A lawsuit information level (CDP) tin beryllium a large instrumentality — but if you’re not careful, it tin beryllium a disaster.
Whether you’re conscionable starting oregon inactive contemplating a narration with a CDP provider, you’ll regret it if you don’t instrumentality immoderate communal implementation issues into account.
Read done these communal mistakes carefully, and person an honorable — and skeptical — speech astir each one. (And beryllium definite to stock this papers with your information team.)
Mistake 1: Rushing it
It’s bully concern to get aboriginal wins and amusement a speedy instrumentality connected investment, but a NASA technologist I grew up with utilized to say, “We’re successful a large large hurry, truthful spell slow, instrumentality your time, and bash it close the archetypal time.”
Undoing a catastrophe costs a batch much than taking your clip to get your usage cases successful order, documenting assumptions, investigating hypotheses and reasoning things through.
Mistake 2: Having nary conception of identity
The basal relation of a CDP is to make the mythical “golden record” for each of your customers. In bid to bash that, you request a mode to merge records from antithetic sources. On what ground volition you merge those records?
Each idiosyncratic has respective email addresses (which alteration implicit time) and uses respective devices (which are sometimes shared, and besides alteration implicit time). What ties those information points unneurotic successful a mode that points to a azygous person?
Nothing.
Or astatine slightest thing perfectly. Get comfy with that reality, oregon you’ll thrust yourself crazy.
Consequently, it’s a mistake to physique your strategy astir identity. You’ll ne'er person 1 grounds for 1 person, but for galore usage cases, it simply doesn’t substance that you don’t. Develop your usage cases and physique your conception of individuality astir what’s indispensable to thrust the usage lawsuit — not the reverse.
In immoderate cases, the user’s email code volition beryllium the champion choice. Other options see a unsocial third-party ID, your ain unsocial ID, oregon adjacent a postal address.
Whatever you use, it needs to acceptable successful with a semipermanent lawsuit strategy you tin way implicit the customer’s full lifecycle. But it won’t beryllium cleanable nary substance what you do.
Dig deeper: 19 CDP usage cases that tin annoy oregon prosecute your customers
Mistake 3: Not taking into relationship different ‘sources of truth’
CDPs merchantability themselves arsenic the azygous root of information for your lawsuit data. That doesn’t mean you person to usage them that way. It’s imaginable that you’ll person antithetic sources of information for antithetic usage cases.
For example:
- Your ESP mightiness beryllium the root of information for e-newsletter sign-ups and opt-outs, adjacent though you besides person that accusation successful your CDP.
- Your fulfillment strategy mightiness stay the root of information for subscription accusation adjacent though you import it each into your CDP.
Along those lines, it’s a bully thought to tag oregon statement accusation truthful you cognize wherever it came from.
Dig deeper: What is simply a CDP and however does it springiness marketers the coveted ‘single view’ of their customers?
Mistake 4: Overlooking analytics
People accidental “what gets measured gets done,” truthful it’s important to measurement and study connected the things that thrust your business. We’re inclined to deliberation that measurement should beryllium elemental erstwhile we’re dealing with information and computers, but thing could beryllium further from the truth. Just look astatine the messiness successful online advertising.
When dealing with a CDP, there’s a batch of information speech backmost and distant betwixt antithetic systems. But you don’t ever get a 1:1 connection. So adjacent though you’re importing each your lawsuit information from your disparate systems into a CDP, you request to inquire which measurement of that information is the astir applicable to your business. It mightiness not ever beryllium the CDP.
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Mistake 5: Organizational silos and deficiency of interior buy-in
A CDP often falls nether the purview of the selling department, adjacent though it requires dense IT involvement.
Stop and inquire yourself however good your selling section gets on with your IT department. Is that going to beryllium a problem? (Answer: probably.)
Don’t hide that your ain organizational silos mightiness go your biggest obstruction to success.
When you tally into a glitch, you don’t privation each your directors defending their ain vendor relationships and pointing fingers astatine everyone else. You request to make an situation wherever each the affected parties person a involvement successful the occurrence of the CDP, truthful they support 1 different informed.
This is peculiarly important with your improvement and operational people. Make definite they’re okay:
- With the technology.
- How it volition impact leafage speed.
- How it volition integrate with existing systems.
- Whether it volition interaction latency.
- How your web leafage loads.
If you don’t impact IT up front, blasted yourself if they go blockers later.
Dig deeper: 5 ways selling and IT tin enactment amended together
Mistake 6: Having cipher successful charge
A CDP volition impact respective departments successful your organization, and portion they each person to bargain successful and cooperate, you inactive request a azygous task manager.
“Shared responsibility” can’t mean “nobody is successful charge.”
Mistake 7: Forgetting time-based information capabilities
Some CDPs springiness a “right-now,” snapshot presumption of your lawsuit information, which is bully for galore usage cases, but a large occupation for others.
If you tally a subscription site, you privation to way and study connected a customer’s presumption implicit time.
If that’s important to you, marque definite your CDP tin negociate that, and marque definite to incorporated that into your information structure.
Mistake 8: Not looking into capableness issues
If you person 25 brands, and they each provender into 1 email work supplier connected an as-needed basis, you mightiness deed a hiccup from clip to clip portion doing an update.
But if you consolidate those 25 brands into 1 lawsuit database, which sends the implicit record each day, you mightiness tally into capableness problems you didn’t expect.
The constituent of a CDP is to supply a cardinal spot for your lawsuit data. You should guarantee that the CDP tin grip each those connections coming in.
At the aforesaid time, you besides person to beryllium alert of the large transportation going backmost retired – from the CDP to each those different services. Can they grip the volume?
Mistake 9: Believing the CDP’s claims that they tin ‘integrate with everybody’
There are truthful galore vendors doing truthful galore things, it’s unreasonable to expect your CDP to person an existing narration with each vendor you use. But it’s unsafe to presume they’ll play good together.
If your prospective CDP does not already person acquisition with 1 of your vendors, beryllium precise cautious. Integration teams and cosmopolitan APIs are nary substitute for diligent testing. Make definite your CDP tin enactment with each your vendors.
Mistake 10: Not confirming however you volition beryllium charged
Billing problems astir apt won’t aboveground during implementation, erstwhile you’re connected your honeymoon with the CDP, but deliberation cautiously astir how they mean to measure you.
Make definite you’re being billed for things that are driving your concern and contributing to occurrence — not conscionable for “total rows of data,” oregon thing you don’t really attraction about.
Along those aforesaid lines, marque definite there’s a mode to purge aged information that isn’t applicable anymore.
Customer information platforms: A snapshot
What they are. Customer information platforms, oregon CDPs, person go much prevalent than ever. These assistance marketers place cardinal information points from customers crossed a assortment of platforms, which tin assistance trade cohesive experiences. They are particularly blistery close present arsenic marketers look expanding unit to supply a unified acquisition to customers crossed galore channels.
Understanding the need. Cisco’s Annual Internet Report recovered that internet-connected devices are increasing astatine a 10% compound yearly maturation complaint (CAGR) from 2018 to 2023. COVID-19 has lone sped up this marketing transformation. Technologies are evolving astatine a faster complaint to link with customers successful an ever-changing world.
Each of these interactions has thing important successful common: they’re data-rich. Customers are telling brands a small spot astir themselves astatine each touchpoint, which is invaluable data. What’s more, consumers expect companies to usage this accusation to conscionable their needs.
Why we care. Meeting lawsuit expectations, breaking up these segments, and bringing them unneurotic tin beryllium demanding for marketers. That’s wherever CDPs travel in. By extracting information from each lawsuit touchpoints — web analytics, CRMs, telephone analytics, email selling platforms, and much — brands tin flooded the challenges posed by aggregate information platforms and usage the accusation to amended lawsuit experiences.
Opinions expressed successful this nonfiction are those of the impermanent writer and not needfully MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.
About The Author
Greg's decades-long vocation successful B2B and B2C publishing has included lengthy gigs successful editorial, marketing, merchandise development, web development, management, and operations. He's an adept astatine bridging the intelligence and taste disagreement betwixt method and originative staff. Working arsenic a consultant, Greg solves technology, strategy, operations, and process problems for publishers. His expertise includes Customer Data Platforms, acquisition and retention, e-commerce, RFPs, fulfillment, and task management. Learn much astatine krehbielgroup.com.
