Bringing the Power of CDPs Into Marketing Automation For Better Targeted Campaigns and ROI

Gone are the days when customer data was recorded on cards and stored in a file cabinet.

Thanks to marketing automation, now, all of the customer data is available and saved to the cloud and can be retrieved as and when required.

However, handling data from multiple sources all in one place, aka your marketing automation platform, might be too big of an ask.

And that’s why you need a Customer Data Platform (CDP)!

It gathers, purifies, and combines data from several sources to produce a single customer profile to tailor customer experiences.

And, combining customer data platforms with marketing automation makes workflows more efficient, ensures messaging is based on real-time data, and enables businesses to deliver highly personalized messaging to customers.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss all that you can achieve with the powerful combination of a customer data platform and a marketing automation platform and how it can benefit your business to drive positive results.

Understanding CDP

A customer data platform or CDP is a software that combines customer data from several silos and channels to create a single customer perspective, which can be used by businesses to personalize customer experiences.

For instance, imagine the last time you considered purchasing a laptop. To check reviews and compare pricing, shipping dates, return policies, and other factors, you may have done preliminary research on it on Google, YouTube, social media sites, etc. Throughout it all, you engaged in numerous ways, including website visits, live chats, Facebook ads, and emails.

You may have observed that the service felt more tailored to your needs each time you dealt with that business. Although the email follow-up was automated, it seemed to be written just for you, just as the website and Facebook ads seemed to be personalized to your needs.

That’s what a Customer Data Platform (CDP) does for you!

Here are a few top customer data platforms:

• With Insider, marketers can integrate their data across channels, use its AI intent engine to forecast future behavior, and personalize customer experiences.
• Bloomreach empowers brands with individualized consumer journeys that seem magical.
• Segment gives you the ability to deliver data to numerous destinations, thanks to its simple setup, real-time tracking, and customizable dashboards.

Challenges You Might Face In the Absence of a CDP and Marketing Automation Integration

Every business wants to understand as much as they can about their customers and data is the only way to do this. However, there are numerous obstacles that you may encounter when trying to target your campaigns without a customer data platform. Here’s a look:

• Automation tools are only aware of what’s happening in the channels they handle but customers interact through various channels, including call centers, in-person visits, etc.
• Many tools do not always react to real-time data when the speed and volume of the data exceed the marketing automation configuration, rendering the data inactionable.
• The technical capabilities to import the required data into a marketing automation platform are limited and difficult to operate.
• When businesses grow rapidly, they may not be able to manage or communicate data effectively, which leads to data silos and, hence, reduces productivity.
• Maintaining accuracy while gathering first-party data can be challenging when there is a lot of data being circulated.

All these challenges with your marketing automation hamper the growth of your business and that’s where customer data platform software can be your closest ally.

Now, let’s take a look at how we can integrate both the platforms to boost customer experience and conversions.

How Can You Integrate CDP Into Marketing Automation?

Integrating a customer data platform into your marketing automation platform helps you to deliver more personalized information that your customers are looking for.

Take a look at the steps required to integrate CDP into marketing automation.

Collect the Information

Build a data inventory by establishing, arranging, and collecting all of your data. You can include data that’s never been used or information that isn’t in a consistent format. Collect all this information and make it accessible for everyone in the company.

Find Out the Source of the Data

Find the source of the data acquired in the previous step. Also, think of future paths that can help you to collect data. For instance, product introduction videos can be used to gather viewing history and viewer attribute information.

Combine All the Data in CDP

The next step is to collect all the information gathered and the data sources in an organized way. It will help you to measure and analyze all of your data. A customer data platform creates a customer segment using the gathered data and sends it to the marketing automation platform for the execution of further actions like delivering tailored campaigns.

Provide Feedback

To make sure your customer has read the email, you have to monitor their activity. Record their feedback and findings in your customer data platform. This can help you to understand your customer better and take subsequent actions.

A marketing automation platform with a customer data platform creates a single, powerful, customer-centric marketing space by fusing all the advantages of a stand-alone CDP with marketing campaign capabilities.

Key Business Benefits of Combining a CDP and a Marketing Automation Platform

Combining AI-driven marketing capabilities, real-time analytics, and UX optimization with a customer data platform provides you with the whole toolkit you need to create amazing customer experiences. Additionally, merging a customer data platform and a marketing automation platform helps you to combine your current platforms into a single, streamlined interface. This simplifies processes for your teams and boosts their productivity.

Even though marketing automation offers many advantages to businesses, customer data platforms help advance organization by enabling access to customer insights across numerous data sources.

Here are a few key benefits of integrating a customer data platform into your marketing automation platform:

• It establishes a base for a 360-degree customer view
• It makes it possible to base decisions on customer loyalty
• It allows for more accurate targeting and better customer interactions
• It enables accurate analysis of marketing efforts across several channels
• It provides real-time and meaningful data analytics
• It boosts the security and privacy of your customer’s data

Moreover, it helps to personalize the content, increase your ROI for digital marketing, and facilitate customer journey mapping.

Wrapping Up

Customers, today, demand tailored experiences from businesses. You can gain a significant competitive edge if you can gather, integrate, and use customer data to enhance the experiences of those customers. And what makes this possible for you is a customer data platform. When combined with marketing automation, it not only helps you to know what your customers want but even anticipating those demands. Therefore, a customer data platform integrated with a marketing automation platform can be an absolute game-changer that will help you take your business operations to the next level.

Ready to Maximize Your CX Strategy With the Combination of CDP and Marketing Automation? Talk to Us!