Does your organization need a customer data platform?

1 year ago 52

Would a customer information platform (CDP) assistance your organization? To find that you request to find if your concern tin instrumentality vantage of a CDP’s benefits. 

These include:

  • Expanded endeavor collaboration. A CDP fosters practice among siloed groups due to the fact that it gathers information from passim the endeavor and supports lawsuit interactions crossed galore touchpoints. The unification of information allows enterprises to spot however strategies for audience, lawsuit acquisition and execution each acceptable unneurotic — and enables marketers to physique audiences and usage them crossed aggregate platforms, ensuring a much consistent, informed lawsuit experience.
  • Improved information accessibility. A CDP is simply a centralized hub that collects and houses lawsuit information from each country of the enterprise. Data are normalized and stitched unneurotic to physique unique, unified profiles of each idiosyncratic customer. The effect is simply a persistent lawsuit database whose main intent is to stitchery and stock information much easy and efficiently crossed the organization.
  • Streamlined systems integration. A CDP unifies information systems crossed the enterprise, from selling and lawsuit service, to telephone centers and outgo systems. By creating a azygous “system of record” for first-party lawsuit data, information redundancies and errors tin beryllium minimized, and information tin travel much rapidly into — and retired of — selling automation platforms, email work providers (ESPs), CRMs and different martech systems.
  • Increased selling efficiency. A CDP unifies idiosyncratic information with unsocial IDs that make robust lawsuit records. Many manual tasks are besides automated by the CDP, allowing marketers to absorption connected high-value originative and analytical tasks. The effect is much close modeling, targeting and personalization successful selling campaigns, and much applicable lawsuit experiences with the marque crossed channels.
  • Faster selling velocity. In galore cases, CDPs are “owned” by marketing, minimizing the request for IT oregon developer involution to collect, analyse and enactment upon data. With power successful marketers’ hands, the clip to conception and physique audiences, execute campaigns and analyse results decreases. That said, engineers whitethorn inactive beryllium needed to execute heavy information investigation and facilitate integrations. This is particularly existent arsenic CDPs widen beyond selling and into income and lawsuit work functions.
  • Stronger regulatory compliance. A CDP creates greater interior power implicit lawsuit data, streamlining information governance to comply with the galore regulations present impacting brands worldwide. Marketers successful the healthcare manufacture indispensable comply with some HIPAA and HITECH regulations. Businesses that grip European information oregon service customers successful the EU indispensable besides comply with GDPR, and those dealing with Californians indispensable woody with CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act). The bulk of CDP vendors are some ISO and SOC certified for champion practices successful handling personally identifiable accusation (PII).

Explore level capabilities from vendors similar Blueconic, Tealium, Treasure Data and much successful the afloat MarTech Intelligence Report on lawsuit information platforms.

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Assess needs, capabilities and resources

Knowing each this, you request to adjacent bash a broad self-assessment of your organization’s concern needs, unit capabilities, absorption enactment and fiscal resources. Use the pursuing questions arsenic a line to find the answers.

How bash we presently negociate lawsuit data?

Fragmented pieces of lawsuit information often reside successful silos successful marketing, sales, purchasing, lawsuit enactment and different departments. Does your enactment person a strategy that serves arsenic the eventual authorization connected lawsuit profiles? Do you cognize what lawsuit information it includes? Is third-party anonymous information mixed in? How galore applications are successful your martech stack? And however does information get from 1 exertion to another? Is it transferred successful real-time? Every hour? Every day? These are each areas wherever a CDP tin assistance to standardize and streamline information retention and processing. However, different instrumentality you’re utilizing whitethorn already grip immoderate of the CDP functionality you’re seeking.

How businesslike are our selling information processes?

Marketing bundle applications are expected to amended information and run efficiency. But galore times, disparate systems pb to information duplication, deficiency of standardization and an summation successful time-consuming manual tasks. If you find yourself spending much clip normalizing information oregon de-duplicating interaction records, and little clip executing campaigns oregon evaluating run performance, it mightiness beryllium clip to automate information integration.

How would a CDP code our concern needs and what are our usage cases for the technology?

Virtually each CDPs present respective halfway capabilities astir information management, but galore besides supply a wide scope of information analytics and orchestration features that code divers concern goals. What would having a azygous presumption of your customers bash for you? For example, bash you privation to trim churn by targeting customers with much applicable offers? Or summation the profitability of lawsuit acquisition efforts by creating much close lookalike audiences? Don’t put successful a CDP earlier processing usage cases that show however adoption volition amended selling show oregon trim costs. The concern should much than wage for itself.

Is your enactment acceptable for a CDP?

Do you person capable clarity connected your usage cases and lawsuit journeys to alteration you to take the close solution? How volition centralizing your information and assemblage explanation interaction your organization? Are you assured that each of the teams that would request to beryllium progressive — from IT to selling to lawsuit work — tin beryllium educated connected the imaginable worth of a CDP arsenic portion of the adoption project? Have you chosen aboriginal adopters wrong the enactment that tin supply impervious points to different users?

What systems would we integrate done the CDP?

The martech stack is getting bigger and much analyzable for galore organizations. Streamlining integration is simply a halfway payment of implementing a CDP, which tin normalize information for easier importing and exporting into different systems. As much brands prosecute successful omnichannel selling done galore martech apps, creating a unified presumption of the lawsuit has go captious to selling success.

How volition we specify and past benchmark CDP success?

What cardinal show indicators (KPIs) bash you privation to measure, and what decisions volition you marque based connected CDP implementation? For example, bash you privation to alteration information redundancy and way however that impacts the velocity of run execution? Or bash you privation to alteration the clip your selling unit spends connected manually transferring information from 1 strategy to another? Set concern goals successful beforehand to beryllium capable to benchmark occurrence aboriginal on. More than ever before, businesses question to quantify the ROI of their martech investments.

Do we person absorption buy-in?

As with immoderate large organizational investment, absorption enactment is indispensable to CDP success. Begin with small, short-term goals that show however the CDP is benefiting the business, either done outgo savings oregon gross gains. The cardinal is to person elder executives that having a single, unified presumption of the lawsuit volition adhd to the organization’s bottommost line.

Do we request self-serve, full-serve oregon thing successful between?

CDPs are typically built for selling end-users. However, CDPs alteration successful the scope of their capabilities — and it is important to person immoderate level of ongoing grooming to usage them all. CDP vendors supply varying levels of onboarding, lawsuit enactment and/or nonrecreational services. Make definite you recognize what your selling unit volition request to cognize to efficaciously usage the CDP, oregon if you deficiency interior resources, what benignant of managed services are available?

What is the full outgo of ownership?

CDP vendors complaint monthly licence fees based connected the fig of information records, events (or lawsuit actions) and applications integrated. There whitethorn beryllium further fees for onboarding, APIs/custom integrations oregon unit training. Make definite you cognize your concern needs, information measurement and however you volition request to restructure your systems and unit to alteration a CDP’s operations. Being alert of each of these aspects volition assistance you recognize the concern your enactment volition make. Keep successful mind, too, that you whitethorn spot outgo savings if the strategy allows radical to enactment much efficiently.

Our caller report, “Customer Data Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide” is present disposable for escaped download.


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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. 

Dig deeper: What is simply a CDP and however does it springiness marketers the coveted ‘single view’ of their customers? 


About the author

Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is Research Director astatine Third Door Media's Content Studio, wherever she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and different in-depth contented for integer marketers successful conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking connected this relation astatine TDM, she served arsenic Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is simply a well-respected authorization connected integer marketing, having reported and written connected the taxable since its beginning. She's a erstwhile managing exertion of ClickZ and has besides worked connected the concern broadside helping autarkic publishers monetize their sites astatine Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's grade successful journalism from Columbia University.


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