Customer Data Platforms: The Next Step In Your Business’ Digital Transformation

CDPs can help your team gather, process, and store data from customer interactions across all channels, giving you the information you need to produce the best show in the world. 

They also pave the way for greater cooperation between departments, as well as dismantle barriers that may hinder growth opportunities. As such, CDPs can play a key role in accelerating your business's digital transformation.  

Find the best customer data platform companies to help you implement a CDP.

Read more: Top 5 Tips to Maximize Data-Driven Recruiting for Your Brokerage

What is a Customer Data Platform

A CDP is a single, integrated platform that stores all of your customer data. It collects data from any customer touchpoint with your brand, such as e-commerce, mobile, email, social media, or even in-store. 

Once this data is collected, it's arranged, categorized, and stored in a way that can be easily accessed and used.

A CDP also helps you process the data you've collected. It can discover customer patterns, behaviors, and preferences, and use the data to create marketing or retention campaigns that are customized to the individual. 

It can also provide feedback on the performance of those campaigns, so you can modify them as needed.

Having a CDP provides a holistic view of your customers, allowing you to understand their needs and meet them in a relevant way. 

It also helps you create personalized experiences for customers by dividing them into different groups based on their demographics, firmographics, behavior, preferences, and interests.

This can be used to create specific campaigns, messages, and offers that are suited to each group. A CDP also helps you improve your customer acquisition and retention strategies. 

It can be used to measure customer lifetime value, provide insights into customer attrition, and identify customer segments that are more likely to buy.

It can also be used to identify the most efficient channels and campaigns for attracting new customers, so it does bring customer data platform advantages.

Common features of a CDP

Customer data management platforms advantages ​

Customer Data Platforms help companies to handle and manage the data and show modern organizations new business possibilities thanks to processing data. 

Below you can find 3 advantages of implementing a Customer Data Platforms in your company. 

Check how the platform can help you to enhance your business: 

#1.Break down data silos ​

Data silos are a serious business problem. Silos typically occur when data is available to one department, but inaccessible to other departments within the same organization. Although there's no one set cause of data silos, they often result from technical or organizational roadblocks. 

Data silos result in incomplete and inconsistent data sets, as well as decrease productivity, effective decision making, and collaboration between departments. 

Fortunately, CDPs can break down unwanted data silos by unifying your customer data all in one place. 

With all the data – from different customer management systems, channels, and marketing campaigns, for instance – now centralized, accurate, and accessible to everyone, users are able to get a complete view, as well as see the specific relationships behind trends. In turn, data-driven decision-making can now take precedent.

Each employee is able to leverage and add to the previous findings of others, which therefore increases opportunities for growth and development. 

CDPs can therefore play a key role in a winning digital transformation strategy. 

Adopting digital innovations and improving your organizational culture ultimately works to boost efficiency and growth, while also decreasing operational costs at the same time.  

#2.End the need for third-party data ​

Third-party cookies are being phased out. By 2024, you'll no longer be able to track customers online via third-party cookies. Yet, effective marketing still requires customer data to be relevant and impactful. 

The solution? CDPs – they let you collect first-party data straight from your customers or website visitors using various tracking tools, including pixels. 

Not only is first-party data accurate, but it also makes it easier to comply with data privacy laws (which are becoming ever-stricter). First-party data gives you greater control over where and how it's stored, along with how it's retrieved. 

Greater control also means the data will be of greater accuracy and quality. And, keep in mind, the overall success of your marketing campaigns is largely determined by the quality of your customer data.

#3.Improve the customer experience

Customer experience is more important than ever before. 66% of customers expect businesses to understand their needs, while customer-oriented businesses are as much as 60% more profitable than companies that aren't. So, by providing a memorable customer experience, you grow a loyal customer base and boost revenue. 

With CDPs, you can create an omnichannel customer experience of multiple individual, yet connected, customer touchpoints spanning an number of different channels; so, customers can begin their experience with your brand on one channel, and pick right back up where they left off on another channel. 

The central data hub created by CDPs allows for efficient data-sharing across all departments in real time. 

So, everyone now has a complete view of the customer at all times, allowing them to therefore collectively work toward the shared aim of creating a tailored customer experience.

Moreover, CDPs also create comprehensive customer profiles, allowing you to develop an accurate understanding of each individual customer. 

In particular, the software can be used to create customer identity graphs to help you further personalize the customer experience. 

In turn, you're in a better position to perform customer-oriented marketing and effectively manage customer relationships.

CDPs can play a pivotal role in your business' digital transformation. By taking time to understand the impressive benefits CDPs can bring to your business, you can make better, data-driven decisions, improve efficiency, and, ultimately, become more profitable. 

3 Ways to implementing CDP

​But launching a CDP isn't the same as adopting less transformative technologies. To optimize the benefits, brands should prepare to coordinate their people and processes.  Here are 3 tips to get started

#1.Choose The Right Tool​ 

​Since digital transformation is such a big priority for many companies right now, it makes sense that there are lots of options for tools to help you on your journey. Make sure that your team has done the homework to choose the ideal CDP for your needs, and that all stakeholders are involved in the process.

Because the ultimate goal is to integrate your CDP into every aspect of your company, getting feedback from everyone is a must!

#2.Ensure Data Governance​ 

Since digital transformation is such a big priority for many companies right now, it makes sense that there are lots of options for tools to help you on your journey. 

Make sure that your team has done the homework to choose the ideal CDP for your needs, and that all stakeholders are involved in the process.

Because the ultimate goal is to integrate your CDP into every aspect of your company, getting feedback from everyone is a must!

#3.Get Training

​Lack of training and skills is the biggest obstacle to successful digital transformation. 

Because a customer data platform is so effective when used across a company, make sure that everyone knows how and when to use the data.

Wrapping up

The digital transformation journey is a complicated but essential one for any business looking to stay ahead in the age of technology. 

A Customer Data Platform is the invaluable "stage manager" in this journey, helping to consolidate customer data and provide key insights into how to best connect with customers across multiple channels.

With the right CDP, you can ensure that your digital transformation journey will be successful and lead to a more customer-focused business model. This shift will inevitably help you and your team create a memorable, powerful show!