Companies and marketers often face challenges while understanding their customers, giving rise to ineffective marketing experiences. Many of them end up marketing products to customers who already have those products or have no interest in them. This is often due to fragmented data sources and the inability to utilize them in a smart manner. So, how does one create an integrated view of their visitors and customers?

This is where a Customer Data Platform steps in. A CDP gives marketers a unified view of their customers, with real-time interactions and data stitched in from multiple databases, compiling readable customer profiles to study, analyze and market to.

The best thing about a Customer Data Platform (CDP) database is its ability to plug it into other systems, allowing marketers to access and use it for further use. So, how do you find out if your brand can benefit from a Customer Data Platform? Here are a few signs you need to look out for.

1. You have an incomplete or limited view of your customers

Every smart business generates and collates data through multiple channels, such as websites, call centers, email and social channels, to name a few. All this raw data amounts to vast volumes of records spread across different systems. This data is a veritable mine of information on consumer behavior for marketers, if assembled and presented correctly. A Customer Data Platform automates this difficult process, eliminates inaccuracies and duplicates, and seamlessly merges, cleans, matches and combines data to form a comprehensive single source in real time that can be consumed by marketers to maximize sales opportunities.

This is how a Customer Data Platform provides a single, accurate and 360° view of your customers. It stitches different customer data sources on web, social, POS systems, mobile wallet apps, customer interactions, web ordering systems, SKU tracking, and in-app ordering together with ease to create a single customer profile, which is updated in real time. The data is accessible and actionable to any system, allowing you to drive innovation with the latest datasets.

2. Your online advertising is not providing the expected ROI

If your online advertising isn’t providing the right results, there’s a high probability that you’re reaching out to the wrong audience or advertising to them at the wrong time. By implementing the CDP and integrating it with your advertising platforms, you can significantly increase the effectiveness of online advertising through very pointed retargeting in real time.

3. You find the task of sifting through available customer data daunting

Marketers often face the challenge of cleaning and sifting through large amounts of data, which is a tedious and formidable process. A CDP allows the unification of data from different sources and automates this task, thereby reducing the need for data cleaning and prep. Now, you can segment, assess, manage and generate reports with ease.

4. You are not building campaigns and communications based on behavior

Are you unable to trigger campaigns to individual customers based on historical, locational and behavioral data? Are you facing difficulties in tracking customer behavior across all channels and providing intelligent recommendations based on customer-journey triggers? If you answered yes to both, then Customer DP is the solution for you. It allows you to set up targeted campaigns focusing on underperforming areas and enticing the right customers, instead of blind marketing.

5. You are not tracking consumer behavior and usage online

Several marketers admit that they do not have any analytics in place online or on their provided apps and services. If you are among those, you need to start tracking your consumer’s online behavior and usage now to successfully predict their behavior! With access to multiple internet accessible devices, being online has become an integral part of our lives and marketers need to keep pace with where their consumers are. A CDP efficiently enables observing and listening to your customers and their needs online in real time. Customers are very vocal and expressive on the web and this information can be accurately interpreted to swiftly serve them relevant content that is more likely to pique their interest.

6. Real-time personalization is missing from your brand’s website

Wouldn’t you want to know if a potential customer arrived on your website? Wouldn’t you want to alter the customer experience accordingly? To offer this level of one-to-one personalization, you need real-time information about your visitors. Customization is the key to successful interaction, and this is exactly what you can work towards when you choose to adopt a Customer Data Platform.

7. You have abandoned your omni-channel marketing strategy

Data that is integrated from a number of sources needs to be streamlined into channels that can be easily consumed by marketers. A CDP integrates data across channels and funnels it into a central location, allowing you a single point of data control and visibility to make better decisions about offering relevant interactions to your customers.

Moving towards a bright future with CDP

To conclude, a Customer Data Platform orchestrates relevant engagements and streamlines all elements across web, email, mobile and social for a seamless and profitable experience for all involved. By building the right CDP, you’re not only able to personalize the experience, but can also reduce the cost of advertising.

The Customer Data Platform has the potential to transform the marketing industry and customer engagement.

Want to learn how other organizations are building their CDP? Reach out to me at cdp@hgsdigital.com.