What is a customer data platform?

According to Forbes companies that prioritize data-driven marketing are six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year than companies that don’t. 75% of those data-driven companies see an uptick in engagement. And data-driven strategies produce 5-8 times more ROI as strategies without.

It’s figures like these that support what many marketers have known for years:

The future of marketing lies in the data.

And not just any data. Behavioral data. Real-time data. Accurate, interconnected data enhanced by machine learning and Artificial Intelligence.

But how do enterprise-level marketers get that kind of data—the accurate, real-time, behavioral data that drives real business results? How do we harness it? How do we make it actionable? How do we, in other words, use customer data to take over our respective industries like data-driven giants Amazon, Spotify, and Netflix have done?

The answer? A Customer Data Platform

So what is a Customer Data Platform? CDPs Consolidate Data

According to the CDP Institute, a Customer Data Platform is packaged software that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems."

In other words, at its simplest, a CDP is a platform that stores, connects, and unifies customer data to give you an up-to-date, holistic view of your customers no matter how many devices they’re using or channels they interact with. This also supports customer acquisition and the Customer Journey.

So, if Customer X follows you on social media, has a ticket in with your customer service ticketing system, browses your website, and subscribes by email, all of the data on that customer—their behavior, the kinds of content they like and interact with, the emails they open, the troubleshooting they went through with customer service—is stored in one place and updated in real time.

This is what companies are talking about when they say they want a 360-degree view of the customer. One place where everything you know about your customer is brought together so that you—the marketer—can better understand and personalize for that person.

Okay, so at its simplest, a CDP is about stitching together customer data into up-to-date, unified profiles. But here’s a key truth:

Customer profiles only benefit your business when you can act on them.

In other words, unifying your data is only a first step. A good CDP should also enable you to take action on the data.

This means integrating with your current marketing channels and tools—not only bringing data in and unifying it but also pushing the right data back out to those channels to improve targeting, personalization, and, ultimately, marketing results across all channels.

A good CDP should come with plenty of enterprise integrations out-of-the-box, allowing you to immediately start using the data you gather to better target prospects and customers across your marketing channels.

The good news is that while putting a strong CDP Platform to work in your business may seem daunting, a good CDP can simplify the process—and quick.

For more in-depth information about how to put a good CDP to work in your enterprise please contact: Steve Palladino EVP Group Fio-Steve.Palladino@groupfio.com, or call him at 707-478-1329.

For more in depth information about how to put a good Cdp to work in your enterprise please contact: Steve Palladino Evp Group Fio-Steve.Palladino@groupfio.com, or call him at 707-478-1329.