Customer Data Platform (CDP) explained
CDPs offer a unified customer view by aggregating data from various sources and tracking it over time. Learn when and why your business needs one.
CDP stands for customer data platform. CDPs provide a unified, comprehensive view of each customer by collecting data from multiple sources and tracking this data over time. A well-designed CDP gives the marketing team the right insights and the opportunity for immediate action.
More concisely, some promises of a customer data platform are:
- All your customer data in one place
- Personalized experiences across many touchpoints
- Real-time integration
- A 360° view of every customer
- Personalization at scale
Many companies have turned these promises into attractive and profitable projects. Let me explain in more detail how a CDP works and why it is worth to consider time and money into it.
Customer insight and understanding
Customer data platforms (CDP) provide a complete picture of the customer journey and accurately record customers' interactions with products, services, or brands so that they can be used for future marketing campaigns.
Essentially, a CDP is a customer database that is automatically updated as new data becomes available from a wide range of sources, mainly in-house data and sometimes third-party data.
CDPs can then structure this collected data into clear customer profiles, allowing organizations to identify and better engage with their customers, which can lead to high and long-term revenue.
Dynamic profile data
CDPs enable marketers not only to collect customer data, but also to create customer profiles, so that complete customer data resides in one central place. Such data includes basic contact details such as name, age, gender, location, social channel profiles, account information and job title.
Some of this data is often included in a company's CRM, but CDPs do not require manual entry and go a step further by also including data about a customer's lifestyle, personality, hobbies, and family details.
Know and recognize your customer
Such data helps marketers analyse how customers interact with their business. You can collect data such as the product categories they browse, click-through rate (CTR) on emails, number of web pages visited, products or solutions bought and social media engagement.
All this data helps understand the customer's preferences and ensures a better, personalized experience throughout the customer journey. Motivating factors that can influence a customer's purchase decision, such as why they chose a product and what they dislike about it, can also be identified.
Main Players in the Marketing CDP Space
Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) have become indispensable tools for marketers aiming to create personalized experiences and optimize marketing efforts. In the marketing space, CDPs like Tealium, Segment, Adobe Experience Platform, Salesforce Customer 360 Audiences, BlueConic, and Bloomreach Exponea have emerged as key players, each offering unique features and strengths.
Tealium
Tealium stands out as one of the leading marketing-focused CDP vendors. Its platform specializes in customer data management, integration, and activation for marketing and analytics purposes. Tealium empowers marketers to collect data from diverse sources, create unified customer profiles, and personalize experiences in real-time. Its robust features enable marketers to optimize campaigns and make data-driven decisions.
Segment
Segment is another prominent player in the marketing CDP arena. Its platform focuses on data collection, integration, and routing. Segment allows businesses to collect data from multiple sources and send it to different marketing and analytics destinations. This versatility makes it a valuable choice for companies seeking a flexible and scalable CDP solution.
Adobe Experience Platform
Adobe Experience Platform, part of the Adobe Experience Cloud, is a comprehensive CDP offering that caters to marketing needs. It enables businesses to centralize customer data, create detailed audience segments, and deliver personalized experiences across various channels. With Adobe's extensive suite of marketing tools, it seamlessly integrates into existing marketing workflows.
Salesforce CDP
Salesforce CDP is a powerful CDP designed to centralize customer data within the Salesforce ecosystem. It enables marketers to leverage the platform's CRM data to create personalized marketing experiences. Integration with other Salesforce tools empowers marketers to engage customers effectively throughout their journey.
BlueConic
BlueConic is a marketing-focused CDP that emphasizes data unification and segmentation. It allows marketers to create customer profiles and execute targeted marketing campaigns. Its user-friendly interface makes it an appealing choice for marketing teams seeking an intuitive CDP solution.
Exponea (Bloomreach)
Exponea CDXP provides a powerful combination of advanced CDP, AI, Marketing Automation, and CRO capabilities. All these are available within a single, seamlessly integrated platform, ensuring real-time data capture and activation.
Lytics
Lytics is the customer data platform of choice for the next generation of customer-centric businesses — and the first-ever CDP with natively-integrated Generative AI capabilities.
DCP's further explained
Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a powerful tool that has been gaining significant attention in the realm of marketing technology. If you are an online professional seeking to understand CDPs better, you've come to the right place! In this series of blog articles, I delve into the world of CDPs and explore their distinctive features, advantages, and use cases.
To start, "Customer Data Platform (CDP) compared with CRM, data warehouse, and DMP" provides an insightful comparison of CDPs with other essential marketing tools, helping you grasp their unique value and purpose.
Curious about the difference between a CDP and a DXP? We've got you covered with our article "The difference between a CDP and a DXP." We explore how CDPs primarily collect information, while digital experience platforms (DXPs) are focused on presenting information, offering a clearer understanding of their respective roles.
If you are eager to enhance your customer experience, you won't want to miss "Transform your customer experience with a CDP." Discover how CDPs can drive personalization, ensure compliance, and enable real-time decision-making, revolutionizing the way you interact with your customers.
Explore these articles to gain valuable knowledge about CDPs and their potential to revolutionize your marketing efforts. Harness the power of customer data to take your online professional endeavors to new heights!
