There's data everywhere, no doubt about that. However, how useful is this data to marketers and are they making the most of what it can offer them? Colin Grieves, managing director, digital marketing and media services, Experian, believes 2017 signals change for the way information is used. Writing exclusively for ExchangeWire, Grieves explains why data at the point of interaction is the future. 

The connected world we live in today brings exciting opportunities. The next few years will be pivotal to marketers, as data continues to join up modern technology and enable the delivery of improved experiences and more seamless interactions.

For everyone else (we are all customers, after all), we’ll see an increase in the level of service and relevancy of the communications we receive as brands ramp up their ‘people-based marketing’ efforts to create one-to-one interactions. People-based marketing is what’s required, because it’s what’s expected. Customers expect to be treated as individuals and brands should concentrate on adding value.

Data is needed to keep up with this ever-increasing customer expectation. Over the past few years, more emphasis has been put on real-time decisions as more and more technology comes to the market that can help deliver lightning-fast interactions. What hasn’t evolved at the same pace is the way we use information. This will change in 2017.

The way marketers use data, the way suppliers sell data, and the way the advertising ecosystem operates, are ready for change. At the moment, the majority of brands build audience segments from a variety of data sources and then deploy them across channels. These can be across a range of channels with varying levels of sophistication when it comes to how performance and insights are fed back into future decisioning. However, those audiences are still built using information purchased as a separate action.

What happens if you come across an individual who would be a perfect fit, who doesn't fit the specifics of the audience you built?

Or, more likely, what if in the advertising ecosystem you encounter someone you know nothing about, when they could be the ideal fit? You could be missing out on a host of valuable opportunities. Similarly, there may be lots of people who are not getting the messages most relevant and useful to them. That needs to change.

The solution is to alter the way information is used. Data at the point of interaction is the future and one we will see develop rapidly over the next year. This is data that is right there at the point of the interaction, powering real time, rather than before those audience segments are deployed. It may seem like a big jump, but the techniques and technology is here now – bid enrichment and the opening up of data will make this change happen.

The benefits are huge. Consumers enjoy more consistent, relevant experiences, and marketers move much closer to true, people-based marketing in every channel.

These trends will be further accelerated by continued adoption of data management platforms (DMPs) and the benefits they bring to businesses. What will make the difference, though, is how businesses use DMPs, not whether they invest or not. With many DMP providers continuing to flog SaaS systems with limited support, it’s the brands that integrate their investment with a carefully thought out strategy and the use of expertise (whether that’s internal or external) who will do well.

2017 will be a challenging, but rewarding, year for marketers. The technology is there for us to start doing what we’ve been preaching for so long – putting the customer at the heart of everything. And it’s happening at just about the right time: the pressures of new regulation and ever-increasing customer expectation mean it’s almost now or never.