CUSTOMER DATA PLATFORM OR MARKETING AUTOMATION WHAT DO YOU REALLY NEED?

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1 CUSTOMER DATA PLATFORM OR MARKETING AUTOMATION WHAT DO YOU REALLY NEED?

2 DATA IS OUTPACING AUTOMATION In the mid-2000s, marketing automation evolved to help digital marketers automate repetitive tasks such as s, social media and other web actions. Over the years it s helped many organizations move from manual processes like loading lists for blast campaigns, to executing targeted and personalized digital campaigns geared towards building relationships across the entire customer lifecycle. The technology led to the advent of automated segmentation, lead scoring and nurturing, and ROI measurement, among other practices that make up many modern marketing playbooks. However, marketing has changed dramatically since the rise of marketing automation platforms, yet these legacy systems continue to manage customer data in the same way as they always have. Today, marketing automation (MA) continues to deliver tremendous value for many organizations and has even gained traction among SMBs, whereas it was once primarily an enterprise technology. However, many enterprises are now faced with a new challenge: leveraging a wide variety of disparate data sources to deliver omnichannel, 1:1 marketing at scale. Where marketing automation excels at ingesting data from, and delivering messages across, digital channels, it is still tremendously difficult to plan and execute true cross-channel campaigns that bridge the online and offline gap. Enter the customer data platform (CDP). CDPs emerged in recent years as a way for marketers to harness their customer data from every relevant data source, regardless of its format, and put it to use. They enable personalized marketing and customer experiences, as well as better analytics, by providing a unified database that can integrate with the entire marketing stack.

3 Many companies still turn to marketing automation vendors in hopes of resolving their marketing challenges due to their legacy in the MarTech space. However, marketing has changed dramatically since the rise of marketing automation platforms, yet these legacy systems continue to manage customer data in the same way as they always have. Over the remainder of this paper we ll help you understand what pain points CDPs address that marketing automation cannot and show you how a CDP can fundamentally change the way your marketing organization utilizes customer data.

4 RELATIVE STRENGTHS OF MARKETING AUTOMATION AND CUSTOMER DATA PLATFORMS Customer Data Platform Data consolidation - CDPs allow for data collection and consolidation from every customer touchpoint, regardless of the data s format, into a marketing-controlled platform Identity Resolution Match, merge and purge contacts across data sources to eliminate duplicate creation and develop a unified view of the customer Channel integration - Go beyond and use a single source of data to power personalized marketing across a wide range of online and offline channels Marketing Automation Boost efficiency - MA helps marketers save time by eliminating basic tasks like manual list loading, sending s and building landing pages Increase customer value - Nurture customers with cross-sell and up-sell offers based on limited, channel-specific data Determine ROI - Eliminate guesswork and gain a detailed understanding of how marketing spend by channel directly impacts revenue

5 DO YOU NEED A CUSTOMER DATA PLATFORM? HOW A CUSTOMER DATA PLATFORM WORKS DATA CHANNELS Personal & Demographic Onsite Behavioural Data Engagement Data Data Integrations Data and ID Management The Unified View of the Customer Analytics Descriptive and Predictive Execution Integrations Push Messaging SMS Social CUSTOMER Transactional Data Journey Orchestration Multi-Channel Campaigns Direct Mail Mobile & Device Data Web For most organizations with modern marketing strategies, there comes a time when the volume of data inputs outpaces the marketing automation setup, rendering their data unactionable. However, in today s data-driven business environment, an organization without usable data is a sitting duck. They are going to be extremely limited in the marketing tactics they can employ and will inevitably see a decrease in customer engagement.

6 Any brand that tries to use customer relationship marketing strategies should consider a CDP for its ability to clean customer data and present it in an actionable view for marketers. See the sidebar for the questions that will help you decide if you need a CDP. While marketing automation can handle a subset of online data and trigger automated s based on that data, these systems weren t built to pull in data from sources across multiple channels. Your marketing communications are only as strong as the data that you have fueling those messages. A CDP allows marketers to consolidate customer data from across the organization, create business rules to develop a unified view of the customer, and start marketing with every relevant data point. CDPs are also purpose-built for marketers and employ real-time updates which allow marketing teams to move quickly, be agile and act independently of IT. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER Do you collect customer data in multiple systems? Are your success metrics customerbased (example: lifetime customer value) rather than channel-based? Is your customer data divided between different teams or databases? Do you struggle with duplicate data in your current system of record? Does customer segmentation require a request to IT or another team? If you answer yes to most of these question, you will benefit from learning more about customer data platforms.

7 A MARKETING STACK FOR THE FUTURE Investing in a CDP isn t just a way to consolidate customer data and put it under control of the marketing team, it s a way to future-proof your marketing tech stack. A CDP should be able to ingest all of the data needed by marketing team, regardless of data source or type. Additionally, your CDP vendor of choice should have an eye on the pulse of technology and be ready for the next big thing in marketing and be able to take in whatever data it may conjure up for marketers. If we think of a CDP as the intermediary of a modern marketing stack, collecting data and feeding it to various channels, marketing automation s capabilities begin to shrink in comparison. Marketing automation helped businesses to move from static, weekly e-newsletters to personalized, daily s, but we re no longer living in an -only world. We need this level of message personalization and automation across channels. Direct mail, while not new, is seeing a resurgence as a highly effective channel, but it s expensive. Brands need to be judicious with who receives direct mail promotions in order for it to be an impactful and efficient strategy.

8 With a CDP that has campaign planning functionality, marketers can create true cross-channel marketing campaigns, where a customer s actions in one channel affect what they receive or see in another. For example, a customer could click on an which acts as a trigger for them to receive an ad on Facebook the next day, and a special offer in the mail the following week. This type of consistent, cross-channel experience is critical to building a modern, customer-centric marketing approach. + On top of that, it s now possible to add a layer of machine learning that allows for deeper insights and campaigns than would otherwise be possible manually. Machine learning algorithms can ingest and analyze CDP data and determine, for example: Which customers are likely to fall out of the funnel and should be reengaged Products that are often paired together and can be recommended to boost order sizes The most and least effective channels and tactics in order to reduce waste Machine learning has the capacity to surface patterns and connections from massive sets of data but lacks effectiveness without a CDP that can hold every important data factor.

9 INVESTING IN A CUSTOMER DATA PLATFORM A CDP is a powerful piece of technology that supercharges two of marketers most valuable assets: their customer data and their existing martech stack. By collecting, refining and presenting all of your customer data in single, actionable view, marketers can focus on developing creative marketing messages and getting them in front of the right customers to drive them to purchase. LESS TIME MANAGING DATA. MORE TIME MARKETING WITH IT. QuickPivot offers an integrated CDP that allows marketers to: Gain a unified view of the customer Plan and execute cross-channel marketing campaign Deliver personalized, 1:1 messages at scale If you re ready to take control of your customer data and create a superior customer experience across all channels, we d love to hear from you. To learn more, or see a demo, contact us at We are customer data experts. Trusted by amazing brands for nearly 20 years.