Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) leverage big data to create competitive advantage
As a result of increased competition and rapidly evolving consumer expectations, businesses are under increased pressure to develop the way they target and appeal to customers and in turn, maintain a profitable personal relationship. Now that companies are breaking down their data silos, they are struggling to harness the information that is key to unlocking customer relationships in the ever-changing market.
However, smart technology and out-of-the-box solutions in the form of Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are readily available and deliver a competitive edge and value to businesses.
Drive customer-centric initiatives at scale
There are 3 steps businesses need to take in order to drive customer-centric initiatives at scale.
- Migrate your marketing strategy away from having a product or service focus. What is your focus to build a profitable, successful business? Is it merely competing on the basis of product features and price?
- Focus on data analytics that take into account customers’ intent and propensity. How do you select what the right communication is for an individual client? And what is the right time and context for it?
- Invest in technology that can be easily customized. Is all customer data gathered in one place? And who manages and controls it? Is their expertise unique?
Using the right CDP will help you answer these questions and will help you achieve your organization’s ambitions and goals. After choosing a CDP, you can then keep control by monitoring the effect of communications and use that input to further refine and optimize marketing campaigns.
Implement and apply new technology
Driving customer-centricity through new technology obviously has an effect on the end-user, but it also impacts the entire business. It affects the people using the platform, but also the commercial performance with a stronger and more accurate focus on ROI. Besides this, how scalable is the tool on an infrastructural level? And the impact of the platform even surpasses these departments as customer data is shared across the entire organization.
Improving your customer-centricity essentially starts from within the company where everybody’s view is aligned. Only with such a firm basis, can you gain success on other levels.
Deliver on customer expectations with a Customer Data Platform
By analyzing data from multiple sources with a Customer Data Platform, business users can move beyond the classic direct mail method towards personalized offers. Learn from past behavior, so you can understand when customers are likely to convert and purchase a new product or service, which channel they prefer, to then circle back to check whether campaigns have been successful – and if not, why.
But a CDP isn’t ‘one size fits all’. Do you know what CDP features your use cases will require? Which capabilities will create the biggest return on investment?
Read our full report to know how your business will benefit from using a Customer Data Platform and what advanced features you can find in a CDP.
Conclusion
Relevance is the key to success. When it is combined with successful personalized communications, people feel a connection with them and are therefore more likely to engage or respond. In fact, most people don’t mind receiving communications if they are highly relevant, so targeting customers with messages that respond to their needs – in a timely fashion – and even delight them, are likely to build long-term trust in a brand.
So, the answer for businesses is to know as much as possible about the individual preferences of customers. Find a way to store and act on those preferences in the channels they use when they have the highest propensity to engage in real-time.
Find out how your business can become truly customer-centric with our Impact Study, that we created in partnership with Finextra. It is a deep dive into the benefits of customer-centric marketing, the scalability of customer-centricity, the process for implementing new technology into your organization, and how a Customer Data Platform helps you reach your business goals.
