The Purpose and Value of a Customer Data Platform

Transcription

1 The Purpose and Value of a Customer Data Platform Marketers today are faced with a seemingly insurmountable task: to gain a deep and accurate understanding of each and every customer and prospect across all touchpoints and interactions. It s difficult enough to understand customers at the aggregate or the segment level. But marketers today are seeking to understand each customer as a unique individual. And B2B marketers also want to understand their buyers at an account level. Accomplishing this goal requires an awful lot of data and an ability to sift through and interpret it all. The good news is that most companies today are sitting on a mountain of first-party data (and often third-party data as well) that they can use to understand their customer base and universe of prospects. The bad news is that this data is typically scattered across the organization in different systems. It s in customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and marketing automation platforms (ESPs/MAPs), analytics tools, e-commerce platforms, data management platforms (DMPs), point of sale (POS) systems, data warehouses, call center solutions and more. So what is a company to do? A customer data platform may be the answer. The Rise of Customer Data Platforms Companies across industries are increasingly turning to the customer data platform (CDP). CDPs help companies aggregate customer data from disparate sources providing businesses with a centralized system of record for information about all of their customers and prospects. In the past, a customer relationship management (CRM) system was able to serve this purpose, but it was not built to handle the volume and complexity of data (such digital interaction and clickstream data) that we see today. It wasn t intended to take in data from all the different technologies marketers use, nor was it intended to interpret what this data means about an individual. With a CDP, businesses bring data together and use it to create more meaningful and relevant customer interactions. This is simply not possible with a CRM. As is true for most types of technology, not all CDPs are created equally. In this white paper, we explore the three different levels of CDPs and describe the value and differentiators of the Evergage solution. Three Levels of CDPs The CDP Institute defines a CDP as packaged software that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems." While all CDPs on the market today meet this basic definition, each one is different. To appreciate the differences, it s helpful to classify them according to three different levels.

2 Level 1: Building a Unified Customer Database At a minimum, a CDP is a solution that brings together first-party customer data from multiple sources and stores it in a central location creating a single view of each customer with a universal ID for each person. This is what a Level 1 CDP does. LEVEL 1 CDP: A Unified Database Bring Data In from Outside Data Sources Customer Data Platform with a Unified Profile for Each Individual This type of CDP is best for companies that are looking to get a more complete and holistic understanding of their customers, but not necessarily to act on the data. Rather, the aim is to get deeper insights about customers in order to inform internal research, analysis efforts and offline campaigns. For example, a consumer packaged goods company may want to analyze large amounts of customer data in aggregate to spot trends among its customer base, or segment the data to learn about different groups. The analysis could help improve advertising strategies or in-store marketing campaigns. Companies in the automotive industry may use a Level 1 CDP to analyze customer data at the dealership or geography level to identify patterns and improve promotion campaign planning efforts. Level 2: Passing Segment-Level Data to Other Systems The next level of CDP encompasses the customer data unification capability of Level 1, including the ability to analyze and segment the data, and adds the ability to pass segment-level data to outside systems for action or further analysis. In other words, a Level 2 CDP does not simply aggregate and store data for analysis; it pushes relevant data out to other systems to put it to use. Some Level 2 CDPs will also track certain behavioral data to enhance the information maintained in the unified profile for each individual. LEVEL 2 CDP: A Unified Database that Passes Data to Other Systems Bring Data In from Outside Data Sources Customer Data Platform with a Unified Profile for Each Individual Send Segment-Level Data to Other Systems for Activation or Analysis 02

3 Segments are groups of customers or prospects created by a marketer or business user that share common characteristics. For example, a B2B company might create a segment of all customers in the technology industry or visitors who have been to its website more than three times in the past month. A B2C retailer might create a segment of high LTV customers or return visitors who have added items to a shopping cart but never purchased. While Level 2 CDPs collect data at the individual level, they are not able to pass it to other systems at this level of granularity. Instead, they allow you to create segments from that data, analyze the data, and pass segment membership to other systems. This type of CDP is best for companies that are looking to deliver tailored experiences based on segment-level data, such as news sites and other online publications. It s also best for instances where a real-time response is not essential because there are inevitable delays that take place when you need to pass data from one system to another. For example, media and publishing companies can create robust segments of customers based on all the data they have brought together in their CDP and pass it to their service providers in order to send better targeted s with a Level 2 CDP. Level 3: Delivering Personalized Experiences When making the decision about which CDP to choose, it s critical to consider why you want to bring your customer data together in the first place. Ultimately, you want to use it to deliver better customer experiences. A Level 2 CDP can help you do this. However, those experience are at the segment level, not the individual level. Ideally, you want to understand each customer and prospect as individual people (and, in the case of B2B companies, as individual accounts) and cater to them in helpful, productive and profitable ways. Providing a truly personalized and relevant experience one that helps someone accomplish his goals is the most effective method of driving value to your audience and delivering revenue and loyalty benefits to your organization. That s where a Level 3 CDP comes in. A Level 3 CDP not only does everything a Level 1 and Level 2 CDP does, but it also acts on the data and insights to deliver personalized experiences. LEVEL 3 CDP: A Unified Database that Passes Data to Other Systems AND Acts on Data to Deliver Personalized Experiences Send Segment-Level Data to Other Systems for Activation or Analysis Bring Data In from Outside Data Sources Customer Data Platform with a Unified Profile for Each Individual Act on Data to Deliver Personalized Experiences A Level 3 CDP is particularly valuable for companies in the retail, technology, financial services and media industries or any company that can benefit from delivering personalized experiences based on data and insights in the CDP. 03

4 The Value of the Evergage CDP Evergage is a Level 3 CDP, which means that it can take in data from other sources, analyze data and act on data to deliver personalized experiences. It also goes well beyond other solutions with real-time, 1-to-1, cross-channel personalization functionality. Evergage is also a superior Level 1 and Level 2 CDP compared to other vendors. With Evergage, you are able to utilize deeper and more valuable capabilities at each level. Level 1 Differentiators Level 2 Differentiators Level 3 Differentiators Collect in-depth, cross-channel behavioral data Track data at account level Understand business context Interpret and analyze data with affinity modeling Leverage a robust framework for exchanging data with outside systems Pass data at the segment level based on deeper data Use data to personalize at the segment and individual level, in true real time Deliver 1-to-1 personalized experiences across channels Dive into algorithms and apply your own insights 04

5 Level 1 Differentiators COLLECT IN-DEPTH, CROSS-CHANNEL BEHAVIORAL DATA Evergage doesn t just collect and store data from various sources. It tracks cross-channel behavioral data for both known and anonymous individuals at a level of depth you likely aren t tracking through any of your other analytics tools. In addition to clicks and actions, the platform tracks non-click behaviors like active time on page, scrolling, hovering and zooming as well as the context of what each visitor is engaged with (category, tags, price, etc.) that can be used to determine true interests and intent. Evergage stores this data in the unified profile for each individual along with the data brought in from your other systems. TRACK DATA AT ACCOUNT LEVEL Collecting and storing data at the individual level is important for businesses across industries, but B2B businesses have an additional concern. They want to understand their prospects and customers not just at the individual level but at the account level as well. Evergage stores all of the in-depth data described above in profiles for both individuals and accounts. Business users can view an aggregated profile of all visitors associated with a target account including an account s activity history, preferred solutions, categories and content. With this additional level of insight, marketers and salespeople can identify which accounts are showing interest, what stage of the funnel they are in, and which individuals within the account are most engaged. UNDERSTAND BUSINESS CONTEXT Every business is unique, with different taxonomies and organization of content, products, pages, articles, promotions, inventory, discounts, etc. And each element of a catalog has different categories, keywords, brands, authors and other attributes that are important for framing a customer s interactions with the company. Evergage understands and integrates with the context of your business. It automatically interprets the structure of the content and products that are delivered across your channels. Only when your CDP understands the context of your specific business and the organization of your content and products can you make an appropriate decision about what experience to show to a customer. INTERPRET AND ANALYZE DATA WITH AFFINITY MODELING All of your data particularly the mass volumes of behavioral data needs to be analyzed before it can be of any use. Using machine-learning-powered affinity modeling, Evergage can make sense of all the data you have about a person, helping you understand his interests, preferences, in-the-moment intent, and more. For example, the data can tell you that the shoe category is a retail shopper s favorite, and that she favors higher-priced items in red and gold. It could tell you that a prospect in the healthcare industry is at the beginning of her research and is most interested in a specific blog topic. Only when you re able to digest all of the data you have and can infer what it means about a person can you effectively deliver a truly personalized and maximally relevant experience. Level 2 Differentiators LEVERAGE A ROBUST FRAMEWORK FOR EXCHANGING DATA WITH OUTSIDE SYSTEMS Level 2 CDPs allow you to take action on your data by passing it to outside systems. With Evergage, you can connect and pass data to other systems much more efficiently by leveraging an advanced, modern framework called Evergage Gears TM. With Evergage Gears, you can quickly and easily integrate Evergage with other systems and add functionality to extend the platform s power and core capabilities. The ability to create Gears even extends to outside developers and partners. Evergage Gears leverages the robust APIs, webhooks and orchestration capabilities that have been built to support the most sophisticated enterprise business requirements. Other Level 2 CDPs take a hard-coded approach to passing data to a limited number of external systems. 05

6 PASS DATA AT THE SEGMENT LEVEL BASED ON DEEPER DATA When exchanging relevant data between different systems and your CDP, it s important that you have access to the right data data that gives you the deepest insights possible. No other Level 2 CDP has the depth of behavioral data that Evergage provides. Evergage doesn t just track page-level activity, it tracks the nuances of how a person engaged with each page and analyzes this data to interpret what it means about each individual. With this deeper data, you can send much more granular segment-level data to outside systems such as which visitors have spent at least three minutes on your site and have shown interest in a particular brand but have not yet made a purchase. Knowing and then marketing to this highly specific segment is likely to yield excellent results compared to broader segments. Level 3 Differentiators USE DATA TO PERSONALIZE AT THE SEGMENT AND INDIVIDUAL LEVEL IN REAL TIME The Evergage platform not only collects and analyzes data, it very importantly can also take instant action on that data to affect customer experiences. Passing data from Evergage to another system of action is nice, but any action taken will not be real-time. If the main purpose of a CDP is to drive optimal experiences for customers and prospects, you want the ability to deliver 1-to-1 personalized experiences the moment you learn something important about an individual. The value of real-time cannot be overstated. In terms of personalization, real-time refers to the actual moment that someone is interacting with one of your digital properties. If you can t act on data you have gathered at the time (a matter of milliseconds), you won t be able to personalize his experience until the next time he interacts with you. At that point, assuming you even have the opportunity to re-engage with that person, circumstances may have completely changed and what you learned about him next time may no longer be relevant. Evergage allows you to collect data, analyze it and act on it to affect an experience all within 20 milliseconds. With Evergage, you can build segments and set the experiences that each segment should receive all within the same platform. This means that the second a person qualifies for that segment, she will see the corresponding experience. For example, if you want to display a promotion only to shoppers who have viewed three product pages, the instant a person views her third product page, she will be shown the promotion. Better yet, in addition to real-time segment-based personalization, Evergage allows you to deliver true 1-to-1 personalized experiences powered by machine-learning algorithms. Algorithms leverage all the data available on a person to select the most appropriate experience. You can develop your own algorithmic recipe to guide the algorithm in how it determines that experience. For example, you can tell the algorithm to display the most relevant, recently published articles to each individual based on their preferred topics, or to recommend the most relevant products over a certain price to each person based on their preferred brands, categories and price point. DELIVER 1-TO-1 PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCES ACROSS CHANNELS Customers think about relationships with your business holistically; they don t and shouldn t care about which channel they re using and how that will affect their relationship. The Evergage platform allows you to deliver 1-to-1 personalized experiences on the web, in mobile sites and in apps, via onsite site, through mobile push campaigns, in communications, within web applications, and more. With Evergage, you don t need to use outside systems for each channel. It can all be controlled from one place leveraging the same unified profile data for consistency. For example, you can use what you know about a person from how she has interacted with your site or mobile app to inform the content of your s. You can use what you have learned about how a person engaged with s you have sent (which s she has opened or clicked on) to make her website experience more relevant. And you can use data from her interactions in store, with a call center or in a branch to inform her experiences across any digital channel. Essentially, you can incorporate customer data from all channels in Evergage, and then use that understanding to affect the experience in any channel regardless of where the data was collected. DIVE INTO ALGORITHMS AND APPLY YOUR OWN INSIGHTS Evergage s takes a white box approach to machine learning, enabling non-technical users to build and deploy algorithmic recipes that drive dynamic 1-to-1 experiences. That flexibility and openness also benefits more technical users and data scientists with our Data Science Workbench. Connected to the platform through the Evergage Gears framework, this tool lets advanced users dive into the data to run their own analyses, simulations and models, and then insert their insights and findings back into Evergage. This enables each company to deliver the most relevant 1-to-1 experiences possible for their particular business. 06

7 In summary, Evergage is a Level 3 CDP that: Brings in data from outside sources Collects in-depth behavioral data Combines all data in a single unified customer profile for each person (and account) Analyzes and interprets the data Sends data to outside systems for activation and analysis Acts on the data in real time to deliver 1-to-1 personalization across channels Evergage s Unified Personalization & Customer Data Platform ESP/MAP Store/Branch POS With Evergage s real-time personalization and customer data platform, you can systematically understand and interact with each person that visits your site, uses your app or opens your s one at a time, in the moment and at scale to deliver a maximally relevant, individualized experience. 07

8 THE EVERGAGE DIFFERENCE There will never be a single solution that can do everything you need as a marketer. But why work with more technologies than you need, wasting time and money? If you are considering or already using a CDP to store data collected from other systems so that it can be pushed back out to even more systems, your CDP will simply become one more tool adding unnecessary complexity to your ever-growing tech stack. A CDP, chosen and deployed properly, is a strategic investment that can give you a distinct competitive advantage. Your CDP should be able track in-depth data, analyze and interpret that data, and act on on those insights to deliver optimal experiences all in real time. That s what Evergage does. Evergage is a user-friendly, best-in-breed platform that will not only help you advance your business in a profound way, but as a comprehensive Level 3 CDP with advanced, real-time 1-to-1 personalization capabilities, it will also enable you to reduce the number of technology solutions needed to deliver effective customer experiences. Many CDPs on the market today have come to recognize that customer data is useless unless you re able to put it to good use. As a result, others have started to incorporate the concept of personalization into their overall story. But since they were not originally built to deliver cross-channel personalized experiences at the 1-to-1 level in real time, their capabilities are minimal at best. Most have to connect with other solutions in order to deliver even basic personalization. Don t get stuck with a CDP that brings your data together but doesn t let you use it to immediately improve the customer experience. If you re planning to deliver personalized experiences to anyone at anytime via any channel, you need to truly understand each person at a deep level and respond in the moment with individually relevant and maximally engaging customer experiences. Evergage can help you accomplish this. 08