How a customer data analytics platform can improve digital marketing
Introduction
A customer data platform (commonly abbreviated as CDP) is a software program that aggregates data from many tools into a single consolidated customer database that contains information on all engagements and touchpoints with your service or product. The database may then be segmented in virtually infinite ways to develop more tailored marketing efforts.
Understanding the role of a CDP
Let’s say a business wants to learn more about its clients. Their CDP would be utilized to collect data from consumer touchpoints such as Facebook, the firm’s website, email, as well as any other domain where a customer might connect with the organization. The CDP will gather all of these data points, combine them into a unified customer profile that is easy to comprehend, and then make the profile available to other systems which may require it, such as Facebook’s ad platform.
This approach enables the organization to better understand its target population and build more targeted marketing campaigns through segmentation. The business may easily develop an advertising audience depending on everyone who has accessed a given page on their website as well as the live chat feature. Alternatively, businesses might rapidly segment and view statistics on site visitors who have abandoned their shopping carts.
What is the difference between a CDP, DMP, and CRM, and which one do you require?
The distinction between CDPs and data management platforms (DMP) is critical. DMPs are simply useful for advertising and will not assist you in personalizing your marketing.
CRM providers assist organizations in managing customer-facing interactions, although they don’t collect behavioral data on how clients interact with your service or product, which is where CDPs come in.
The data contained in a CDP
In order to function, CDPs require client data. Most CDPs employ first-party data, which is information gathered by a firm directly from customers and used solely for that company’s marketing. Third-party data is usually the user data that corporations buy and/or share with other businesses.
Third-party data is frequently used to advertise to new potential users, personalize web pages for new visitors, and monetize apps that do not have another revenue stream. When it comes to data integrity, it can be difficult to know if third-party data was gathered with consent given how frequently it changes hands. This is less likely with first-party data because you’ll know precisely how, when, where, and why your data was gathered.
Customer data integration is the process through which CDPs collect the first-party data as well as make it valuable for you. This sort of data integration entails incorporating data and identifiers from many databases into a usable format for more precise analysis.
If you’re planning on using a CDP, you’ll want to know how CDPs handle customer data. This will enable you to make the most of your consumer information. To help you learn more about customer data best practices, we’ve put together a few resources:
Customer data integration: All you need to know
Your CDP’s ability to function is dependent on customer data integration, which can be done in a variety of ways. Consolidation, which entails gathering data from numerous sources and preserving it in a centralized data warehouse, is the most common method used by CDPs to combine data.
Use your customer data to its full potential
You should concentrate on three things to get the most out of your consumer data. Choose a North Star metric first, your team’s most significant metric. Second, consider your collection carefully. You don’t have to keep track of every metric available. Third, double-check that your data is stored correctly.
Identify inaccurate data in your organization
Bad data does not imply that the information was obtained incorrectly. It usually means your data is unavailable, disorganized, or not first-party data. To get the most out of the CDP, you must first learn what constitutes bad data and how to avoid it.
Key benefits of CDPs
1. They give businesses a competitive advantage
According to a Forbes survey, 93% of marketing executives feel that the use of customer data to make decisions and create campaigns gives businesses a significant competitive advantage. Furthermore, 53% say that the transparency given by these platforms enables their teams to respond rapidly to changes in market or client preferences.
2. They are agile
You can build and link a flexible technology stack that responds to user behavior and changing technological trends with a CDP.
3. They make data more accessible
Customer data has advantages that go beyond marketing. To stay ahead of the competition, teams like customer service and business intelligence rely on data availability. CDPs make this data more accessible for any department within the organization.
4. They strengthen ties with suppliers and partners
The adoption of a customer data platform benefits the extended ecosystems of businesses, including suppliers and partners. CDPs allow for more targeted and high-quality interactions with suppliers and partners.
5. They provide customers and marketers with better experiences
People today utilize a variety of channels and devices, but they demand a consistent customer experience across them all. They have a negative reaction, for example, when they encounter an online ad for a product that they have already bought in a physical store. Companies may better see and comprehend customer behavior and provide a more comprehensive customer experience thanks to the unified picture offered by the CDP. The benefit is a better consumer experience, which leads to increased loyalty.
6. They increase the efficiency of your operations
Integrating several solutions and tools to access consumer data used to take a lot of time and effort. CDPs, on the other hand, leverage pre-built interfaces to centralize customer data. Furthermore, audience and business requirements can be set up once and enforced consistently across all tools.
Who needs a CDP?
A customer data platform becomes more critical as your organization’s tools and data grow. If your company has many teams or departments, each having its own set of technologies for storing customer data, you most certainly have data silos that restrict you from obtaining the most accurate data. A CDP solves this issue by integrating customer data from multiple sources into a centralized location that provides employees with the most up-to-date information about customer behavior. A CDP can also assist you in standardizing data collection, filtering, and diagnostics to increase dependability and accuracy if you have any data integrity issues.
Conclusion
You need not only reliable data but also the most effective tools to analyze that data if you want to learn a great deal about your customers and give them the greatest possible experiences—and keep those clients coming back to purchase more.