How CDPs Can Improve Your Marketing and Business Performance
Here we look at new research from London Research and BlueVenn which shows how the most successful marketers are using customer data platforms to reap significant benefits and gain an edge over their competitors.
Ask most marketers where their key struggles lie, and chances are, they’ll tell you it’s around the use of data, and in particular, how to use marketing technology to gain a 360-degree view of the customer.
Data is arguably the new oil of the digital economy; it’s essential for providing a targeted and highly personalised experience but it has to be refined to be useful. The most successful marketers are those who can tailor their campaigns to reach customers in real-time at every single touchpoint along the buying cycle.
This is where CDPs can provide a key advantage; they provide a complete and persistent unified database, where a huge volume of customer data, actions and information can be recorded into a single user profile.
A unified database is crucial for achieving – and outperforming business goals
The key advantage of a CDP is that it provides a complete and comprehensive customer view, and as the latest research by London Research shows, CDP owners significantly outperform their business goals, compared to companies who have not yet deployed a CDP.
The Customer Data Excellence Report, published in partnership with BlueVenn, shows that CDPs help marketers to successfully deliver their business outcomes over and above their initial targets. Just under a quarter (24%) of CDP owners outperformed against their organisation’s main marketing goal in 2018, compared to just 10% of companies who have yet to employ CDP technology.
Commenting on the research, David Raab, Founder of the CDP Institute, said: “We see that the most successful organisations – in terms of exceeding their marketing goals – are more likely to use CDPs … the CDP is a foundational technology that supplements and improves all customer data activities. Any company that takes its customer data seriously will probably have one.”
With a wealth of unified customer data all integrated across a single platform, CDPs provide savvy marketers with the tools they need to target their core consumers. Companies with a CDP are eight times more likely to strongly agree that they have a full view of their customers across digital and offline touchpoints, the research finds.
CDPs allow marketers to deliver real-time, personalised customer experiences
Having different types of data on-hand and immediately available allows companies to deliver real-time, personalised content. In fact, those companies who have already employed CDPs are 350% more likely to strongly agree that they deliver real-time personalisation of content based on visitor behaviour.
CDPs can be utilised in many ways, depending on the extent of targeting pursued by the company, from creating email segments to deeper personalisation of the customer experience on the website. Having a vast repository of data allows businesses to provide holistic omnichannel personalisation.
When looking at the findings from larger companies, 64% report they have a full view of customers across digital and offline interactions. These companies recognise the importance of data-led marketing at a high, strategic level.
CDP owners are winning when it comes to testing and optimization.
Companies using a CDP are three times more likely to agree that testing and optimisation is central to their website and email strategies, with 40% of CDP owners reporting they ‘strongly agree’, versus just 13% who have not yet employed CDP technology. The most forward-thinking companies can set up whole campaigns, fine-tune them and personalise their marketing to maximise the success of their campaigns.
Those companies that have got to grips with testing and optimisation are further along the maturity cycle when it comes to delivering memorable, omnichannel brand experiences.
David Raab added: “CDP users are more likely to be advanced users of attribution, paid and owned media, analytics, cross-channel orchestration, and outbound channel optimisation… we can conclude that the CDP is both evidence of maturity and an important tool for taking advantage of it.”
In summary, this latest research highlights that there is a clear and tangible link between prioritising data-driven marketing and achieving business goals. Successful companies, armed with the power of a CDP, are better equipped to use data to deliver highly relevant and targeted customer experiences that help them to meet their business objectives.
For more information on how successful marketers are harnessing the power of CDPs, and to see the seven-stage Customer Data Maturity Model, download the Customer Data Excellence report, published by London Research in association with BlueVenn.