Data management platforms provide invaluable market insight that marketers can use to create branded content.

For as long as advertising has been an acknowledged practice, professionals have understood that customers get the last word and the success of a campaign depends on how well it appeals to a specific audience. In the digital era, this trend remains true – in fact, it might be even more relevant today than in the past as consumers now have a plethora of information at their fingertips.

A recent IBM CEO Study found that 72 percent of CEOs cite understanding individual customer needs and response times as the most important key to success and retention. The data shows business owners want to tailor outreach programs to reach individual buyers in a personable manner. The anonymity of the web can pose challenges to reaching specific audiences, but this can be overcome with “big data,” which IBM defines as “insights on new and emerging types of data and content that make a business more agile.” Professionals can utilize insight from technology like data management platforms (DMPs) to perfect their content marketing efforts.IBM consumer trends

According to a recent study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Winterberry Group, approximately 77 percent of businesses say DMPs will play an important role in improving advertising efforts. DMPs are solutions that provide marketers with the opportunity to compile, analyze and use vast amounts of varied data. Marketers can use the information they garner from these big data tools to better target prospective leads based on variables like consumption habits or unique character attributes. DMPs also help marketers identify industry trends, which makes content creation timely and relevant.

While DMPs are viewed as important solutions for higher-quality marketing campaigns, only 23 percent of survey respondents feel the technology can be used for channel deployment strategies on its own. Marketers still need to conduct traditional market research and insert their own expertise and voice into the content they publish to stand out. DMP technology can help identify prospect needs, but well-written blog content converts potential customers to loyal brand ambassadors.

Ted Karczewski is an Executive Communications Associate at Brafton. He works to develop his own voice and apply his passions to the evolving world of SEO and content marketing, but he doesn't shy away from writing for fun. After graduating from Suffolk University, Ted used his Communications degree to test out Sports Journalism before Marketing at Brafton.