CDP (customer data platform) is going to make the difference between passive and active use of data – trust us when we say you’re going to want to be in the latter category. Marketers need data to make decisions, build campaigns, measure results, and ultimately determine the effectiveness of their strategy. Yet, data is getting harder and harder to collect as the privacy-first web gains momentum, and consumers are exercising their right to not have it collected at all thanks to the GDPR and CCPA.
This poses challenges for marketing teams who have relied heavily on deep consumer datasets for the last decade. But unlike the days of measuring brand lift and not knowing exactly how specific channels performed, the data privacy future isn’t completely data-free.
Instead, customer data platforms (CDPs) are growing in popularity, allowing marketing teams to easily and legally collect data, keep that data updated properly, allow consumers to access that data and edit it, and so much more.
As new data protection policies pass across jurisdictions around the world, the onus is on marketing teams to ensure their organizations are compliant. But marketing teams already have a lot on their plates, and managing specific consumer requests around data updating or deleting, and a variety of other tasks is a lot of additional manual work.
CDPs take care of that in the same way that an email service provider (ESP) takes care of unsubscribes. CDPs will soon be a staple technology for all marketers –– for the time saving benefit, but so much else, too.
Let’s take a closer look at the advantages of customer data platforms that are spurring their growing adoption by companies.
CDPs gather all consented customer data into a single spot, storing it legally and securely. But, that data doesn’t just stay within the CDP. The CDP connects to an entire marketing stack, allowing marketers to segment, target and even forecast based on consumer profiles, activities and more.
CDP allows nearly the same level of existing customer profiling as possible before the privacy-first web, with the big advantage of that data not being stored across a variety of disparate systems. Instead, once a customer consents to data sharing, their information across all of your first and second-party touchpoints is fed into the system, creating a holistic unified customer profile.
We don’t know what the future of data privacy looks like exactly, but we have some hints. Both the GDPR and CCPA require companies to allow consumers to ask about what data they have stored on them, allow them to edit and update that data, or request to delete it.
Similar to unsubscribing from an email or SMS service, soon consumers will be demanding data visibility pages at login, and an easy way to manage that data, see how it is being used, and decide if they want to keep sharing it or not.
That’s just what we can easily predict will happen, but jurisdictions around the world are creating laws and policies for their specific populations. Keeping up with these best practices and new policies manually would be like trying to keep up with the U.S. tax code manually: near impossible. It’s why companies like Avalara exist, and for data best practice adherence, it is why marketers are flocking to CDP solutions.
The privacy-first web isn’t a data-less future. Instead, it is a future in which consumers decide who they give their data to, and reward the companies that treat that data well. In other words, the better you use the customer data they give you, the more likely you’ll get to keep it. And when you get to keep data, you can create deeper and more meaningful customer profiles to strengthen your marketing throughout the funnel.
Repeat customers and continuously building customer loyalty will again become the norm as companies work to leverage consumers as their best marketer, telling the world about a brand’s data practices and product quality.
Spotting trends in your audience, sending the right info at the right time, and so much more will only be possible with the insights of CDP.
Brands need to find ways to stay ahead of the wave of ongoing legislation, new rules, and compliance requirements. That includes these three moves:
CDP is about more than the longevity of a customer’s lifetime value. It is also about how your brand leverages its purpose to pull your consumers into the fold, impress them, engage them, and fuel active growth through referrals and word of mouth.
Create deep customer profiles to help identify the customers who are primed and ready for referral programs, and also see those who are not and where the biggest differences lie. You can build marketing strategies and programs to address those differences, and build a strong and predictable customer retention funnel.
Imagine your CX as a chain, each link representing an interaction between your customer and your brand. Every good interaction adds another solid link and makes the chain stronger. But just one experience -- one bad link-- breaks it.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, CDP gives your customers clear access to their data, control over what they share, and makes it easy for your team to explain how the brand is using a customer’s data.
This automates a ton of work for your marketing team, but also builds a trusted relationship between the rband and the customer. That trust becomes a key part of the brand experience, and puts your brand ahead in looking after the consumer and their best interest.
