Do you remember the last time when you purchased something online? You might have done a lot of research before you made the final purchase decision. You might have watched videos and visited different review sites to consider a product or service. Most of the online shoppers go on different marketing channels like Google, Google Shopping, Facebook ads,  eCommerce websites, YouTube, and review sites before they make a purchase. The path of a customer from the awareness to the decision stage is usually a zig-zag one. But have you ever thought about how brands keep track of these customer touchpoints? A CDP customer data platform can help you monitor customer touchpoints and interactions.

Here, in this blog, we will discuss in detail customer data platform marketing, customer data integration software, and integration with Shopify. 

What is a Customer Data Platform (CDP)? 

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is software that combines data from multiple tools into a single centralized customer database that contains data from all touchpoints and interactions with your product or service. CDP integrations collect and exhibit real-time data into individual customer profiles.

Customer Data Platform create customer profiles by integrating data from first-party, second-party, and third-party data sources. This includes website & behavioral data, social media activity, transactional systems, web forms, CRM, DMP, and more. 

How does a Customer Data Platform (CDP) work? 

A customer interacts with a brand in new and different ways. Every time they interact with your brand they leave bits of information called first-party data. A CDP takes in first-party data and transforms it by matching individual customer identities from different systems and combining them into a single and accurate customer profile. This is a continuous and ongoing process. 

A customer data platform performs the four main tasks that we have given below. This information will help you increase your understanding of how a customer data platform works. 

1. Collect data from different sources 

A customer data platform is a centralized source of all the customer data your company has. For unifying all your customer data, CDP needs to collect and organize each individual customer data from your company’s different CRM platforms and data streams. This also includes systems like eCommerce websites, marketing platforms, and service software. Collecting and unifying all this customer data and identifying each customer based on their engagement is called “customer resolution”. 

2. Organize your data 

The next step of the customer data platform is to resolve customer identities across devices. This means creating links of identity information from your known customers (those who have provided their email addresses & phone numbers) with anonymous data (cookies and mobile device IDs) they may have shared before they became your customer. 

The main purpose of cross-device identity resolution is to help you get a complete view of your customers’ journeys. For example, you can look at a customer profile and analyze which was their first interaction point and which marketing channel led them to the final purchase decision.

3. Utilize your data 

Once fully unified customer profiles are created, the data is activated and is available for your teams to utilize in the marketing strategies. You can do customer data integration with different technology platforms for personalizing customer experience. This includes email marketing engines, marketing automation systems, real-time analytics, and content management systems. 

However, if you opt for an advanced customer data platform like WebMaxy eGrowth, you don’t need to do too many customer data integrations. You can utilize your customer data directly from the platform for email marketing, marketing campaigns, marketing automation, retargeting ads, and more. 

4. Draw insights from data 

A customer data platform creates unified customer profiles which makes it easy to track customer journeys. You can easily create segments of customers based on their attributes, recent activity, and purchase behavior. You can use this data to create lookalike audiences and reach new audiences for your brand. Since a customer data platform organizes and unifies customer data, it becomes a great source of information for your marketing efforts.

What is customer data integration? 

A customer data platform uses first-party data, which means it uses data that’s collected by the company itself. Third-party data is the user data that is purchased or shared by other businesses to a company. Third-party data is often used to target potential customers with advertising and marketing. 

Customer data platforms take first-party data and make it useful through the customer data integration process. This customer data integration process involves combining information and identifiers from distinct databases into a usable form for in-depth analysis. 

Customer data integration: Everything you need to know about it 

Customer data integrations enable your customer data platform to function. There are different types of customer data Shopify integration methods that you can use for this purpose. Customer data platforms use consolidation to integrate customer data. It involves taking data from multiple sources and organizing it in a central data warehouse. Below, we have given customer data integration best practices for your reference.

CDP vs. CRM 

Customer Data Platform (CDP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) both collect and store customer data for the organization. However, they are different from each other in many ways as we have stated below:

CDP vs. DMP

Customer Data Platform (CDP) and Data Management Platform (DMP), both collect data that helps to improve the customer experience. But both the platforms are different from each other in many ways as we have explained below:

CDP vs. CRM vs. DMP 

A customer data platform is often confused with CRM and CDP. Let’s have a look at how customer data platforms (CDPs), customer relationship platforms (CRMs), and data management platforms (DMPs) are different from each other.

Benefits of a Customer Data Platform 

From the information above, you must have understood the differences between a CDP, CRM, and DMP. In this section, we will tell you how a customer data platforms can help you in different ways. 

1. Know your customers better 

To create the best marketing campaigns, it’s important that you understand your customers better. A customer data platforms helps you build customer profiles that give you a complete view of every individual. You can easily conduct customer behavioral analysis and sort customers based on their traits. CDPs can help you improve customer relationships by targeting them with personalized marketing campaigns. 

2. Organized customer data 

Acquiring and organizing customer data is a strenuous task. A customer data platform makes organizing customer data in a usable form very easy. However, you need to have a data tracking plan and data governance strategy in place to make the right use of a customer data platforms. Without a data governance strategy, you can easily collect data that’s not useful for your business. 

3. Detailed customer analytics  

Customer analytics can help marketers direct their advertising, marketing, and sales efforts in the right direction. Customer analytics involves understanding customer behavior through the different stages of the buying journey. 

A CDP is a powerful platform that can provide you with detailed customer analytics. Attribution models can help you find out which marketing campaigns are bringing the most customers. 

A customer data platform like WebMaxy eGrowth can help you analyze customer data with a multi-touch attribution model. You can know and understand which are the right marketing channels to make the investment. You can reduce customer churn and increase customer retention. 

4. Data protection and privacy 

After the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other customer data privacy laws, it has become important to respect your customers’ data privacy. Customer data platforms can help you to maintain customer privacy by limiting the customer data you collect in the first place. Once you set up a data governance strategy, it’ll ensure you’re collecting the customer data that’s legal & vital to your marketing strategy. 

How to choose the right CDP for your business? 

Now, since you know the benefits of customer data platforms, you might be interested in getting one for your business. However, these days there are many customer data platforms available in the market making it confusing to choose one. Here, we have given 6 simple steps to help you choose the right customer data platform for your business. 

Step 1: Consider stakeholders in the process

Before deciding which customer data platforms to use, you should involve internal stakeholders in the process. Remember the customer data platform that you use is going to take data from different departments of your company. To understand which stakeholders to consider in the process, think about the departments that need customer data. For example, the sales team require customer data, so its stakeholder should be part of the buying process. 

Step 2: Check the use cases 

Another question you should consider before buying customer data platform is what is its use for your company? A customer data platform can help you to consolidate data but what will you do with it? Before opting for a customer data platform, you must determine its use cases. 

A customer data platforms can help you in different ways that we have mentioned below:

Once, you have decided on the use cases, it’s time to look at your customer data platform options. Check out their website, reviews, and case studies that they have provided. From this information, you’ll get an idea about the customer data platforms that fit your ideal use cases.

Step 3: Decide the tools and features you need 

Next step, decide the tools and features you need for your business. To start off look at the use cases and determine which tools you need to accomplish those. Check the integrations that you might need like Shopify, CRM systems, data warehouses, Google Analytics, Facebook ads, etc. 

After you have decided on the tools you need, sort out the customer data platform options. Ditch the ones which don’t have the integration for the majority of the tools you use. By doing this, you’ll be able to cut down the customer data platforms not right for your business. 

Step 4: Think about the requirements 

Requirements are different than features and use cases. For example, nowadays almost every business looks for a customer data platform that has GDPR and CCPA compliance. Also, data security is a major concern for businesses, they look for secure customer data platforms. 

Check for customer data platforms that have credible security certifications like ISO 27001 or SOC 2. Make a list of the requirements that you want a customer data platform should have. Then, sort out the customer data platforms that don’t meet those requirements. 

Step 5: Draw a comparison between different vendors 

By this step, you might have got a list of customer data platforms that meet the use cases, integrations, and requirements. Now, it’s time to conduct a comprehensive comparison between these customer data platforms. Make a table with the names of shortlisted customer data platforms and the features they have. Don’t include the prices as we will include them in the next step. After shortlisting, check the reviews of these customer data platforms on review sites like Capterra and G2. 

Step 6: Consider the ROI of shortlisted CDPs 

Now, to finally choose a customer data platform, you should look at the ROI of shortlisted CDPs. By considering ROI, you can evaluate which customer data platform provides the best value. Don’t look for opting for the cheapest CDP rather the one which has maximum features and fits your budget. Remember, a customer data platforms can help increase the efficiency of your team and it’s worth investing a good amount as long you’re getting a good value from it. 

An Advanced Customer Data Platform: WebMaxy eGrowth

WebMaxy eGrowth is an advanced customer data platform that can help you do more than just the consolidation of customer data. It comes with a wide range of features such as a KPI dashboard, customer segmentation, marketing insights, marketing workflows, social campaigns, Email marketing, WhatsApp marketing, WhatsApp commerce, customer loyalty, help desk, and retargeting. You just need to integrate with Shopify and eGrowth will start fetching customer data. 

From a KPI dashboard, you can analyze business KPIs like marketing spend, revenue, CPC, CAC, ACOS, and more. In marketing insights, you can see how your different marketing campaigns are performing. You can find out which marketing channels are delivering the best and worst results. Based on the conversion and revenue contribution of distinct marketing channels, you can make your future marketing investments. 

With eGrowth, you can carry out customer segmentation easily. You can segment your customers into lists based on their attributes, recent activity, purchase history, etc. You can use these lists in your marketing campaigns for personalized messaging. The marketing workflow feature enables you to create workflows with automated SMS, Email, and WhatsApp marketing. 

From customer data platform to marketing automation, WebMaxy eGrowth can do it all for you. WhatsApp commerce feature enables you to reach, engage, and convert customers from the platform itself. Not only this, you can manage your social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well. 

WebMaxy eGrowth can help you enhance customer experience and boost revenue. Schedule a demo with our experts to learn more about eGrowth and its features, email us at info@webmaxy.co. 

The future of Customer Data Platform

The future of Customer Data Platforms is Customer Intelligence Platforms. A customer intelligence platform will enable the creation of unified customer profiles that combine profile, behavioral, and transactional data of customers across the business. This will not only give you a complete view of customers but a complete view of the business as well. 

The customer data platforms are limited in analytical and AI capabilities. The next big transformation of the customer data platform is the customer intelligence platform. These platforms will incorporate both first and third-party data. They use machine learning for predictive models and recommendations, which produces accurate and actionable insights. 

Customer intelligence platform insights can be used by both sales and customer service teams not just marketing teams. This information can help to drive teams in the right direction with better communication and provide personalized experiences. 

Customer Data Platform: The conclusion 

A customer data platform can help you unify all your customer data and interactions in one place. Customer data platforms are customer data integration tools that can help you collect dissected customer data and translate it into a usable form. You can get deep insights about customers and analyze their behavioral platforms. 

A customer data platforms can help you find ways to improve your customer experience through the right marketing and sales efforts. You can create personalized customer experiences and increase customer satisfaction. WebMaxy eGrowth is an advanced customer data platform that can help you do more than what a typical customer data platforms does.
Get a complete view of the customer journey and create personalized customer experiences. Automate your marketing channels and reach out to customers at the right time with the right message. Schedule a demo with our experts to learn more about WebMaxy eGrowth, or email us at info@webmaxy.co.

Customer Data Platform: FAQs

What is a customer data platform?

A customer data platforms helps you unify customer data from multiple sources to a single centralized dashboard. This can help you to get a deep understanding of your customers through their traits and behavioral patterns. Then, you can create segments of your customers to target them effectively with personalized messaging.

What does a customer data platform do?

A  customer data platforms is software that collects and unifies first-party data from multiple channels to build a single and coherent view of each and every customer. It provides tools for data management, analytics, and reporting. Some of the customer data platform examples are Salesforce, Leadspace, and Twilio.

How to choose a customer data platform?

A customer data platform can help you to improve your advertising, marketing, and sales efforts by understanding your customers better. You can choose a customer data platforms by following the steps given below:

– Consider stakeholders in the process. 

– Check the use cases. 

– Decide the tools and features you need. 

– Think about the requirements.

– Draw a comparison between different vendors.  

– Consider the ROI of shortlisted CDPs.

How does a customer data platform work?

A customer data platforms can help you get a unified view of customers by integrating data from internal and external sources. A unique identifier links up all of the information of an individual customer from multiple sources and makes it accessible to all teams and systems. Marketers can use this data to do customer segmentation and target customers with marketing campaigns effectively.

What is an example of a customer data platform?

WebMaxy eGrowth is an advanced customer data platforms that can help you unify customer data and create automated marketing workflows. You can do a lot more with eGrowth such as customer segmentation, marketing insights, email marketing, WhatsApp commerce, social campaigns, customer loyalty, help desk, and retargeting.