The Data Orchestration Journey Behind Personalization
“The greatest trick ever pulled was convincing the world getting the data wasn’t priority one.”
Your marketing teams want data. Strike that. Your marketing teams NEED data. Data orchestration is the practice of centralizing, rationalizing and modeling data from across your channels. It’s also exactly what you need to get actionable data into your marketers’ hands. With this data there will be new possibilities in the quality and the timeliness of the communications that can be sent to your various audiences. So, how can you get your team into position for these benefits?
Getting buy in
Getting the investment for data orchestration tools requires planning and good internal marketing. It’s important to 1) communicate the value proposition of bringing your data together and 2) outlining clear and achievable use cases that build on each other and deliver quick wins. The idea is make sure you’re able to have a clear plan to deliver business value. This will normally come through new activities that were previously not possible without this level of data connectivity, and also improved channel performance.
Implementation
Implementation for your newly-connected data system, as it relates to your MAP, is normally taking place via API. During the requirements and planning phase it’s important to understand the breadth of the data you’ll be ingesting in the beginning as well as later on as your usage matures. This is important so that you can identify your approach to modeling the data and it’s storage/uses within the MAP.
This planning and forethought that goes into the implementation will greatly affect your enablement activities. It’s critical that this stage is handled with a thorough understanding of how operations are handled within the target channel(s) of your first use cases and what is needed.
Enablement
Enabling your teams to use this new data is a process that takes time and plenty of guidance. Outline the different tools and techniques that will be needed for your marketers to succeed. This means creating documentation, holding training sessions, and making support teams available during their ramp up period. It’s also important to set clear expectations with the teams. In larger organizations those marketing teams may have to allocate part of their budget for technical troubleshooting resources. It’s also crucial for these teams to understand how their usage may shift their resources and affect their turnaround times for campaign execution.
Wrapping up here is simple. Setting yourself up for success is a matter of controlling the things you can control. That’s namely selling the idea to the business and then making sure that you are preparing not only yourself but other teams for the changes they will be experiencing. Keep your own expectations in check as well. As with any large-scale project that is highly technical in nature you will encounter roadblocks that must be navigated. You will encounter unexpected challenges and “gotchas”. That comes with the territory. If you’ve put in the work to prepare as much as possible, these difficulties can be overcome while maintaining your sanity. That’s it for now. Good luck!
