Richard Foster, UK MD at LiveRamp, explains the importance of people-based marketing and how it is evolving.

We all know that technology moves at such pace that it’s hard to keep up. For many years now, it has been the goal of marketing to attempt to target and communicate to an audience of one – ensuring every communication, every piece of creative is carefully screened for each individual person’s tastes and preferences.

And for those same long years it has been generally acknowledged that this is impossible. Well, no longer. Fuelled by the rise and increasing sophistication of digital marketing evolution, the people-based marketing of the future is actually the people-based marketing of now.

Before the emergence of people-based techniques the goal of marketers was to target and communicate to an audience of one, ensuring every communication was maximised and goal focused. Marketers have been targeting real people in their display ad campaign for years, but with latest developments such as our recent work with Google Customer Match, people-based search has created a smart way to spot and act on buying intent like never before. This means every piece of creative content can be carefully screened for each individual’s tastes and preferences answering on the promise of true one-to-one communications at scale.

How people-based marketing has impacted the industry and consumers

There have been a number of technical advancements in data onboarding, which are having an impact in the marketing, digital and advertising world. The industry, as a whole, now has the capacity to connect profiles beyond traditional search and first party data, meaning marketers can not only see if an advert has been viewed but also who has seen it. We are now able to bridge the gap between online and offline worlds and better view customer paths to purchase, improving the way brands connect with their consumers. By combining this data with audience insight, we have a much greater understanding of the whole customer journey, together with better scope of how marketing messages and media spend can be attributed and optimised to boost consumer experiences and business results.

Moving on from keyword visibility and cookies

People-based search in particular is a huge leap forward. With almost a third of consumers owning two or more smartphones and 20% of the UK population using their hand-held devices for online shopping, search has evolved to accommodate the fast-paced, active digital lives of modern consumers. With new measurement tools being developed, and the industry moving from keyword visibility and cookies to an audience-focused approach, we need to ensure that we are getting the most from today’s people-based search capabilities to deliver a better and more enhanced experience for customers.

The future of people-based search

As customer behaviours continue to drive online efforts, people-based search allows marketers to be even more targeted and therefore harness the power to drive whole new areas of efficiency and relevance. What remains key to unlocking value for the customer and ensuring long-lasting sustainability is the people dimension. With new trends constantly changing behaviour, the technological landscape will continue having an impact on consumer purchasing decisions.

By mapping a customer’s experience and tracking activity across physical stores into the digital space, endless amounts of insight can be gathered. This gives even greater insight into how to maximise customer value and connect with customers on a deeper, emotional level.

Of course none of this would be possible without the final puzzle piece – customer receptiveness to these approaches. There is a growing desire for convenience and, as long as privacy pitfalls are avoided, people-based search can build that relationship between consumers and marketers. By setting the stage for the customer journey, people-based search techniques can be easily integrated into a business’s overall digital strategy. By doing so, you can finally close the gap between real world action and online interaction.

LiveRamp is an identity resolution provider offering data onboarding.