Top 5 Customer Data Trends for 2022

Top 5 Customer Data Trends for 2022

Top 5 Customer Data Trends for 2022

What will be 2022’s most important data-driven marketing trends? As marketers and business leaders try to grow new business and retain existing customers, it’s clear that many of 2021’s themes will continue to be important in digital transformation, customer experience, and data-driven marketing. What emerging trends and continuing data stories were people following this year, and which trends will continue to drive marketing, sales, and service in 2022?

Top Trend #1: Marketing in a Cookieless World

Marketers and C-suiters are clearly very interested in finding new ways to market in a cookieless world, a world where Apple’s ID for Advertisers (IDFA) is markedly less important than in the past. Although Google delayed the phase out of cookies until 2023, leaders looking to stay ahead are using the extra time to test new strategies, technology, and processes before the cookieless future arrives. Many successful marketers are not panicking, but clearly plan to continue changing their tactics as privacy regulations and consumer attitudes evolve.

For more, read: Here’s How Marketing Can Thrive in the Cookieless Future, What the Decline of IDFAs Means for Marketers, and Answers to 7 FAQs on Data Privacy, Security, Identity and Best Practices.

Top Trend #2: The Importance of First-Party Data in Marketing, Sales, and Customer Experience

A “sister” to our top trend, the ascendance of first-party data—and technology to put it to work—was a constant theme in 2021, as well as dealing with privacy issues and consumer privacy regulations. Future-focused marketers and business leaders are clearly getting savvy about how to collect and use more first-party data. As the importance of the customer experience continues to grow, so does the need to understand the differences between first-party, second-party, and third-party data, and how best to use each kind to get a single customer view.

For more: Check out this article—What’s the Difference Between First-party, Second-party, and Third-party Data—to explore different types of data and how best to use each kind to get a single customer view. See also What Is a Single Customer View and Why Should Marketers Care?

Top Trend #3: Millennials Are Changing the Way Everyone Buys Things

Millennials are in their late twenties to their forties and are now the largest target market for most industries. As their purchasing power and influence grows, they’re rewriting the rules for buyer behavior, and marketers and businesses need to pivot to remain competitive. Their loyalty is in many cases more fleeting, as they experiment with different products and services, and expect retailers and brands to understand and respect their thoughts and preferences with personalized appeals. To keep up, marketers are turning to customer data platforms for better personalized CX and fast, accurate analytics to detect trends and respond more quickly.

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For more: Check out Top Millennial Retail Shopping Trends and How Millennials Are Changing the Car-buying Experience. And for more on the demographic nipping at millennial heels, read Gen Z Marketing: Move Beyond the Omnichannel to Personalized CX and Multi-experiences.

Top Trend #4: Which Martech Is Best for the Quickly Changing Environment of 2021-2022?

Clearly, businesses are trying to use martech and customer data platforms to cope with rapidly changing retail and ecommerce environments. According to a McKinsey survey, 60% of customer journeys are now digital, which tripled after COVID-19 pandemic: we’re now in the “Age of the Digital Customer.” This acceleration of digital transformation is a driving factor in most of the world’s biggest companies, and there’s intense interest in the differences between different martech categories, particularly among CDPs vs. DMPs vs. CRM. It’s worth noting that as companies continue to deal with shifting customer habits and preferences, this trend shows no signs of slowing. In fact, many observers say digital transformation will accelerate in 2022, keeping martech innovation a hot topic in 2022.

For more: General must-read articles include Industry Experts on the Evolution of DMPs, CDPs, and Data Enhancement and Marketing Wins in Key Moments. Retailers will enjoy this NRF blog on using CDPs for growth, while auto industry leaders might enjoy this forward-looking Frost and Sullivan auto Industry research, and financial types might like How Retail Banks Use Personalization to Compete with Fintech Start-ups. CDP.com is also a great resource for all things CDP.

Top Trend #5: Intense Interest in the Business of Data and Data-driven Innovation

Finally, marketers and business leaders care about the business of data and which companies can be relied on to drive innovation in this space. They’re interested in different types of data platform technologies, and often turn to Gartner and other experts for answers. They want to know who the CDP innovators are and where investment in data platforms is going. And 2021 was a year of intense investment in CDPs, with the announcement of the largest single round of investment in a CDP company ever, at $234 million. This level of investment—of both innovator talent and money—probably portends a continuing trend in martech that many companies are finding critical to their digital transformation and ability to grow their businesses, in 2021, 2022, and for many years to come.

For more, read: Is there a Gartner Magic Quadrant for CDP? or explore CDP.com. And if you’re technically inclined, you might enjoy the following articles:

Lisa Stapleton
Lisa Stapleton
Lisa Stapleton is a former editorial director at IDG and former senior editor for InfoWorld and InformationWeek. She has written extensively about enterprise IT, business and environmental topics, and now serves as a senior marketing content manager for Treasure Data. She holds an MBA from Santa Clara, an Applied Math undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, and an MA in journalism from Mizzou. She also enjoys being a Toastmaster.
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