reliable in the first place.
A major industry shift in targeting
Today you need something more focused. Something that can track people no matter where they go or how many devices they use.
That’s where “people-based” marketing comes into play.
It’s a major industry shift from targeting single devices to fleshing out a deeper view of your audience.
Coined in 2014, people-based marketing is much more targeted than standard behavioral marketing. Rather than relying on cookies and other third-party data, it enables companies to develop a far more accurate profile of potential customers.
How? By collecting real-time first-party data through the use of persistent IDs.
Persistence pays
A persistent ID is created using deterministic data gathered from personal social media and email log-ins. By following a single log-in, companies can track user habits and behaviors everywhere across the internet.
Persistent IDs are more reliable than cookies, because cookies only work on desktops. But most people no longer use a single desktop. They spend more time jumping back and forth between a variety of mobile devices and channels where cookies can’t follow them.
One of the first people-based marketing initiatives started with the introduction of the Facebook Custom Audiences program. It enabled marketers to match CRM data to Facebook user IDs.
People-based marketing has quickly evolved, and now a large number of companies are adapting it. They no longer have to form inconsistent, partial perceptions of who their customers are cobbled together from third-party data, cookies, and tracking pixels.
Using persistent IDs, brands can now create a connected user experience.
Overcoming technical challenges
Marketers love it, but it does have its challenges. As you can imagine, sorting and maintaining a warehouse of data that size can be a serious technical issue. But a data management platform (DMP) can solve that problem.
As I explained in last week’s blog, DMPs allow marketers to gather, analyze, manage, and update huge sets of data collected from existing and potential customers. These powerful systems help marketers create the persistent IDs that are the foundation of people-based campaigns.
Companies can also use persistent IDs to organize all the previously collected first-party data within the DMPs. The platforms can then work in harmony with demand-side platform (DSP) to automate marketing campaigns and target potential customers with the right personalized message across all devices and channels.
Learn more about customer behavior
With people-based marketing, companies can learn more about customers behavior and preferences than they ever could before. They can then use that information to create more relevant and personal messages and content to engage customers.
At a time when mobile spending is expected to make up almost 70 percent of all digital ad spending and about 60% of marketers plan to increase spending on cross-device campaigns, you can see how data provided and applied through people-based marketing can be a game changer for you.
Need help finding the people you want to reach? Contact us today. We specialize in pinpointing and connecting with the prospects who want your products.
