Identity resolution is key for marketers looking to bolster their campaigns. It allows brands to know their customers more deeply because they can see beyond their limited view of them. As brands move away from using third-party cookies, identity resolution has emerged as a powerful means to connect with consumers.
That’s because it organizes a brand’s first-party data to align and enrich it. A solid first-party data strategy is centered around identity resolution, and when used in martech tools like customer data platforms (CDPs), clean rooms or engagement platforms, marketers can build higher-performing campaigns that reach the right people.
But what does that actually mean? We’ve compiled a list of 21 use cases to show you the real-life benefits of employing an identity resolution solution.
- Unify data: Identity resolution helps unify data by assigning individuals a unique, privacy-complaint identifier. These identifiers are accurate, constantly optimized and can connect disparate data points, giving brands a single view of each consumer.
- Identify lookalike profiles: On average, consumers have 5+ identifiers attached to them, such as emails, device IDs, and cookies. Identity resolution helps brands identify customers in their existing file that they may be counting more than once. For instance, a brand might “count” a person twice because one profile is attached to their email while the other is attached to their device ID.
- Find frequent customers not in their current data file: Brands can also identify customers who are loyal to their brand that they don’t have first-party data on. These are shoppers or customers who perhaps frequently buy but, for a variety of reasons (buying with cash, for example), haven’t attached their purchases to their name or device.
- Fill in data gaps: Consumer data is inherently fragmented. Identity resolution gives brands the power to see what their customers are doing in the wild and use that data to fill in important gaps.
- Build better profiles: Once those gaps are filled, brands can start building more holistic profiles and using those insights to build a better audience.
- Identify potential reasons customers are dropping off: Customers abandon brands for a variety of reasons. When data gaps are filled, it often puts pieces into a puzzle. Did they leave because they moved out of the market? Have they been buying a competitor?
- Reengage dormant customers: Speaking of dropping off, brands can now target disengaged customers because they have a fuller picture of what motivates them, including which devices they prefer.
- Win back competitors’ customers: The right identity resolution solution can use third-party data to see whether customers are shopping with competitors. This helps marketers try to win them back.
- Finding new customers: Thanks to identity resolution, new customers are also easier to find. A more accurate view of their customers gives brands an important window into who buys from them now, and they can use those insights to find new customers who look just like them.
- Lay a solid foundation for AI: Accurate, unified data creates a solid platform for tools like AI and machine learning to use. And with real-time insights on customers, it enables AI use on an individual level and at scale.
- Bridge online and offline behaviors: Marketers can marry online and offline identities, including transaction data or identifiers like email, back to a pseudonymized ID and gain even more insights into a customer’s preferences and behaviors.
- Map the customer journey: Identity resolution unifies disparate data points across channels. With persistent identity, brands can see a customer’s path to purchase from interest to actual conversion.
- Discover insights about what your customer might do next: Dynamic identity resolution coupled with machine learning and AI can examine a customer's historic signals and use them to predict what they might need next.
- Personalize marketing and ad campaigns: When brands know their customers better, they understand what they like. Advertising and marketing can get more personal, delivering messages that matter to real in-market people on the devices they prefer.
- Improve customer interactions: Consumers react, and when a brand can see those reactions (both positive and negative), it can make adjustments in how it talks to and engages to boost customer experience.
- Improve customer loyalty: Unsurprisingly, when a person feels like they’re being heard, they have a higher affinity for a brand. Emotional loyalty starts with continued positive customer experiences.
- Get better attribution: Solid identity resolution gives marketers the ability to see the outcome of campaigns on an individual level.
- Improve measurement: Individual attribution means stronger measurement. Beyond measuring specific campaigns, brands can start identifying areas in aggregate: the success of a product or channel type or audience segment.
- Reduce media waste: Knowing what works (and what doesn’t) reduces a brand’s media waste. Marketers can now know what works—and with whom—and can pivot faster because of granular attribution.
- Identify potential fraud and unusual customer activity: Rich customer profiles can help predict what a customer might do and what they have done historically. Brands can step in when strange activity happens and help mitigate risk.
- Maintain customer privacy: Identity resolution uses pseudonymized profiles. The right identity resolution solution provider should enable brands to maintain high levels of consumer privacy and evolve as regulations do, too.
At Epsilon, identity resolution is built into our suite of solutions. Epsilon's COREid is the industry's most accurate, stable, and scalable identity resolution solution. It delivers person-first marketing that resonates with shoppers across their channels and devices, giving brands peace of mind that they're reaching the right people with messages that matter.