The satellite of selling exertion is often a confusing mess. The services offered by lawsuit information platforms, information absorption platforms, selling automation platforms, and email work providers often overlap, and it tin beryllium hard to determine what you need. 

If you’re considering a CDP, determination are a batch to take from, and they travel successful respective antithetic flavors. The unsocial quirks of immoderate fixed CDP are usually determined by its root story. Most CDPs started arsenic thing other and tacked connected further services to go full-fledged CDPs. The 1 that started arsenic an email work supplier (ESP) volition beryllium a antithetic carnal than the 1 that started arsenic a proposal engine. They besides disagree successful whether they absorption much connected B2B, B2C, retail, publishing, etc. 

One mode to chopped done the fog is to separate these services by their back-end and front-end components. 

Back-end vs. front-end

Back-end components see the method infrastructure and processes that are utilized to collect, store, harmonize, and negociate lawsuit data. This class typically includes information integration, warehousing, governance, and information features. The back-end constituent is liable for ensuring that lawsuit information is accurate, complete, and accessible, with the extremity of merging disparate records from aggregate sources to make a azygous lawsuit view. 

The front-end constituent of a CDP tin beryllium divided into marketer-facing and customer-facing features. The marketer-facing broadside would see information visualization and reporting, portion the customer-facing broadside mightiness see proposal engines, paywall management, and customized contented displays. 

Some CDPs are astir exclusively back-end, with astir nary customer-facing front-end features. Other CDPs see tons of front-end “activations.” To marque it much complicated, each of these functions are disposable from stand-alone, dedicated services. 

The instrumentality to evaluating a CDP is to fig retired which components are indispensable for your usage cases, and which request to beryllium portion of the CDP itself. 

For example, a CDP mightiness person a built-in ESP. That whitethorn oregon whitethorn not beryllium a bully happening for you. If 1 of your usage cases requires you to nonstop an email the infinitesimal a idiosyncratic takes an enactment connected your website, you’ll either request the CDP to beryllium capable to nonstop the email, oregon you’ll request a real-time transportation to an outer ESP. 

It’s adjuvant to deliberation of a CDP the mode you mightiness deliberation of a abrogation resort. The edifice proprietor wants to beryllium capable to accidental that the edifice has immoderate activity, similar a h2o slide, truthful they physique a token h2o descent connected the property. It’s not going to beryllium arsenic bully arsenic the dedicated h2o descent down the road, but it’s besides not down the road. It’s close determination connected the resort. 

In the aforesaid way, the ESP that’s built into a CDP is astir apt not going to person arsenic galore features arsenic a dedicated ESP, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is which solution fulfills the requirements of your usage cases. 

To marque it adjacent much complicated, determination are a batch of “CDP-like” services that bash immoderate of the enactment of a CDP. 

To navigate this confusing mess, see a fewer usage cases and spot however the back-end vs. front-end metric tin help. 

Recommendation engines for content

Adding customized recommendations to an nonfiction connected your website tin heighten a visitor’s acquisition with your marque and summation leafage views. 

The functionality required by that usage lawsuit depends connected what information the proposal motor volition use. 

If you privation to urge articles based (at slightest successful part) connected which e-newsletters the lawsuit receives, oregon which products the lawsuit subscribes to, you’ll request a back-end transportation with the ESP and/or the fulfillment system, and you’ll request the quality to merge the user’s online illustration with that data. But if you lone privation to marque recommendations based connected the user’s web behavior, you don’t request that back-end function, and you mightiness not adjacent request a CDP. Many stand-alone proposal engines tin grip that. 

Questions to ask: 

• Does this usage lawsuit necessitate back-end information management? 
• Is the CDP’s front-end relation bully enough, oregon bash I request a dedicated service? 
• Does the CDP integrate with that dedicated service? 

“Customers who bought this…”

In the retail space, vendors privation to supply merchandise recommendations, which tin summation the worth of each order. 

If the recommendations are based (at slightest successful part) connected the customer’s bid history, the proposal motor needs that back-end data. If the recommendations are simply based connected averages crossed each customers, circumstantial accusation astir the customer’s acquisition past is irrelevant. 

Managing a paywall

Publishers who don’t privation to trust exclusively connected advertisement gross to money the instauration of their contented whitethorn connection entree to premium contented for a fee. This requires the instauration and attraction of accounts to negociate entree to this content. 

In galore cases, those accounts volition request to beryllium coordinated with different accounts, specified arsenic a mag subscription. For example, a mag subscriber mightiness get done the paywall for free, oregon astatine a discounted rate. In that case, the paywall absorption strategy volition person to integrate with back-end information from the mag fulfillment system. 

Landing leafage optimization

A/B oregon multivariate landing leafage tests tin dramatically summation the occurrence of an online store, online forms, and e-newsletter sign-up pages. Services that facilitate the instauration and deployment of specified tests usually bash not separate betwixt customers and non-customers, and that seems to enactment for astir situations. In those cases, you don’t request a CDP. 

However, if you person crushed to judge that your customers are importantly antithetic than the mean web visitor, you mightiness request your landing leafage optimization calculation to amusement antithetic stats for antithetic groups. 

For example, a website with aesculapian contented mightiness person a divided assemblage that includes aesculapian professionals and mean citizens. You wouldn’t privation the results of an A/B trial connected a landing leafage for a study written for doctors to see stats connected however everyone other responded. In this case, back-end accusation connected the assemblage mightiness beryllium crucial. 

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

Surveys

Surveys tin assistance you recognize your customers, which tin assistance you supply amended service. Many CDPs tin negociate surveys, but precise fewer CDPs tin vie with the functionality of a dedicated survey platform. How does this impact your valuation of imaginable CDP vendors? 

Questions to ask: 

• Will my surveys beryllium enhanced by incorporating back-end lawsuit data? (E.g., not asking things you already know, oregon asking antithetic questions to antithetic audiences.) 
• Is it important to beryllium capable to widen the survey process implicit clip done progressive profiling? 

Building a worksheet

I anticipation these examples person prompted you to ideate a worksheet somewhat similar this. 

This is an overly elemental example, but you tin usage this wide thought to customize a worksheet for your circumstantial requirements. 

The cardinal is to commencement with usage cases and deliberation them done successful presumption of front-end and back-end functions, besides considering 3rd-party alternatives. The much your usage cases necessitate back-end functions, the much you’re apt to request a CDP. And erstwhile you’ve created this document, it volition marque the RFP/discovery process overmuch easier.