In the constantly evolving world of modern marketing, decision-making pivots on the support of data accessibility. Yet, despite its importance, 81% of marketers view the application of these data-centric strategies as somewhat tricky.
Perfecting your marketing tactics can be challenging if the data isn't accessible. A study by Nielsen corroborates this - a sizable 36% of marketers find challenges in acquiring the correct data.
Turn the picture around, and you find the issue of excess data access - when marketing teams unexpectedly have surplus information, including potentially private and sensitive data that isn’t meant for them. It’s crucial to manage data access not only for decisions but also for keeping up with data compliance and privacy.
In this guide on how to manage data access in marketing, we'll discuss key aspects of data access and data governance, plus delve into the data management process to help you on the path toward effective data handling.
Marketing teams are awash with data - whether it’s about clients, products, sales, or customer engagement, and this is why it’s essential to have an effective data management process. But firstly, let’s explain what we mean by data access.
What is meant by data access?
Simply put, data access is an organized method of data management that arranges how team members in your organization can retrieve, view, manipulate, or interact with stored data.
In the terrain of data-driven marketing, strong data access strategies ensure the right individuals have access to the right information at the right time. By setting up a robust data management process and data governance, you can maintain confidentiality, protect data integrity, and ensure data availability - which are all necessary components of marketing success.
Why is it important to manage data access?
Running a marketing team effectively requires managing data access competently, as it is a vital component of data governance. As our article, 7 Building Blocks of Good Data Governance outlines, establishing suitable data access rules and processes solidifies the ground for enhanced decision-making within your organization's marketing and data teams.
By controlling who can access what data, your organization can accumulate valuable insights while minimizing potential hazards. To tap into the benefits of your marketing data fully and enhance the impact of your data-driven strategies, managing data access offers some substantial benefits:
1. Overcome data overwhelm
Picture a bustling city without rules or signs – it could quickly spin into a mess of confusion, overcrowding, and chaos. It's the same with data overwhelm, which happens when an avalanche of data from multiple sources makes it hard for senior marketers (something 67% of them report!) to make decisions.
Collecting your data into a centralized database makes data access streamlined, giving you the required facts from one point. As a result, your decision-making becomes quicker, and overall marketing performance increases.
2. Eliminate data silos
These crop up when data gets stuck within departments, resulting in poor communication and collaboration. Data silos create inconsistencies and inefficiencies, which negatively impact decision-making across teams.
This can be corrected by providing appropriate data access levels through data democratization. By linking disparate data sources and allowing team members to view relevant data, businesses can eliminate data silos and harness the power of their collective marketing data.
Data silos create inconsistency and inefficiency3. Protect your sensitive data
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems are full of personal customer data, making it crucial to maintain your data’s privacy for regulatory compliance.
Shielding sensitive data has become more critical with privacy regulations like GDPR, which protects personally identifiable information (PII). By governing who can access what data, you ensure protection from data breaches and possible penalties.
According to a Forbes article, balancing this perfectly involves using data integration tools with easy-to-manage user permissions. These tools allow marketers to view all necessary campaign data for optimization while restricting access to sensitive personal customer data. By implementing data governance strategies, data access control, and data accessibility, organizations can thrive in the era of data privacy.
4. Maintain the integrity of your data
Data integrity refers to the quality assurance of your data over its entire life cycle. It's about ensuring you're collecting high-quality data and guarding your data from unauthorized changes or manipulation. And that's where data access steps into the spotlight.
An essential aspect of your data access management strategy is deciding who can and can’t edit consolidated data. It's about knowing who has what level of access - a key control measure for maintaining the accuracy and trustworthiness of data across your organization.
Maintaining data integrity isn't just about prevention; it’s a proactive approach toward data-driven marketing and responsible data governance.
How to improve data access across marketing teams
We've covered the reasons for the need for data access, but how do we elevate it? Below are how-to steps to ensure your marketing team has the right data access to advance your campaign optimizations and future insights from centralized and standardized data.
1. Identify marketing optimization goals
Your first step will be to map out what you hope to achieve with your marketing data and list specific goals. These key objectives will guide you on the types of data you need for effective optimizations and ensure the correct data access is given to the right people for the required data.
2. Evaluate current data access practices
Just like cleaning your house helps eliminate clutter, assessing current data access practices can help you find areas for improvement and potential security risks. Assessing who has access and how data is accessed highlights whether everyone in your team has a purposeful responsibility and doesn't accidentally obtain sensitive or unnecessary data.
3. Centralize your disparate data
Instead of navigating through multiple systems, it's about bringing all your data to one place. With data integration, having a central database simplifies your data management process and lightens your team's workload, reducing hours spent on different platforms. With everything in one place and everyone knowing where it is, it speeds up decision-making, promotes stronger collaboration, reduces chances of duplication, and enhances the overall quality of your marketing strategies.
Collecting and aligning inconsistent data paves the way for smoother analysis4. Standardize your inconsistent data
The next step is ensuring your data "speaks the same language.” Data inconsistencies result in misunderstandings that can cause errors. By standardizing data, it can improve interpretation.
Collecting and aligning your inconsistent data can create uniformity in data formats, structures, and terminologies, paving the way for smoother analysis across disparate marketing channels. Utilizing methods such as Extract, Transform, Load (ETL), and data integration can assist in transforming and standardizing your data. This enables you to steer your marketing efforts with greater accuracy and assurance.
5. Implement a data governance strategy
Establish a robust data governance strategy to manage data access effectively and data privacy. Defining roles, responsibilities, access policies, and monitoring compliance help create a secure and efficient data access framework. Building upon this and constantly monitoring policies safeguards your compliance and reinforces data accessibility across your organization.
6. Provide training and clear data expectations
Ensure that your team is well-versed in proper data handling methods and knows how to handle data responsibly. By providing ongoing training and setting clear expectations, you empower your team members to follow best practices for data security and compliance, prevent discrepancies, and ensure efficient handling of valuable data assets.
7. Monitor and evaluate progress
Continuously assess your data access practices and adjust your strategies as needed. Regular evaluation helps safeguard the different types of marketing data you have. It keeps your team on track to achieve set goals while maintaining compliance with ever-evolving data privacy regulations.
Tools and technology for improving data access
We get it; the above steps may be overwhelming if you're a business that hasn't yet implemented a clear data access strategy. However, various tools and technologies are available to help improve data access control and management. There's a tool to suit every need, from data management software to access control systems that can create personalized access profiles and manage permissions.
For instance, Adverity's Authorization Center and access to manage user permissions filters can help you streamline data access management by providing clear visibility and secure access to the multiple marketing data sources your team needs.
How Adverity helped Territory Media improve data access across their business
As a leading data integration platform, Adverity helped Territory Media consolidate fragmented data from 14 different sources for efficient data access and improved team collaboration.
By implementing solid data access controls, Territory Media significantly enhanced its decision-making accuracy and efficiency, showcasing the power of effective data access management.
In summary, learning to manage data access provides valuable insights, process improvements, and greater marketing success. So what are you waiting for? Embrace data access management and book a free demo today to unlock your marketing team's full potential!
