What is a CDP and why you should know

CDP offers a unified customer view that gathers a company’s first-party data (and to some extent, second- and third-party data) into a single, comprehensive platform, and enables the efficient sharing of this high-quality, individual data with other solutions. These six key questions about CDPs will help you understand the benefits and value derived from having one in your tech stack.

The Customer Data Platform market is expected to grow from nearly 2 billion EUR in 2020 to 8,5 EUR billion in 2025. For many marketers, it has become an essential tool in their ongoing efforts to increase personalization and gives a significant advantage over competitors still using more traditional methods. Compared to other Martech solutions like CRM and DMP, CDPs solved one of the biggest limitations to truly omnichannel and personalized experiences, siloed data that productively prevented marketers from using it.

What is a CDP?

Customer Data Platforms are managed systems that facilitate a unified, persistent and agile database of customers that provides a single view across many different viewpoints. A customer data platform functions as a marketing system that unifies a company’s customer data from marketing and other channels, to enable customer modelling and optimize the timing and targeting of messages and offers (Gartner). A CDP builds a complete profile of each of your individual customers through the collection and linking of first-party data to individual profiles. They are ready-to-use solutions, allowing departments without a high level of technical resources or skills, like marketing, to manage, analyze and use that data immediately after the initial technical implementation and set-up

Why do you need a CDP?

The main objective for companies of all sizes is to ultimately offer the right product, to the right people, at the right time. To maximize the opportunities for this to happen, marketers need to communicate to target audiences efficiently and engagingly in a consistent manner across all channels. By providing a single point of data for marketers and leadership, organizations can better maintain and grow their market share within competitive sectors.

What do you use a CDP for?

A CDP is used to manage previously fragmented data across multiple touchpoints, such as customer locations, budgets, purchase history and preferred shipping methods. This provides the capability to track and understand customer behaviour across several channels, which in turn allows businesses to make informed decisions based on what their customers truly need, and when.

What kind of data does a CDP work with?

CDPs are very flexible and can organize a range of different data sets. The most common streams include transactional data (previous purchases, purchase frequency, empty carts), campaign behaviour (clicks on email campaigns, shares on social media, open rates), online activity (bounce rates, organic traffic, traffic sources) and customer service data (past history, issues resolved or unresolved).

How will a CDP allow you to personalize?

By using a CDP, you'll be able to develop customer intelligence at a more granular and individual level. Through insights across multiple channels, users will be able to have a fuller picture of their target customer and, therefore, be able to create better experiences with more effect. To learn more about all the features of a CDP, here.

The value of a CDP for digital leadership

What does a CDP enable for digital leadership? 

CDO

  • A reliable and futureproof digital solution to integrate your Martech
  • A catalyst for digital transformation
  • An easily justifiable investment in technology, with measurable ROI

CMO

  • A 360-degree view of target audiences, including both segments and individual behaviors
  • Significantly reduction in advertising waste by enabling hyper-personalization and targeting capabilities
  • A better view and meeting of KPIs, clearer link between marketing spend and sales
  • Actionable, in-depth insights to get to know your audiences better
  • The solution to future-proof your digital Martech

CIO

  • Better data collection and storage
  • Integration of all customer-related data into a single solution
  • Easy integration into existing architectures
  • Easier ROI understanding for stakeholders

Read the full guide on CDPs ➔

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