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Customer Data Platform: the intelligent tool for knowing your customers by heart

Customer Data Platform: the intelligent tool for knowing your customers by heart

By Axelle Drack

Published: October 24, 2024

Do you dream of offering your customers a personalized, seamless and relevant experience with your brand?

Then you need data, lots of it. But you still need to be able to use it quickly and intelligently to launch day-to-day actions, be they sales, marketing or relational.

The best tool for getting your customer data talking? Without a doubt, the customer data platform. In this article, we'll explain what a customer data platform is, how it differs from a data management platform, and how to choose the right one. Follow the guide!

What is a customer data platform (CDP)?

Definition of a CDP

According to Gartner, a customer data platform is "a marketing technology that unifies customer data from marketing and all other channels to build customer profiles and optimize the timing and targeting of messages and offers".

CDP collects and centralizes customer data from multiple sources, but its strength lies above all in its ability to

  • process it,
  • cleanse it,
  • combine them,
  • and put them into context to give them meaning.

The result is ultra-precise 360° customer profiles, which are accessible to other corporate systems (a CRM, for example). As a result :

  • the marketing department can launch relevant, targeted actions,
  • the customer service department can better anticipate and respond to customer needs,
  • and the sales department to be more effective in its pitch and offers to increase its chances of signing contracts.

💡 The information gathered is therefore useful to all these divisions, which will optimize their actions and continue to collect ever more relevant data that will also serve other departments. A sort of virtuous circle!

The 5 types of data collected by CDP

A customer data platform can collect different types of data to feed its database:

  • Behavioral data collected when users navigate a site or software (average time spent on a page, functionalities used, average click rate, pages viewed, etc.), which can be used to track the performance of marketing actions.

  • Profile data collected by CRM, for example, which is linked to a person's identity (first name, age, CSP, profession, interests, languages spoken, preferences, etc.).), which are essential for personalizing customer relations.

  • Transactional data from your e-commerce platform (average basket, number of orders, customer reviews, preferred method of payment, etc.), enabling you to better understand a person's purchasing behavior.

  • Offline data, which can come from the field (store, trade show meeting), from sales reps during telephone appointments, from customer service calls, etc.

  • Product data, such as stock levels, available colors and sizes, prices
    prices, etc. This is essential information to avoid making a faux pas by recommending a product that isn't automatically in stock, for example.

💡 This list is obviously not exhaustive; depending on your industry and your needs, it will probably be necessary to connect other data sources to it.

The advantages of using a CDP

  • Launch more relevant marketing actions, using all available information. For example, you can send an e-mail at the day and time when it is most likely to be read, or tailor content to centers of interest. All of which boosts campaign effectiveness!
  • Make better strategic decisions using the data available in CDP, which is reliable, cleansed and put into context to provide new insights. In a way, it harmonizes the strategic with the operational.
  • ✅ O ffer customers a personalized, seamless experience , which boosts conversions and fosters customer loyalty.

  • Improve customer service responsiveness thanks to in-depth knowledge of each customer. No longer needing to ask the same questions at every interaction, customer service can anticipate the needs of its interlocutor to better respond to them. For customers, it's a much smoother, more pleasant experience!

What's the difference with a data management platform (DMP)?

The purpose of a data management platform is to collect and store data for advertising purposes.

Thanks in particular to cookies, which collect anonymized data, it has access to browsing information to segment visitors into different groups called audiences, in order to deliver advertising tailored to the group.

Customer data platform Data management platform
Profiles linked to an identity Anonymous profiles
Proprietary and third-party data Ephemeral third-party data (90 days)
Multiple use Advertising use only
Online and offline data Online data only
Unified data Volatile data

How to choose the right customer data platform?

Before choosing a tool, it's important to know what your needs and objectives are in acquiring such a platform. This will help you decide whether the tool you're considering is right for you.

👉 For example, Salesforce's customer data platform is renowned for its power, but can be complex to implement and use for some companies.

🛠 Here's a great alternative: Scal-e. This data management platform gathers raw information from all your strategic sources and unifies it to create meaningful customer profiles. It will then exploit and contextualize them in real time to help you intelligently segment your audience and anticipate behavior. Then deploy your personalized and relevant marketing actions, directly from the solution. Finally, monitor and improve your performance with powerful analysis and reporting tools.

🛠 Let's also mention Twilio Segment, the Customer Data Platform solution that unifies your customer data. Twilio collects your visitors' data to facilitate communication with your customers, increase their satisfaction and optimize your marketing campaigns. You can optimize your customer relations across all existing channels with all your company's employees on a single platform (calls, sms, chat, emails and social networks). The interface is fully customizable for a clear overview and easier decision-making. You can create profiles based on your customer data, which your employees can access directly from the software for greater productivity.

CDP in a nutshell

  • A customer data platform is a tool that enables you to create 360° customer profiles based on the intelligent use of data gathered from different online and offline sources.

  • It differs from a data management platform, which only collects data from third-party cookies, which are anonymous, volatile and ephemeral, and are only used for advertising targeting.

  • The CDP can be used by a company's various departments to improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, sales pitches or the quality of customer service.

So, are you convinced by the benefits of CDP for your company?

Article translated from French