Four Forces Boosting the Growth of CDP

In digital marketing, managing consumer data is one of the biggest challenges. To effectively manage massive consumer data, the best platform is customer data platform (CDP) solutions. This platform is designed to solve the issues of labeling, integration, and storage of consumer data.

Before going ahead, let’s brush up on our basics:

Do you know what is a customer data platform (CDP)?

No need to worry because many marketers are not aware of the term CDP.

As per the Customer Data Platform Institute, “CDP is a software-controlled by a marketing team to create a unified and persistent database and to which other technologies can access.”

As you are now familiar with CDP, you might have got an idea that they offer a unified view of individual customer records or a 360-degree customer view. It is a tool every marketer need, but what role your CDP should play in enhancing consumer experiences?

CDP builds consumer profiles by integrating data from several first-, second-, and third-party sources. This comprises your Data Management Platform (DMP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), email and social media activity, transactional systems, website and e-commerce behavioral data, and web forms.

There are so many options available in the market right now that are driving demand for CDPs. Why do organizations need to centralize their customer data now instead of five years ago? I think these four driving forces are responsible for driving CDPs and will have the same respect in the coming years.

Let’s take a look at four forces driving customer data platform solutions:

1.  Requirement to deliver an omnichannel experience

In comparison to the earlier era, organizations must compete with a better consumer experience. Your consumers want to feel valued and understood when they interact with your brand. To deliver flexible support and personalized messaging, you need full visibility into each consumer’s interests and engagement across each marketing channel.

CDPs in marketing help businesses by personalizing consumer experience by resolving questions such as what are their preferred marketing channels? Are they new or returning consumers? Have they experienced support issues in the past? What have they recently purchased or browsed?

For instance, if a consumer visits your site to search or buy some products but did not purchase or just might add products to the shopping cart, you want that data when reaching out to them in the future. Whether via mobile app, social media, or email, every interaction you have with them should align with their interests and preferences.

2. New data protection regulations

Like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) in California, data protection legislation has changed how organizations might collect and use customer data. Many governments are planning to pass the same laws in the coming years. Thus, organizations need to know where all their customer data is stored and how they protect it.

Nowadays, using CDP is becoming an essential part of any organization’s data protection strategy. For instance, if consumers give your company permission to collect data via cookies and later request you delete all their data, in such cases, it is important to have organized and consolidated data in one place.

3. The ability to prove marketing ROI

Marketers have often struggled to show ROI (return on investment) on much of their spending. This is because of a lack on data scientists and analysts’ part to get the reporting right, attribution issues, and siloed data. The marketers who need to demonstrate ROI to leadership need to link campaigns and spend on indicators such as a rise in leads, a growing consumer base, and an increased wallet share.

Additionally, creating and presenting new offers with different messaging or communication allows marketers to enhance results without making any changes to their campaign strategies.

The best customer data platform manages consumer data and company investment via dashboards. Thus, centralized data makes it easier to quantify concepts like consumer lifetime value or the ROI of a particular campaign.

4. The expansion of artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML)

Daily organizations collect massive data that is out of the human mind’s reach. ML and AI use predictive and automated capabilities to process and analyze data to spot patterns, offer recommendations, and make valuable predictions for marketers.

The best customer data platform gathers consumer information from several systems in one place to allow your organization’s algorithms to determine high-value consumers, product recommendations, and consumers willing to buy products. The availability of massive data helps one make better choices, automate more intelligently, and run better campaigns.

Marketing technology is continuously evolving, and it can be challenging to keep up with the next big thing. CDP is a new but essential piece of your tech stack. It helps prioritize your consumer data to make most of your marketing investments, stay ahead of privacy and compliance regulations, and future-proof your company.

Five best customer data platform according to G2 Crowd:

• Segment
• Zaius
• Exponea
• Indicative
• Hull

Where can one find CDP service providers:

• The Best Customer Data Platform Software Rankings by Capterra –

Capterra offers several filter options to help you narrow down your CDP options, such as deployment, pricing, users, and popular features.

• CDP Service Provider Directory by CDP Institute –

It offers CDP-associated consulting, technology, agency service, implementation, and data

• The Best Customer Data Platform (CDP) Software Rankings by G2 Crowd –

Using this platform, one can filter the search results by the company’s size and star rating.

Final words

From the above data, we can concur that four forces will help drive the CDP of your organization, complement your present software and marketing efforts, and enhance customer relationships.

For more such content, download our latest whitepapers on customer data platform.