The world of marketing and technology is in constant motion. While marketers are seeing more data privacy regulation put into place, consumers continue to demand more relevant experiences from advertisers. Identity resolution is the key to combat these seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum.

Identity resolution is the process of collecting and matching identifiers across devices and touchpoints to build a cohesive omnichannel view of an individual consumer. Sounds complicated right? Identity resolution is complex and many brands struggle to connect all the dots. However, identity, and the process that resolves it to a real consumer, creates an intersection of data - bringing together all consumer interactions, both online and off, past and present.  Investing in Identity and a plan to achieve your marketing goals will produce results. If you are looking to advance your marketing capabilities, having an identity solution is the one crucial thing that can bring your data together, deliver an accurate view of your customer, and fuel the vision you seek.  Here are three of the most popular motives to put identity at the top of your to do list:

Accurate, In-Moment Personalization

A consumer’s journey not only spans across multiple devices and channels, but also extends into the physical world. Identity resolution collects and connects all different types of identifiers to one person so a customer can be recognized and targeted with the right content, in the right context, and at the right time.

Say, for example, a consumer is browsing your website and downloads your app. Then, that same consumer visits your store and makes a purchase. The content you serve them next time should be informed of that prior purchase. At this point, the consumer should not be getting retargeting ads from the initial visit or any triggered email connected to that original browse behavior.

Linking all touchpoints to a single identifier and ensuring all channels are indeed marketing to a person is critical for in-moment personalization. This allows marketers to always be one step ahead of the consumer, anticipating their needs and providing a message that is person-based and the most precise, next best offer/action for that person.

Omnichannel/Cross-Device Customer Journeys

Omnichannel marketing puts the customer at the center of your strategy to ensure a completely consistent, unified experience. The customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, via phone, or in a brick-and-mortar store, and through omnichannel marketing the experience should be seamless.

This capability, however, is hampered by the nature of the MarTech stack. Across the stack there are multiple technology solutions and partners and customer data can be scattered among different platforms, channels, applications and silos. Each platform has their own set of IDs and methods for targeting customers. Adding further complexity is the number of devices each consumer uses daily. How can a brand effectively know their customers on all devices and in store to create this cohesive messaging experience?

Identity Resolution and a singular, enterprise Customer ID can bridge the gap between these platforms and devices for this unified experience. The Customer ID facilitates the ability to connect the points between those devices, platforms, and channels along the customer’s path to purchase.  Building the private identity graph in conjunction with a device graph will strengthen the ability to tie all disparate ID and device signals received, make sense of them, and then unite them to a person (their Customer ID) allowing marketers to create that cohesive omnichannel journey.

Proven Marketing Attribution & ROI

Marketing has never been so measurable, and at the same time, it’s never been so difficult to connect all the siloed metrics into one complete multi-channel attribution model. Enter identity resolution. Identity resolution gives you the ability to connect your different marketing platform and channel exposures together to a person, to learn what’s really driving revenue.

To understand the impact of each event, it’s important to uncover each touchpoint that both prospect and current customers have with your business from their very first interaction to the moment they purchase. Which pages did they visit? Did they download any of your premium content offers? Once you know which touchpoints are the most effective, you can prioritize them in the coming year.

For example, you can see that people in Segment A saw ads A and B online and they were twice as likely to buy products C and D offline. Subsequently, not only will you be able build more accurate attribution models, but you will also able to more accurately forecast revenue. This allows better planning and budget forecasting as you can effectively drive conversions based on data. Identity resolution allows you to connect every silo, give credit to all touchpoints, and maximize ROI through the learnings gained from attribution.

The year 2020 has brought about many uncertainties and changes. Many organizations are finding themselves rising to the occasion and accelerating their digital transformation. Investing in identity and a long-term strategy for continued identity management creates the foundation needed to mature capabilities across the tech stack and will unlock the most sought-after marketing competencies as discussed here.

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