How to Use a Customer Data Platform for a Better Marketing Strategy

Did you know that high-growth companies use customer data in more creative ways than their lower-growth peers? According to Deloitte’s 2022 Global Marketing Trends, 51% of CMOs from high-growth companies use customer data to deliver personalized content (using dynamic creative optimization) versus only 36% of lower-growth companies. They also use customer data to serve personalized ads using programmatic media (49% compared to 29% of lower-growth companies). 

Now more than ever, brands need to reexamine their marketing strategies as customers migrate online. Here’s how a customer data platform strategy provides brands with critical information to gain a marketing edge over the competition. 

What Is a Customer Data Platform Strategy?

A good marketing strategy is built on good information. With the traditional customer journey mostly online, more data touchpoints have become available for companies to analyze. Yet, considerable amounts of data are left unused or not used properly. 

In its report, Deloitte stressed that companies need to establish a data infrastructure capable of collecting and managing customer data to realize its full potential. A customer data platform strategy does this in three ways: collecting customer data across sources, unifying customer profiles, and deriving actionable insights for a better marketing strategy. 

Let’s discuss the capabilities of a customer data platform strategy in more detail. 

Collect Relevant Customer Data 

Leverage a customer data platform (CDP) to collect relevant consumer data from different touchpoints. These include:

• Online data: Engagement with email offers and purchases on e-commerce sites
• Offline data: Visits to physical stores and purchases made
• Web browsing data: Browsing frequency/duration at a brand’s website and content consumption
• Surveys: Product satisfaction and customer suggestions
• Customer service: Responses to post-purchase engagement and issues or complaints

Usually, these touchpoints are disconnected from one another and end up in different company departments. Piecing them manually together into a cohesive whole takes a lot of time and often results in an inaccurate picture of a customer’s journey. A CDP combines relevant information from across the enterprise and maps out a real-time, comprehensive picture of the customer journey. 

A CDP can also extract existing data from internal sources including customer service, sales, and marketing departments. Data cleansing eliminates duplicate and corrupt information in preparation for analysis. 

Lastly, a CDP is useful for enriching data with second- and third-party information. First-party data comes from a company’s own omnichannel sources—for example, brand website, mobile app, stores, etc. Second-party data refers to another company’s first-party data which can be provided via a partnership agreement (which should be properly communicated when data is initially collected). Third-party data comes from third-party data providers who collect large data sets with demographic information, weather data, regional events, or others. Using these sources, a CDP builds a robust consumer profile.

Create a Unified Picture of Customer Accounts

After collecting relevant data, you can use a CDP to create an omnichannel customer profile. This is where the magic happens. Previously disconnected touchpoints are stitched together to reveal a rich customer journey. 

This is important as customer behavior can be misunderstood and lead marketing strategy on the wrong trail. Let’s say a customer checks prices online and reads blogs about the latest cameras. It looks as though he is a typical amateur photographer but in reality, he may not be interested in the product himself. He may just be browsing gift ideas for a friend. Without the right context, marketing may misinterpret his actions and send irrelevant loyalty program invitations instead of gift suggestions. It is impossible to manually gather data from separate touchpoints and create a cohesive map of the customer journey. More likely than not, ephemeral interactions and subtle cues to customer behavior are lost before they can be properly used.

A CDP solves these issues by resolving identity through customer data unification. It does this by tracking multiple data points and pinning them down to a specific person. The CDP assigns a permanent customer ID to the profile and continuously enriches it as more interactions come in. Instead of chasing fleeting touchpoints, a continuous and dynamic picture of the customer is formed. This can help improve your marketing strategy in several ways:

• Realign ad targeting based on real-time data
• Improve marketing and campaign efficiency by sending the right message at the right time to the right audience
• Increase attribution model accuracy (single-touch vs. multi-touch attribution)

Derive Customer Insights

Unified data creates a powerful foundation for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). As the CDP processes vast amounts of information, AI and ML work to identify trends and patterns. Some useful insights that can be uncovered include:

• Common audience characteristics
• High-priority profiles (such as VIP and prospects)
• Main customer segments

The CDP then uses these insights to suggest the next best action. This is based on pattern recognition from analysis of thousands or even millions of data touchpoints. Recommendations usually take the form of personalized messaging and follow-up to move the customer closer to a purchase decision. 

A customer data platform strategy enables marketing to recalibrate triggers that drive conversion, nurture client relationships, and build loyalty. With a CDP, brands are armed with intelligent insights that enable them to use consumer data in sophisticated ways. 

Enterprise-wide Customer-Centricity 

The benefits of CDPs extend beyond marketing. Making a single customer view accessible across the business and across the customer lifecycle improves customer service and sales to achieve enterprise-wide customer-centricity. 

Customer Service 

A CDP unifies all data relevant to customer service and feeds real-time updates to customer service representatives. This way, an agent is armed with information such as purchase history and support tickets so they can personalize the conversation. A CDP also suggests the next best action to optimize the customer experience. 

Sales

A CDP aggregates data from different channels and creates a single view of customer behavior at the account level. This way, sales executives can make the best-informed decisions on how to engage customers with the right message at the right time. 

See how global beverage giant Anheuser-Busch InBev used CDP to centralize its customer data across over 40 countries. 

Unlock a Better Marketing Strategy

Adopting a customer data platform strategy unlocks critical data and insights essential in building a high-growth marketing strategy. A CDP derives customer insights and recommends next best actions to drive purchase and brand loyalty. CDPs also help companies realign sales and service around customers through real-time updates and personalization.

Treasure Data helps you hit the target with a customer data platform strategy that makes every customer interaction more personalized, more valuable, and more profitable. Our proprietary platform uses multi-channel capabilities to connect data and create a valued customer experience. 

To learn how to leverage data to improve your customer experience, consult an expert today. Want to learn more? Request a demo, call 1.866.899.5386, or contact us for more information.