The Basics of Customer Data Platform

A customer data platform is a data management system. CDP has a centralised database that is accessible by other martech systems. CDPs integrate customer data from multiple channels into one single database that helps to build a unified profile of individual customers.

 

The structured data can be delivered and utilised by other martech systems to enable features like personalised messaging.

 

Importance of CDP

 

CDP can integrate data from all the places your customers interact with your company. Thus, CDPs can help companies get an unobstructed view of customer's behaviours to deliver them with a consistent messaging and transactional experience.

 

Core Elements of CDP

 

CDPs are made up of three key elements. No CDP software provider can function without these three core CDP elements. Below are those:

 

1. CDPs are required to be accessible by external systems and deliver data to external systems.

 

2. A CDP is required to be a persistent, unified database collecting data from multiple sources and associating it with an individual customer profile.

 

3. CDPs are something that needs to be controlled by marketers with limited tech help from IT departments. CDPs may at times need extensive technical support for setting or making transformative changes, but otherwise, marketers should be capable of running CDPs daily by themselves.

 

Key Features of CDP

 

A CDP must have an easy-to-use user experience. It must be a web-based user interface with all the required functionality built-in for it to be called a CDP. Look for the following features for checking if the software is a CDP or not.

 

●      Data Collection

A CDP must be able to load in data from customer data sources like CRM, email, websites, server data etc. in real-time.

●      Activation

A CDP must also be capable of pushing segmented data back out to platforms and external systems like social media, email, mobile, and web.

●      Unification

A CDP must have the ability to integrate and unify customer profiles of a single person.

●      Segmentation

A CDP must have a web-based user interface for marketers to segment customers into custom audiences for campaigns easily.

 

Thus, a customer data platform is a software that helps marketers collect customer data, and use it for marketing campaigns with preferably zero help from tech department.