How to Begin Building a Persistent Customer Identity

In this three-part series on customer identity, we have examined the challenges with, and solutions for, resolving consumer identity across all channels. Read part one in the series focusing on the challenges marketers face around identity and part two that presents a solution to the problem. Our final installment will provide initial steps you can take to begin building a persistent customer identity.

70% of marketers claim that achieving a 360-degree view of customers is important to the success of their businesses, yet only 10% are confident they are getting that view.¹ For most organizations, insights about their customers are limited to what they can mine from in-house (first-party) data which reveals only a partial view of the customer. 

To fill this data gap, organizations have begun to prioritize the acquisition of third-party data to enrich what they already know about their customers and prospects. While this enhances a marketer’s ability to generate insights that aid in the acquisition and retention of their most valuable customers, it also adds to the complexity of integrating all of this data into a single, consolidated view. However, with the right approach it is a problem that can be solved. 

Building a Persistent Customer Identity: Getting Started

1. Start with your existing data

Identify the types and sources of data that you have in-house. Look at traditional data such as name, address, and purchase history as well as digital data like email addresses, IP addresses and mobile ID numbers. Understand what data you currently possess, understand what you have easy access to, and document other data that exists in your organization with a strategy to begin integrating it.

2. Identify your existing data gaps

Determine how you can bring your invisible data – anonymous site or store visitors for example - to light, how you can access and track these hidden sources of engagement, and then how you can enrich this data to paint a complete picture of your customer. Work with a third-party data provider to enrich your data with behavioral and location insights and begin filling in the gaps.

3. Create a channel-independent persistent key

The mobile advertiser ID (MAID) is a perfect identifier to build an identity strategy around because it is unique, it can track online and offline behavior and it remains persistent over time. Creating a persistent identity for each consumer will build bridges between channels, allowing the data from each channel to be recorded and tracked across the consumer lifecycle, no matter how they engage with your brand. With a more complete picture of buyers and prospects, marketers can make informed decisions to effectively acquire, understand, and retain their most valuable customers.

Mobilewalla can help by taking your unique customer IDs (such as household connected devices like TV sets, user IDs, browser cookies, session IDs, etc.) and matching them to mobile IDs via the IP address to which the customer ID and mobile devices were connected to during the time of activity.

Related Reading: How Customer Data Enrichment Drives Better Engagement

For more information on how to get a 360-degree view of your customer, connect with our experts or download our new white paper, “Building A Persistent Customer Identity: Strategies for Success."

About Mobilewalla

Mobilewalla combines the industry’s most robust data set with deep data science and artificial intelligence expertise to help brands make more informed business decisions and effectively acquire, understand and retain their most valuable customers.

We collect, identify and analyze directly sourced application usage data from SDK integration and supply-side platform partnerships.  Through our extensive AI expertise, we deliver refined consumer insights that provide enterprises with unparalleled access to the digital and offline behavior patterns of their customers and prospects as well as nuanced data about their competition.

Sources:
¹ https://www.adweek.com/partner-articles/heres-whats-keeping-marketers-from-mastering-customer-identity