December 12, 2018
No digital marketer will ever argue just how important data is to their advertising and marketing initiatives. Data is the key ingredient to ensure businesses truly reach their target audiences in meaningful ways. However, as the amount of data only continued to grow in 2018, digital marketers became increasingly challenged to mine it, sort through it and glean actionable insights from it, in order to take full advantage of the ROI it offered.
As 2018 comes to an end, we want to take a few moments to reflect on a few of the highlights in digital marketing this past year. At the same time, we want to offer insight on what trends we see transpiring for 2019. Digital Element recently conducted research that puts our digital-marketing past and future in perspective.
Some of the top digital marketing data trends that took place during the course of 2018:
- Digital Data Exhaust Is Real. Data exhaust was a recognized issue for digital marketers in 2018. Sixty-eight percent of marketers were concerned with data exhaust, the data that companies toss out because they feel it provides little or no value to their core business.
- IP Data Continues to Produce Results. Almost 40 percent of marketers said they were fully leveraging the types of IP data that were available or that they needed. Additionally, 75 percent were aware that there is IP-address data associated with mobile devices, accurately providing location intelligence down to a block level—and at times an exact latitude/longitude is possible in public places and venues.
- Location, Location and More Location. Location data was the most common type of IP data used with 71 percent of digital marketers finding it “very important.” They’re using this data in ways that allows them to contextually interface with consumers in non-invasive, socially responsible and respectful ways.
In looking ahead to the new year, we expect these four undercurrents to emerge to the top:
- Digital Marketers Will Pay Closer Attention to Data at Their Fingertips. Digital marketing professionals certainly recognize the revenue potential related to the data their company was potentially throwing away. Sixty percent of marketers say that using another 25 percent of that data would result in a definite revenue boost.
- More Interest in Tapping the Full Potential of IP Data. Sixty-one percent of digital marketers, last year, left plenty of room for improvement because they were not utilizing all the different data points available to them or were not aware of the different types of data associated with an IP address. A large majority expect to incorporate more IP data points to enhance their advertising, personalization and analytics.
- Mobile Carrier Data Will Grow in Importance. Mobile Carrier data, used by 38 percent of marketers last year, will be a top priority―and particularly for retailers, where 67 percent will look to access it.
- Converting Latitude/Longitude into Real Information. More than one quarter of digital marketers say they want to explore more use of lat/long data in the new year, especially retail organizations. Solutions that seamlessly and easily covert GPS-obtained coordinates from mobile devices into useful, relevant information will be high on their radars.
There is a vast amount of useable, reliable and accurate data available to digital marketers that can be easily acquired without invading consumers’ privacy. Digital marketers must learn to harness it though. This wealth of information will allow companies to confidently produce the necessary one-to-one digital marketing experience that more closely resembles the real world.
What do you think the biggest impacts affecting digital marketing data will be in 2019? Share your thoughts with us here.