What You Need to Know About Marketing Data Integration and How It Works

What is Marketing Data Integration?

Integration of marketing data is the process of incorporating marketing data from various sources into a unified and consistent view. Possessing the ability to construct distinct marketing components provides insight into your overall performance and how marketing contributes to business success.

This method enables businesses to remain competitive, retain and acquire customers, and expand. With marketing integration, businesses can make decisions based on accurate and sufficient information, resulting in squandered resources, missed opportunities, and a subpar customer experience.

Marketing Data Integration Statistics

Here are some marketing data integration statistics that can help you better understand the importance of marketing integration:

• A study by Aberdeen Group found that companies with strong data integration capabilities are 3 times more likely to improve their customer retention rates.
• According to a report by Salesforce, 90% of high-performing marketers say that data is critical to their success.
• A study by Experian found that companies that use data to personalize their marketing messages achieve 6 times higher engagement rates than those that do not.
• A study by Gartner found that by 2022, 90% of corporate strategies will explicitly mention information as a critical enterprise asset and analytics as an essential competency.
• According to a survey by AdRoll, 66% of marketers say that they plan to increase their investment in data integration in the coming year.
• A report by McKinsey & Company found that companies that use data-driven insights to inform their marketing decisions achieve a 15-20% increase in ROI on their marketing spend.

Types of marketing data integration

There are various different types of marketing integration, which we’ve covered below:

Cross-channel integration

Cross-channel integration refers to the process of combining data from different marketing channels, such as email, social media, search, and display advertising, into a single view.

This approach enables businesses to understand how customers interact with their brand across various touchpoints and develop a unified strategy to optimize customer engagement and ROI.

Offline and online integration

Integrated data from digital and non-digital sources, such as in-store purchases, call center interactions, and direct mail campaigns, is known as offline and online integration.

By combining offline and online data, businesses can better comprehend consumer preferences and behavior and use this knowledge to create personalized and relevant experiences across all touchpoints.

Data management platform (DMP) integration

Data management platform (DMP) integration combines information from different sources into a single platform. This lets businesses build unified customer profiles, divide viewers into groups, and improve advertising campaigns.

A DMP can mix first-party data from a business's channels, like website analytics and CRM systems, with third-party data from outside sources, like social media and mobile apps, to fully understand how customers behave.

Customer relationship management (CRM) integration

Customer relationship management (CRM) integration combines data from CRM systems with marketing analytics to get a more comprehensive understanding of how customers act and what they like.

By combining data from CRM systems with data from other marketing platforms, businesses can get an extensive overview of customer journeys, find chances to cross-sell and up-sell and personalize interactions based on customer past and tastes.

Third-party data integration

Integrating third-party data means adding data from outside sources, like demographics, buying habits, and social media activity, into marketing analytics.

With this method, businesses can learn more about their customers and use this knowledge to make their marketing efforts more targeted and personal. When using this method, businesses must ensure the quality and accuracy of data from third parties and follow privacy laws.

“Marketing data is exploding. It’s growing much faster than the industry itself. - Singular CEO Gadi Eliashiv 

How Does Data Integrated Marketing Work?

Data integration typically involves several stages, including discovery, analysis, design, and implementation.

The Discovery Stage

In the discovery stage, marketers find the different sources of data they need to combine and evaluate how good and comprehensive they are.

The Analysis Stage

In this stage, marketers also look at the data to learn more about how customers act and what they like and find ways to improve their campaigns for better results.

The Design Stage

In the design stage, companies plan how they will integrate the data. This includes choosing the right tools and platforms and figuring out the right mapping and transformation processes.

The Implementation Stage

In the implementation stage, marketers execute the integration plan, testing and validating the integrated data to ensure accuracy and completeness.

Challenges in marketing data integration

While marketing data integration is crucial, there are some common challenges and pitfalls that marketers need to navigate. Here’s how you can overcome them:

Data Quality

Ensuring the data is correct is one of the most difficult parts of integrating data. If the data quality is good, it can lead to correct conclusions and choices.

To tackle this, marketers should set data quality standards, do regular data audits, and put in place methods to clean data so that it is correct, consistent, and full.

Data Security

Businesses worry a lot about data security because they are collecting and combining increasing amounts of information.

Businesses should set up rules for data protection, like encryption, access controls, and data monitoring, to avoid this challenge. They should also ensure that data security laws like GDPR and CCPA are followed.

Technical Compatibility

To combine data from different sources, different methods and tools must be able to work together. Businesses should choose tools and technologies that can work together and ensure that data is in a standard format that can be quickly moved and changed.

Cultural Barriers

Different groups and parties must work together for data integration to work well. But cultural hurdles, like not wanting to change or being unable to talk to each other, can make it hard for people to work together.

Businesses should consider setting up clear ways to communicate, teach people about the benefits of data integration, and ensure everyone is on the same page with the integration goals.

Cost

Combining info from different sources can take a lot of time and money. This challenge can be navigated by setting up a clear budget for integrating data, ranking data sources by their importance, and considering hiring to save money.

Benefits of marketing data integration

Effective marketing data integration offers numerous benefits to businesses across different industries. Here are some examples:

The Retail Industry

Better customer segmentation

Data merging allows businesses to divide their customers into groups based on their likes, dislikes, and past purchases. This lets businesses make personalized marketing efforts that appeal to each group of customers, which makes customers more loyal and interested.

Optimized Inventory Management

Retailers can track inventory amounts and sales data in real time when they integrate their data. This lets them make smart choices about how to handle their inventory and what to buy. This ensures that goods are always available, which helps keep costs down and makes customers happier.

The Healthcare Industry

Better Patient Care

By gathering information from different sources about a patient, healthcare workers can get a complete picture of the patient's health background. This lets them give each patient personalized care and treatments that meet their needs.

Simplified Processes

Data integration lets healthcare companies streamline their operations, cut costs, and improve efficiency by improving processes like scheduling patients, paying, and managing the supply chain.

The Financial Industry

Improved Risk Management

With data integration, financial companies can better understand what their customers are doing with their money and spot possible risks, like fraud or not paying their bills. This lets them proactively protect their business and reduce these risks.

Better Service for Customers

Data integration lets financial institutions give customers a personalized and smooth experience, giving them access to their financial information and letting them finish deals through several different channels.

Choosing the Right Marketing Data Integration Platform for Your B2B Business

Data integration platforms are a key part of marketing data integration because they let marketers gather, turn, and combine data from multiple sources into a unified view.

There are many things to think about when picking the right marketing data connection tool for your B2B business, such as scalability, flexibility, and ease of use. Here are some of the most important tools and examples to consider:

Data pipelines

A data pipeline is a collection of procedures used to gather information from diverse sources, format it regularly, and transfer it to another system. Factors like scalability, user-friendliness, and compatibility for a wide variety of data sources should be taken into account when selecting a data pipeline solution.

Arena is a popular tool choice for comprehensive data pipelines as it enables businesses to automatically connect all of their disparate data into one location while formatting it in an optimized way for making calculations across these different sources.

Data management platforms

Businesses may manage and analyze massive amounts of data from various sources with the help of a data management platform (DMP). To better manage consumer data and enhance targeting and customization efforts, DMPs are very helpful.

Data management platform (DMP) selection criteria should include data governance, segmentation capabilities, and marketing tool connection. Adobe Audience Manager, Oracle BlueKai, and Salesforce DMP are examples of well-known DMP software.

Data visualization tools

Businesses may benefit greatly from data visualization tools, which transform raw data into interactive representations like charts and graphs. Data visualization tools range in complexity and usefulness; picking the right one requires thinking about usability, flexibility, and compatibility with your existing marketing infrastructure.

Tableau, Power BI, and QlikView are just a few of the many well-known data visualization technologies available.

Data transformation tools

Businesses can convert data from one format to another, such as from structured to unstructured data or between different database formats, with the use of data transformation technologies.

A data transformation tool's usability, data format compatibility, and ability to work with your existing marketing infrastructure are all crucial considerations. Apache Kafka, Amazon Elastic MapReduce (Glue), and Google Cloud Dataflow are just a few examples of prominent data transformation solutions.

Building a Data Integration Strategy

Building a data integration strategy is crucial for success. Here are a few components you should consider:

Goals

Identify the business goals and objectives the data integration strategy intends to support. This will help ensure that the strategy aligns with the overall business strategy and is focused on delivering tangible business value.

Data sources

Determine the various data sources that need to be integrated, including internal systems, external data sources, and third-party applications. This will help ensure that all relevant data is captured and consolidated into a unified view.

Data mapping

Define how data will be transformed and mapped from its source to the target system. This will help marketers ensure the data is properly formatted, validated, and cleansed to ensure accuracy and consistency.

Security

Establish appropriate security measures to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the data being integrated. This may involve implementing encryption, access controls, and other security measures to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access or disclosure.

Best Practices To Integrate Your Marketing Data

While integrating marketing data, it’s imperative to start by having a clear understanding of your goals and objectives. Following this, you can develop a detailed data integration plan and choose the right solution that meets your business requirements.

Moreover, marketers should monitor and maintain the data integration solution over time to ensure it meets business needs and remains aligned with the overall business strategy. It’s not an easy task, hence, it’s recommended to bring in experts who understand the process and can help you.

Arena offers fully-managed data pipelines to help businesses of all sizes with their data. Moreover, multiple channels can be analyzed in one dashboard on our platform, which opens up multiple possibilities for how you would like to analyze your data.

So, whenever you’re ready to integrate your marketing data, you can contact our experts or just start your free trial.

Conclusion

Marketing data integration is crucial in today's business landscape, allowing companies to consolidate and analyze data from multiple sources to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, market trends, and business performance.

By investing in marketing data integration and adopting best practices for data management, businesses can achieve a competitive edge and drive better business outcomes. Organizations must prioritize data integration as a strategic initiative and leverage the right tools and processes to ensure accurate and efficient data integration.

With the right approach, marketing data integration can lead to significant business benefits, including improved decision-making, enhanced customer experiences, and increased revenue and profitability.

FAQs

What are some real-world examples of successful marketing data integration?

Netflix is a prime example of a company that uses data integration to drive business success. By analyzing customer viewing habits and preferences, Netflix can recommend new shows and movies highly relevant to each user, increasing engagement and retention.

Another example is Sephora, a beauty retailer, which uses data integration to provide personalized product recommendations to customers based on their purchase history, browsing behavior, and other data points. This has helped the company drive increased sales and customer loyalty.

What is the role of data privacy and security in marketing data integration?

Integrating data from multiple sources can create new security risks and increase the likelihood of data breaches or misuse. It is essential to ensure appropriate security measures are in place to protect sensitive customer data.

Data privacy is also an important consideration. Companies must comply with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA that require businesses to obtain explicit consent from individuals before collecting, processing, or storing their data.

This means that businesses must be transparent about their data collection and use practices and provide individuals with control over their data.

How can businesses get started with marketing data integration?

Getting started with marketing data integration can be overwhelming, but there are several steps that businesses can take to begin the process.

• Define your goals
• Identify your data sources
• Assess data quality
• Choose the right tools
• Implement data governance