“69% of searchers will use their phone to help them decide on an in-store purchase”, as per Omnicore (source 1).
Well, the fact that customers are using multiple channels/devices to make a purchase has, in a way led to the evolution of MadTech space.
Hence, brands need a robust strategy to reach customers who are fragmented across the online and offline ecosystem.
Let me present to you a scenario that led to the rise of the concept of identity resolution.
A customer comes to your store enquiring about a laptop, and simultaneously, he is also searching for best-priced laptops at other websites over his phone.
It turns out that previously he had compared prices offered by other retailers in his desktop at the office.
As a marketer, your first aim would be to narrow down on this customer.
But, here, it is difficult to capture his online behaviour because this same customer has so many identities across the web.
Now, if you are not familiar with his multiple interactions across devices and platforms, you are sure to be losing out on him.
Considering this issue, marketers realized the need to solve this puzzle of resolving the identity of customers.
Enter Identity resolution.
Here are the topics which we are discussing in this article:
- What is Customer Identity Resolution?
- Types of Identity Resolution
- Why is Identity Resolution Important?
- How to Carry Out Identity Resolution?
- How Identity Resolution Helps in Getting a 360-Degree View of Your Customers?
- Identity Resolution Use Case
- How Does Resolving the Identity of Customers Create a Difference?
- Identity Resolution In DigitalKites
What is Customer Identity Resolution?
Customer Identity Resolution is a process of recognising a single customer and developing a prototype of his actions.
The purpose is to make sure that brands get a 360-degree omnichannel view of the customer journey.
Because to survive in this cutthroat competitive marketplace, having total visibility of customers is a must.
All information about them is stored in distributed systems, and there is no mapping to see how they are shifting from one platform to another.
Identity resolution will connect and unify all the separate identities of a customer from different data touchpoints and link them to a single person.
Each individual will have a single profile so that you have a centralized source of information about the person.
With this, you can track where did the customer or a visitor come to your website from, mobile, tablet, laptop and analyse his actions for triggering personalised messages based on his behaviour.
This process is the background principle of people-based marketing, which focuses on providing customers with a cohesive experience by tracking them across the broad spectrum of devices they use.
Further, let’s explore different types of identity resolution.
Types of Identity Resolution
Probabilistic Identity Resolution Approach
In probabilistic matching, you will gather identifiers from various sources like browsers, IP address, devices, locational data, and more.
All these identifiers are matched and linked to a single customer.
Deterministic Identity Resolution Approach
In deterministic matching, the PII (personally identifiable information) of customers are matched and mapped to an individual.
Meaning, the first-party data such as anonymized phone numbers, email addresses, etc., are matched with the online identifiers of users.
Usually, deterministic identity resolution is carried out by most businesses as it is more accurate.
Why is Identity Resolution Important?
Now, dependency on desktops has shifted to mobiles phones, tablets and so on.
More often than not, your customers are shopping or surfing the internet through mobile devices.
They don’t have to access it through desktop only (as it was the case earlier).
Hence, most customers are using multi-channels to make a purchase. And, the identity of the customer in each of these channels is different.
Therefore, you require a medium to gather all these identities of your customer and map it to one single user.
Identity resolution technology helps you to match and map your customer’s identity. Ultimately, helping in your marketing efforts.
How to Carry Out Identity Resolution?
It depends on identity resolution providers/companies on how you should carry out user matching.
However, there are some primary steps which you need to follow. They are:
Begin with Data Onboarding
Data onboarding is the process of bringing offline data into the online environment. It is most helpful for offline marketers to target the same customers online.
Anonymizing your Data
Usually, you have to anonymize any PII of your customers while performing digital advertising or marketing.
So, anonymizing your data through any of the security mechanisms will make you compliant with data privacy policies such as GDPR or CCPA.
You are thereby securing your data.
Perform User Matching or Resolution
Identity resolution tools will compare two different data sets, i.e., your first-party data/offline data with the online identifiers of customers with the help of identity graphs.
And, gives a certain percentage of match ids and these matched ids will help you in your marketing efforts online.
So, Wondering What is an ID Graph?
An ID Graph or User Identity Graph is a kind of a database which consists of identifiers of individual customers.
Most identity resolution companies have their identity graph on which they perform identity resolution features.
User identity graph helps in matching and mapping multiple identifiers to one single individual.
How Identity Resolution Helps in Getting a 360-Degree View of Your Customers?
Identity resolution marketing is all about combining multiple offline and online identities and routing them to one customer.
Meaning, when you have a phone number, cookie id, ad id, IP address of a customer and then you will match it with online ids, you will have a combined identifier—thereby providing you with a 360-degree view of your customer.
So far, identity resolution is working wonders for most marketers as they can personalize their ads and reach customers more effectively with this feature.
Identity Resolution Use Case
Suppose, you are an offline brand with an online presence, and you want to engage your most loyal customers in the online ecosystem.
You can onboard your offline data and opt for identity resolution. Then, you can map your offline customer online and send targeted ads to those customers through digital channels.
Similarly, there are many advantages to user matching and resolution. Read further to know more!
How Does Resolving the Identity of Customers Create a Difference?
Although it sounds simple, achieving it is challenging due to the fragmented behaviour of consumers today.
It is the future of personalized marketing.
The advantages are infinite; let’s have a look at a few of them.
Plus Point for Both Customer and Company
ID resolution is good for the company as they can pinpoint the exact person who’s interested in their products.
And with streamlined campaigns, customers will not feel the burden of irrelevant advertisements.
Storing Data Becomes Manageable
In this era of personalized computing, a customer leaves a lot of scattered data about himself whenever he interacts with a system.
Thus, gathering all these data separately is a tough job on the part of the marketers.
However, when marketers adopted the concept of identity management, then it became more comfortable for them to store all the data in one place.
A Single View of Customers Can Be Made
Identity resolution is synonymous to having a single customer view.
For this reason, communication among the company and business improves, enabling better customization of customer profiles.
Customer Loyalty Deepens
With identity resolution, you have a higher edge over your competitors.
Reaching out to customers on a more personal and human level is vastly more efficient as it creates a long-lasting bond.
You can deliver seamless relevant experiences that will drive the engagement level.
When customers feel like their perspectives and needs are taken care of, they are likely to be more loyal towards the brand.
In turn, doubling the customer lifetime value.
Hyper-Personalization is Possible
Customers are prone to multi-stage customer journeys and expect real-time responsiveness from brands throughout.
Identity management is the key to delivering hyper-personalized customer engagements, that comply with the needs of customers.
Improves Deliverability
Identity resolution is a growth propeller for brands, as it helps position their products in a better fashion.
Having an understandability of the customers helps you in aligning your products and services in their way.
For example, you get to know that a particular customer is more frequent surfing on mobile, so send him push notifications or discount offers on his phone.
Further, you can decide on how you can improve your offerings or see what features you can add to serve your customers better.
Scales up ROI
The information gathered will allow you to target the desired customer with more appropriate strategies accurately.
Moreover, ID graph decreases the chances of overlapping and duplication.
Hence time required to approach the defined customers will be less.
Ultimately, reducing associated costs, with better sales targeting; increasing your return on investment.
Identity Resolution In DigitalKites
DigitalKites is an Identity Resolution Company which has two specific platforms for publishers (AudiencePlay) and advertisers (AudiencePrime) respectively.
With its inbuilt id graph and an impressive match rate, DigitalKites greatly helps in resolving the identities of your customers.
It has an inbuilt id graph with the network of brands and publishers that are associated with the company.
Also, being an open collaborative platform, DigitalKites provides various features to leverage your data for online marketing and data monetization.
Takeaway
Considering the state of marketing today, identifying customers, wherever they are active, is becoming an essential fundament for customer-centric marketing.
With business demands changing more quickly than ever, you need to stay updated with its requirements.
ID resolution holds the potential to turn any brand into a runaway success.
It aids in unlocking new insights, bringing campaigns to life and making audience engagement better.
More and more organizations today are experiencing the benefits of having holistic profiles to resolve the identity of customers.
Contact us today to explore more about DigitalKites Identity Resolution feature and how it can help you!
