With more customer data available than ever before, marketers need a comprehensive approach to storing, analyzing, accessing and using that data to create an optimal experience. A Customer Data Platform provides just that.
But what is a Customer Data Platform (CDP)? A CDP is a system through which all customer data from multiple sources is combined and made available to other programs in order to create smarter, more customer-centric campaigns.
Let’s take a closer look at how CDPs stand out from the crowd of other data management technologies, such as Data Management Platforms (DMPs) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
Single Customer View
Customers are making use of more channels and devices than ever before. CDPs like Tealium’s AudienceStream are designed to unify all that data to create a single, comprehensive view of the customer (also known as a Single Customer View).
Collecting information from a wide range of different sources – from websites to social media to in-store behavior – a CDP allows organizations to gain a complete view of customer behavior, which can move with the business and customers as required. That unified data is then made available to other systems to unlock to real value of the information and help deliver a consistent customer experience, without blind spots and clumsy oversights that can ultimately lower engagement.
Real-time data
CDPs allow data to be collected and updated in real-time, thereby enabling agility and responsiveness: you’re never working with outdated insights. They’re flexible and can adapt quickly to the ever-changing trends in technology and customer behavior – essentially future-proofing the customer data system. A CDP provides organizations with a foundation that changes to anticipate future needs, meet customer expectations, and create personalized experiences that lead to greater loyalty.
The ability to collect data from anywhere encourages a greater understanding of customer needs, and real-time access allows marketers to personalize campaigns to tie-in to current behavior, increasing content engagement and leading to a higher rate of repeat purchases.
Opportunities for measurement
The ability to measure both customer behavior and trends is key to any business. Being able to track and analyze the success of a campaign or customer journey across multiple platforms and sources helps an organization to assess current strategies and form much more insightful and informed approaches to future customer interaction.
Because a CDP collates and provides complete access to customer data, as well as connecting to numerous other systems, it creates a comprehensive, 360-degree view of the customer experience that can be measured from all angles – from specific email campaign results, to website visits, to social media content performance.
Operational efficiency
Offering a fast, simple, fully integrated solution, CDPs centralize customer data by pulling information from a robust martech stack– providing insights that would traditionally be very resource and time-intensive to develop individually.
Device-specific data, transactional data, engagement data, personal and demographic data, onsite behavior data and more are unified and can be accessed in real time by any number of channels including social, SMS and email campaigns. In addition, specific rules can be set up centrally and applied across a number of tools to avoid duplicated time and effort and creating a much more simple, efficient, and intelligent approach to data-driven marketing activities.
One of the leading Customer Data Platforms on the market today is Tealium AudienceStream, and Celerity is a certified Tealium solution partner. Experts in systems integration, managed services and implementation, we work with a number of enterprises across different industries, boasting a wealth of specialist experience.
To find out more about how a Customer Data Platform fits within your marketing toolkit, get in contact today.
