Media and publishing companies face many data challenges, from data deprecation to increasing privacy constraints from customers and regulators. At the same time, customers expect them to deliver timely, personalized content and experiences across channels. With volumes and types of data rapidly changing, it can be difficult to understand and act upon it quickly and meaningfully.
As a result, more and more B2B media outlets are turning to a customer data platform (CDP) like BlueConic to empower their growth-focused teams with unified, actionable, and privacy-compliant first-party data. By providing access to a unified view of the customer – paired with the tools to activate that data when and where they need it – B2B media companies can drive their customer engagement and audience monetization strategies while optimizing efficiency at the same time.
To help B2B media companies understand how BlueConic drives both operational efficiency gains and performance and revenue improvements, we commissioned Forrester to examine the potential ROI they may realize by deploying our platform. Below, we reveal some of the findings from that study, including the most common types of operational challenges that led B2B media companies to invest in BlueConic, as well as the benefits they gained after implementation.
Challenges that Led B2B Media Companies to Choose BlueConic
B2B media companies struggle with three common challenges that make it difficult to use real-time data to support customer experiences:
1. Siloed, unactionable data for marketing & business teams and their tools
Previously, teams had different views of customer data, and reconciling it was difficult or impossible, resulting in an incomplete understanding of customers and challenges communicating consistently with them.
2. Limited types of customer data available to the marketing & business teams
In addition to siloed customer data, interviewees explained that they were limited in the types of customer data they could access, hindering their ability to create a complete picture of customer needs or communicate with them in a personalized way.
3. Manual and time-consuming processes that required IT and analytics resources
Finally, teams indicated it was difficult to gain access to the data they needed to make decisions quickly, experiment, and pivot. For example, a data technology manager at B2B media company noted, “Prior to being able to implement BlueConic, everything was very manual, and we were very limited by that demographic data. So it made scalability really challenging. It made it to where there are a lot of steps, a lot of components to be able to implement something.”
Benefits B2B Media Companies Gained After Implementing BlueConic
Once implemented, B2B media companies found BlueConic empowered their marketing and customer experience teams to operate and activate data in new ways. Benefits gained included:
1. Time savings from ease of use and automation
Through better data availability, automation, and an easy-to-use UI for non-technical users, the study confirmed significant time savings on segmentation, customer journeys and reporting, resulting in significantly reduced costs for the business. For instance, a data technology manager at B2B media company explained how BlueConic saved 90% of their time on customer journey creation: “[BlueConic] allowed us to create relationships between content through tagging structures, events, or all kinds of different display mechanisms so that we can get exactly what a user wants to see in front of them straightaway, as opposed to having to manually build out every single journey.”
Reporting was another area of time savings. The same B2B media company went on to say, “The reports that we would want that we have today, they would probably have taken about a day to put together. Because of BlueConic and the functionality they have, it takes us about an hour.”
2. Increased profit from better conversion rates
The study also found BlueConic drives higher conversion rates worth almost $2.1 million due to the ability to collect and unify data into profiles to deliver highly relevant personalized experiences. For instance, a data technology manager in B2B media described BlueConic’s impact on their ability to better understand and target unknown users: “This solution made it so we could get a birds-eye view into what our unidentifiable audience was and what types of things they’d like to see so that we could create a unique experience for everyone visiting our site, not just the people we could identify through demographics.”
3. Increase profit from data monetization
Data monetization is an important and growing source of revenue for media and publishing companies. While many are largely limited to demographic data, BlueConic enables companies to capture behavioral data and build detailed user profiles and insights. Interviewees discussed using these detailed profiles and specific, actionable insights to build new data products to sell as a new revenue stream. Data used to create products included customer interests and behaviors, segmentation, and onsite personalization to provide more relevant content and offers to customers. As the vice president of innovation and data at a B2B media company noted, “We are collecting user data ... building profiles and tracking their behaviors and understanding exactly what their interests are.” To do this work previously would have been “a shadow of what we have now.”
4. Increased profit from strategic partnerships
External strategic partnerships also provide additional opportunities for revenue growth and diversification. As BlueConic freed up time for more strategic initiatives, organizations were able to focus on strengthening and growing strategic partnerships, resulting in increased profits. As the data technology manager at a B2B media company explained, “[BlueConic] gives us more time to work with the clients we have now and continue developing the strategic partnerships, have more meaningful conversations instead of trying to cover surface-level things. We’re really able to get to the bottom of what they want to know and see.”
5. Faster, higher-quality decision making
In addition to quantitative benefits, the Forrester study also revealed additional benefits that can be unlocked from using BlueConic. For instance, interviewees shared that BlueConic provides greater data visibility and testing capabilities, allowing them to make better decisions more quickly than in their previous environment. As the data technology manager at a B2B media company noted, “The simplicity and ease of being able to implement and scale on BlueConic — the fact [is] that if we didn’t have that technology, we wouldn’t have been able to do at this level at all.”
6. Ability to focus on strategic planning & execution
With the additional capacity from time savings and better data visibility provided by BlueConic, interviewees also shared that they could dedicate more time to long-term planning. “There’s more time for [us] to be more strategic. We can think long-term. We can think six months, a year out … and we can actually have those thoughts and begin creating a roadmap to get there,” stated a vice president of innovation and data at a B2B media company.
7. Data privacy & consent
BlueConic also helps media and publishing organizations manage users’ privacy and consent preferences. “We use the privacy settings as far as tracking … and ensuring we have permission to display certain things or really target certain users,” stated one interviewee.
8. Support for future growth
Finally, interviewees shared multiple examples of how BlueConic supports their growth and how continuing to expand the technology within their organizations would provide additional time and cost savings as well as customer experience benefits. “We’re pushing … to use BlueConic in a scaled manner across the organization, said the B2B media data technology manager. “[The benefits] will be increased conversion rates and growing our known database file. … Any help we can give [our audience acquisition team], giving them these tools to increase that organically, will be a humongous cost savings,” she concluded.
To find out what types of operational efficiencies and revenue BlueConic could unlock for your business, schedule your demo today.
