What’s Going on in the World of 'People-Based Marketing'?

You can be excused if you have had trouble following everything that’s happening around what is increasingly being called “people-based marketing” – it’s a busy, busy space.

However, with a keen eye fixed on how identity data is revolutionizing marketing, a few major transactions and product announcements have stood out that reward the close observer about what is really happening to our beloved unique identifier, the email address.

A big move was made at Marketo’s annual Marketing Nation Summit. In a bid toward streamlining its digital marketing portfolio into a single software platform, they announced their new offering, Ad Bridge. Ad Bridge, as Marketo explains “connects Marketo’s rich behavioral data with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and other advertising platforms, so marketers can target the right potential customers with meaningful, relevant ads.” The move is part of the trend of empowering B2B practitioners to make data-driven decisions using insights previously unavailable to them.

A couple of weeks ago, another piece of news rocked the industry was announced and is still fresh in the minds of email technologists: Oracle’s creation of its own translation layer: the Oracle ID Graph. This technology works as a cross-device solution by helping marketers connect identities across disparate marketing channels and devices to one customer.

But what really got people excited was Google’s non-press release. Apparently, Google is going to let marketers onboard their email data for better targeting on Google owned and operated properties. Imagine search results informed by your brand affinities. Imagine a version of Waze maps that tells you where your favorite chain restaurants are…and gives you a coupon for coffee, not just directions?

Why do all of these seemingly internecine B2B data plays have such powerful implications for the best email practitioners? Because the future of email marketers depends on this consolidation and innovation.

Everyone thinks of email as being B2C. After all, the email is being sent to an individual, so logic would dictate that those are the only two players involved. However, this takes a myopic view toward the best practices in the email channel.

The true standouts in email marketing will embrace their B2B side and take advantage of the opportunities that the incorporation of CRM data has made available. These extensions of email capabilities from CRM data and integration will be the end result of B2B consolidation explained above.

Email marketers think of themselves as being in the B2C space, and to a degree, they’re right. But by using the insights and tools available from B2B powerhouses of CRM utility, they can turn email into most effective possible B2C apparatus out there.

For the last several years, marketers have relied solely on monolithic publishers like Facebook to reach the consumer. With the emergence of B2B intelligence to the rescue, there is no doubt that email will once again establish itself as the most powerful tool on the market to reach individuals. Because in reality, people-based marketing is just another way of saying “email marketing” by people who know that “email is not just about sending email anymore.”