MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 1

MARKETING DATA
MANAGEMENT PLAN

BEST PRACTICES GUIDE

MARKETING DATA Best Practices Guide
MANAGEMENT PLAN
Table of Contents
Introduction 3

Wrangling Big Data 4

Data Quality and Compliance 6

Data Integration 7

Ongoing Data Maintenance, Storage, & Management 8

Software Platforms for Managing Customer Data 9

Understanding Data Management Platforms (DMP) 11

DMP Software Vendors 13

Data Management Best Practices 14

Action Plan 16

About Demand Metric 25

INTRODUCTION MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 3

Introduction
Data is at the center of everything in our modern world. Mismanaged data weakens the core objectives of the marketing team,
interferes with the creation of relevant content or communications, and
It can explain what’s happened in the past, and even give credible
in the end, decreases the customer experience, resulting in reduced
insight into what could happen in the future. For marketers working in
sales or renewals.
this digital age, generating data is a by-product of every action taken
online, from targeting for a campaign, its execution, and, ultimately, On the other hand, when managed effectively, the insights gleaned from
the results achieved. high quality data within your organization’s grasp can be the ‘secret ingre-
dient’ that gives your brand an advantage over your competitors. In fact,
In fact, data itself is at the core of modern marketing’s success, especially in
this ‘secret ingredient’ is something that you should work towards protecting
terms of automated lead scoring, re-targeting, and nurturing. That said, data
and realizing its full potential.
also provides its share of challenges.
The only path to ensure each data opportunity is captured, understood,
The problems begin when data is inadequately integrated, out-of-date, or
and acted upon is through the application of a Marketing Data Manage-
contains critical information gaps, either within the marketing department
ment Plan.
itself or across other aspects of an organization, from sales to customer
support or beyond. Without an organized and strategically thought-out plan, quality data will not
be properly collected, integrated, stored, secured, and maintained in such a
way that it can be mined for reliable marketing insights.

Over the pages in this short how-to guide, we will discuss the
topic of Marketing Data Management and how to leverage best
practices to build a plan that not only suits your organization’s
specific needs, but also provides both a short and long term
approach on how to manage – or wrangle – this important asset.
WRANGLING BIG DATA MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 4

Wrangling Big Data

When considering the topic of marketing data, it is immediately obvious While this covers the basics of defining big data, the team over at SAS
that there is more information available than can be easily understood added two additional ideas to the mix:
or interpreted. Variability: Data flows can behave in incredibly inconsistent ways,
The vast amounts of available data often live within silos, in depart- including massive torrents or onslaughts of data occurring all at
ments, or even deeper within specific pieces of software hidden from once, such as periodic peaks from seasonal events or random peaks
sight, from which it is difficult to quickly gain insights. from trending events within social media.

This mass of data is often known simply as ‘Big Data’. This mass of data holds Complexity: Data is generated from a multitude of sources, which
within it the promise of reduced cost and time, better decision making, and make matching, cleansing, and integrating this data difficult across
insights that can help develop new or optimize existing products or offers. different systems, further increasing the importance of establishing
descriptive taxonomies and hierarchies to assist data organization.
In the early 2000’s, industry analyst Doug Laney offered a definition for
big data as three V’s:

Volume: Data comes from a varied collection of sources such

as social media, business transactions, and analytical software
applications.
Velocity: Data is collected at lightning fast speeds, and it’s required
to be organized and then made actionable as quickly as possible,
and in the case of RFID tags/sensors, in real time.
Variety: Data exists in many forms, from unstructured formats such
as email, video, audio, and text documents, to structured numeric
information parsed into conventional databases.
WRANGLING BIG DATA MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 5

When you wrangle this massive data you can uncover amazing insights
not otherwise possible, such as creating a coupon based on a customer’s
buying history at the point of sale, or recommending other products or
services they would be likely to purchase via a targeted advertisement.

Without adequately managing data, these kind of insights would be

impossible to produce, and when properly leveraged they give any orga-
nization a distinct advantage.

Ultimately there are three forms of data that marketers can leverage:

First-Party Data: This is your organization’s ‘secret ingredient’ for

success. This data is collected from a variety sources, including, but
not limited to, the behavior and actions that are tracked on your mobile
sites or apps, social media, website visitors, marketing automation
tracking, lead scoring, customer relationship management (CRM), and
email subscriptions. If protected properly, no one should have access
to this information except your organization, which can provide a
competitive advantage if properly understood and managed.

Second-Party Data: This is another organization’s first-party data. This

can be either purchased or traded with another organization under a
mutually beneficial relationship.
For the purposes of this introductory guide we will be focusing on
Third-Party Data: This data is purchased or collected from social
managing your first-party data effectively, since this ‘secret ingre-
media, and websites that you do not own. Third-party data can help
dient’ offers the biggest immediate opportunity to your organization.
you access vast resources of information useful in targeting adver-
tisements and making campaign or product decisions.
DATA QUALITY AND COMPLIANCE MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 6

Data Quality and Compliance

When it comes to data, quality and context are incredibly important. Ensure quality compliance with the following four steps:

With context, the options are limitless. While your marketing automa-
1 Determine the quality, relevance, authenticity, and consistency
tion system has contextual information such as the name, email, title,
of current data. By leveraging data assurance tools, data can be
company, industry, and other points of interest available, the possibilities
profiled, the process can become automated, and specific data
don’t end there.
rules can be set up.
Adding data such as buyer interactions across your channels (website,
2 Establish a process to fix data into the correct standardized
direct sales, store etc.), behavioral data including likes and dislikes on
format. Without standardized data formatting, the customer
social media, or interactions on your website, as well as past purchases,
records will not integrate with other channels or systems properly.
known requests, and any support issues, offers a much more robust
picture of a prospect or customer.
3 Ensure this standardized process is mandated upon collection
Without integrating and analyzing data from all of these different sources, of any incoming data. All incoming data that is new should follow
systems, and channels, it would be impossible to fully personalize any this procedure so it aligns with the existing data and creates a
communication, or read the customers’ minds to offer products and seamless, reliable data stream.
offers they would likely be interested in.
4 Conduct on-going audits of data to safeguard data collection
That said, without quality control the data is worthless, no matter how efforts. Mistakes can happen, so it’s important to do regular audits
many sources it is derived from. For this reason, the first step any orga- of how standardized the inputted data really is.
nization needs to take is to establish standards for how data is collected,
transferred, and stored.

Your marketing team will need to work together with the IT department
to ensure compliance of data quality is adhered to, including complete-
ness and accuracy. Variation and deviation in how data is formatted must
be handled early on, otherwise data integrity will become compromised
and difficult to wrangle effectively.
DATA INTEGRATION MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 7

Data Integration
Once your data is properly formatted, and quality compliance is being
followed, the next stage is integration with multiple sources of data.

Social media channels provide API’s, and other data sources offer the
ability to integrate, but this requires another look at your standardization
efforts.

Not only do you need to ensure that your internal first-party data is prop-
erly integrated, but you will need to ensure that all second-party and,
in most cases, third-party data is also properly collected and managed.

The challenge with integration is that each system has its own required
approach to formatting.

Software is often used to ensure that data formats are properly trans-
ferred, transformed, and organized into cogent groups. While access to
the data can be easily available, the issue here is to ensure all of the data
can harmonize accurately.

Over time, different sources of data will need to be added for integra-
tion, but it’s recommended that you start with your top three sources
of data first.

By identifying the sources of data that have information most important

to your organization, you can make the process of harmonizing the data
easier to quantify and achieve in the short-term
ONGOING DATA MAINTENANCE, STORAGE, & MANAGEMENT MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 8

Ongoing Data Maintenance, Storage, & Management

Beyond data quality and integration, a data management plan needs to Once you begin storing and managing data, the process never ends.
address storage, review, disaster contingencies, and security, as well
Ongoing audits will be required to ensure standards are being followed,
as the roles and responsibilities required to ensure the data is properly
and that any required controls are in place to keep the system accurate
taken care of.
and reliable.
Data management requires that the following take place:
It’s also not recommended to allow users the ability to contaminate
Data management best practices are employed. Following data. For example, within a marketing automation system, several
existing best-in-class approaches to data management will ensure improper uneducated actions (such as improper tagging) could poten-
that a strong foundation is applied for all subsequent data- based tially destroy the data’s quality permanently.
endeavors. For this reason, you should have data gatekeepers for all of your main
Data and metadata is accurate. Information gathered within your data repositories who act as administrators for the data in question. From
system must be reliable and valid or no one will trust using the data. marketing automation to other database-driven platforms, having an
‘admin user’ control data quality and permissions will ensure that mass
Data is seen as an important asset to your organization. Once busi-
data corruption does not occur.
ness decisions are made based on this data, the collection, organiza-
tion, and utilization of data will become a larger priority. Once this data flow is being maintained properly, it’s time to ensure this
Data needs are determined separately from the technology used information is sitting in the correct software platform based on your orga-
to manage it. It’s important that your organization’s specific data nization’s distinct needs.
needs drive the technology required to implement this strategy (as
opposed to starting with technology first).
SOFTWARE PLATFORMS FOR MANAGING CUSTOMER DATA MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 9

Software Platforms for Managing Customer Data

Data always needs a home, and with data management there is no single Data Management Platform (DMP)
solution.
We have all likely experienced a DMP in action. When
Ultimately, the journey towards managing customer data will require a product you searched for on one website appears in
sophisticated software platforms designed to manage the deluge of banner ads and social ads in places you visit, this is a DMP
information streaming in. To achieve this effort, there are three main in action.
systems that are utilized to manage data:
DMPs (Data Management Platforms) have a very focused
purpose: managing prospect data for digital advertising.
1 Data Management Platforms (DMP)
DMPs are primarily marketing focused systems. Since the
ads are highly targeted, these platforms help marketers
2 Customer Data Hubs (CDH)
limit spend and increase ROI for their campaigns.
3 Marketing Data Lakes (MDL) Unfortunately, they do not give your organization the full
picture. They often focus specifically on digital activity,
We will take a brief look at all three to give you the full picture. While and don’t always provide a complete view of interactions
these systems, when working together, will bring your organization across all possible channels. DMPs are also owned by
closer towards creating the ultimate data flexibility, in many cases only a third parties, which gives your organization less control of
single solution is required to begin. the data.

For the purpose of this introductory guide to Marketing Data Manage- That said, they are still a first and important step in blending
ment, we will concentrate on the DMP (Data Management Platform), your data together for audience analysis, optimizing
as it offers the most immediate support for increasing your marketing targeted campaigns, and discovering other lookalike pros-
campaign effectiveness, and is the easiest way to leverage your pects to advertise to (based on your existing audience).
managed data.
SOFTWARE PLATFORMS FOR MANAGING CUSTOMER DATA MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 10

Customer Data Hub (CDH) Marketing Data Lake (MDL)

When people think of Omni-channel marketing, they are While encountering big data, your organization will
often thinking about the Customer Data Hub (CDH) in encounter a variety of external data types that are unstruc-
action. tured and otherwise unknown to your systems.

These systems bring together more than just marketing, This data can include information from social media, mobile
including sales, finance, and customer service into a devices/apps, call logs, or sensors connected to devices
single data container. your organization uses.

CDHs allow a more robust view of the customer or pros- To accommodate all of these data formats manually would
pect across all possible touch points. take a lot of time and cost, but the Marketing Data Lake
(MDL) solves this problem altogether.
These systems are incredibly powerful tools in improving
the overall customer experience, since all members MDL systems bring together silos of data from third parties
of your team can access the information on any given so your organizations can visualize the full customer journey
customer or prospect record, enabling them to work in for actionable insights.
tandem in producing exceptional results.
MDL systems can leverage all of these data streams, and
The profiles created by a CDH help your organization powerful insights can be discovered that can influence
manage high-quality interactions, from marketing to product development or marketing offers, both globally
support, since every time a customer interacts you have and specific to your existing customers.
a record of their activity.
UNDERSTANDING DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS (DMP) MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 11

Understanding Data Management Platforms (DMP)

Data Management Platforms (DMP) are a quick and easy way to simplify DMPs can integrate with your CRM and marketing automation data, and
‘Big Data’ and improve your ROI while reducing costs. even call logs, to help your organization reduce its media spend. The
insights gathered using DMPs give your organization the ability to further
They are designed to sort, store, and, ultimately, take action on multiple
leverage your first-party data quickly and efficiently.
sources of online (and in some cases, offline) data including, but not limited
to, social media, transactions, email, CRM, search, and banner ads. DMPs utilize cloud based storage, and are often equipped with built-in
analytical tools to help discover insights from your aggregated data
This data comes not only from your organization’s first-party data (such
stream.
as your website) but also any integrated third-party data providers, with
the aim of merging both desktop and mobile browsing into a ‘single view’. Famous publicly available DMPs you may already know about include
Google’s and Facebook’s ad systems, which can help you to leverage
Also known as Identity Management Platforms (IDMP) and Customer
your data and find similar audiences to whom you can advertise.
Data Platforms (CDP), a DMP can import both known and unknown data
to build profiles that enable your organization to find similar audience
segments for targeted advertising.

DMPs often have built-in pre-integrated relationships with data

providers that give their users access to pre-organized data,
helping their clients scale their advertising campaigns to similar
profiled prospects.
UNDERSTANDING DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS (DMP) MARKETING DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 12

The advantages in using one of these existing external DMPs include

access to some of the biggest data sets available, but your options will
be limited by each platform’s exclusive advertising environments (ie.
Google’s DMP will not place ads on Facebook, and vice versa).

An agency partner may suggest you utilize their private DMP to give you
immediate access to their expertise and software toolkit, which can often
include a data set shared amongst its clientele (adding additional insight
possibilities).

That said, if you’re working with multiple agencies, utilizing your own
in-house DMP would enable you to coordinate across all your agency
partners, aggregate the data, and, ultimately, ensure your ad spend is
always fully optimized.

Another reason to utilize an in-house standalone DMP would be to

control multiple advertising sources manually, via your in-house agency
team, while protecting your first-party data (‘secret ingredient’).

DMPs help to reduce data storage costs by leveraging built-in cloud-

based storage, also doubling as an off-site disaster recovery contin-
gency plan.

They lessen costs for implementation, as the software required to run the
system is cloud-based and does not require an install on each machine it
runs on. Lastly, DMPs diminish labor costs by allowing for fast analysis of
big data streams, which requires less resources to manage.
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