tritonX functions as a Customer Data Platform in the IT-architecture of our customers. This blogpost will provide you with some insight in what exactly a CDP does.
The Customer Data Platform (CDP) collects all customer data and brings this data together in customer profiles. The distinguishing factor of the CDP is that it is created from a marketing standpoint, so that the marketeer can easily work with the data. There have already been quite a few technologies that claim to function as a central hub for customer data or claim to provide a ‘360 degree customer profile’. However, this is not the case and there has not yet been a platform that has collected all customer data in a central place while at the same time being useful for marketing before the CDP was introduced.
“A customer data platform is a marketer-managed system that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems.” – David Raab (2013)
So how is it different from other systems?
One of the systems that the CDP is often confused with is the Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM). CRM systems create a persistent customer profile based on historical and general customer data in order to engage with customers. Whereas, the CDP connects all different types and sources of customer data, which creates a more holistic view of the customer. This also means that the data is now stored in just one location and it can be accessed by the different systems. Next to this, the CDP continuously processes batch and streaming data from all these sources to keep the profiles up to date, which allows for real-time actions.
As mentioned, the Customer Data Platform collects data from different sources. First, it registers transactional and order data, which is without a doubt valuable data for the marketeer. Next to this, behavioral, web, and mobile data of the customer could be collected. This type of data provides you with knowledge about current and expected behavior as well as preferences. Third, the CDP registers profile data, which can range from contact data to details about preferences. Another category that cannot be missed is product data. You can think of stock levels and price details as just two of the possible data points. Finally, there is the CRM and offline data, which is typical profile data like phone numbers but also data from for instance webforms. These data sources are not even close to the limit of possibilities. The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing and so are the possible sources to collect data from.
Another platform that the CDP is often compared to is the Data Management Platform (DMP). DMP’s are designed to collect and manage data mainly for digital marketing as well as advertising. The focus here is on anonymous segments and categories rather than single users. Also, much of the information on the DMP expires after 90 days because of the cookie lifetime. Instead, the CDP creates a persistent customer profile, which means that data is stored and the history is kept. This is then combined with all the data about the customer in a single record. The CDP thus creates a database of identified customers that can be used for more than just advertising.
Lastly, it is also important to distinguish the CDP from delivery platforms. The systems that interact at channel touchpoints are called delivery platforms in the CDP language. These are for example your email marketing platform, marketing automation platform, or social media. These systems interact with the CDP to collect data and send out messages. This means that they are not considered to be part of the CDP. However, some CDP platforms, such as tritonX, have very tight connections with different delivery platforms.
In short
- It provides a 360 degree view of the customer
- It gathers and combines data from multiple sources into one platform
- It unifies the customer profile across systems
- It improves targeting of marketing campaigns
- It allows users the capability to predict the optimum next move with the customer
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