Do More With
Customer
Data
Platforms
Spark Series
8:00 MIN READ
To the Marketer Who
Goes Nonstop
You don’t try. You do. And when you get that feeling,
some might call it a spark of genius, you know
anything’s possible.
At Oracle, we know greatness comes from great
inspiration. Packed with powerful info, the Spark Series
will get you up to speed on pivotal marketing trends
– like advertising accountability – lightning fast.
Think of it as a catalyst that will put your strategy into
motion. Because if anyone’s going to stay one step
ahead, it’s going to be you.
What are
Customer Data
Platforms?
Customer data platforms (CDPs) are popular tools these
days. They pull, clean, and combine data from multiple
sources to create a single customer profile that marketers
can use to:
• Personalize customer experiences
• Deliver value and earn customer loyalty
• Capture more revenue from marketing efforts
In short, there’s almost nothing you can’t do with
unified customer data. So, gear up. You’re about to take
purposeful customer experiences to the next level.
Why Should
Marketers Care?
As mass-produced marketing continues to repel
customers, customized, entertaining, end-to-end
experiences are the goal. What marketers really need
is a way to unify data spread across multiple systems.
That’s where a CDP can help.
Outsmart the competition:
Exactly how big is the CDP industry? Big—and
growing. The CDP Institute estimates industry
employment in 2019 was up 71% from the
previous year.1
CDPs Versus the Competition
The more you can connect a customer’s preferred
devices and channels, the more likely you are to
develop a long-standing relationship.
Marketing Automation Systems
CDPs retain details that other tools, like marketing
automation systems, don’t. This is an important
feature to have when analyzing trends, leveraging
predictive analytics, and providing recommendations
using historical data.
Enterprise-Wide Data Warehouses
Because CDPs mainly serve marketing department
use cases, they can be nimble and more responsive
than enterprise-wide data warehouses.
Integration Platforms
Unlike integration platforms that route data
directly between systems, CDPs store information
in a central database—so it’s available whenever
a system needs it.2
Marketing Suites/Clouds
Instead of only allowing access to marketing suite
and cloud components, CDPs can easily integrate
data from all available sources to create a more
complete customer profile. The value customer
data platforms provide is hard to beat.
The Big Benefits of
Customer Data
Platforms
The right CDP means nothing is out of reach, like
increased customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and
greater customer lifetime value. Here is why CDPs
are the new MVP (most valuable platform).
CDPs allow you to:
1 Take charge of the conversation.
Today’s consumers are fickle and nomadic,
so data and insights are constantly in motion.
CDPs enable a unique, data-first approach that
shifts the customer dialogue from predictable and
transactional to responsive and conversational. So,
you can make every customer interaction count.
2 Transform customer experiences.
Companies looking to transform customer
experiences need customer data that is real-time,
intelligent, and predictive in order to deliver the
most relevant, in-the-moment, and personalized
customer experiences at scale.
3 Put multichannel marketing to work.
Don’t just understand your customers better.
Use intelligence to engage with them in a more
relevant way across every touchpoint. Only then
can you deliver highly personalized experiences
at every touchpoint in the customer journey.
4 Rise above massive amounts of data.
Get more value from your data assets.
Manage customer data in a way that enables
you to deliver an experience that is timely,
relevant, and consistent across touchpoints.
5 Go all in to give customers what they
really want.
Want to deliver personalization that really
makes a difference? Unified customer data
makes it possible to deliver the specific
benefits your customers are looking for.
Your bottom line will thank you.
Outsmart the competition:
In 2018, the global datasphere amounted to 33
zettabytes. By 2025, it will grow to 175ZB, including
an enormous quantity of behavioral, transactional,
financial, and demographic data.3 Break down siloes
and use data to influence the customer experience
in a contextually rich way.
The Basics
You may think you’re headed straight to the CDP finish
line, but not all platforms are created equal. Ask these
questions before crowning a winner.
Does it have a user-friendly interface?
Being able to use a platform out of the box is ideal. While
you’re at it, make sure your CDP integrates seamlessly
with your pick of tools and channels. Think Facebook,
your CRM, Google, and more.
Does it put marketers in control?
Control doesn’t mean you have to do all the work
by yourself. But it does mean you can dominate
decision-making. You’re in charge of what data the
CDP will include, how it will be processed, and how
it will be presented for access. Waiting months for
approval is a thing of the past.
Is the database persistent?
Your platform must assemble data from multiple
sources, associate data that relates to the same
customer, and keep a permanent copy of that data.1
If your platform doesn’t unify data, it’s not a CDP.
Can other systems have access?
The CDP doesn’t necessarily expose every bit of
data it holds, but aggregated reports or customer
lists without attributes are not enough. Substantial
amounts of customer-level detail should be available
to other systems.2
Outsmart the competition:
Only 11% of organizations can effectively
leverage a wide variety of data in a unified
customer profile.4 Are you one of them?
The Basics
(continued)
Most CDPs do more than just the basics. So what features
can take your business where it needs to go? We’ll coach
you through the options, so you can determine which
CDP is right for you.
A. Anonymous audiences.
CDPs have the personal identifiers of known
individuals covered (things like name, phone
number, and email address). But if you want
to build advertising audiences with anonymous
entities (things like cookies and mobile devices),
you’ll need a CDP that can support that.2
B. Identity resolution.
CDPs combine data from multiple sources
into unified customer profiles. When inputs
don’t carry a common identifier (like customer
ID), you may need a CDP with a built-in feature
that decides which identifiers belong to the
same person.2
C. Real-time access.
Responding to web behavior or bidding on ad
impressions might require a response in as little
as 30 nanoseconds.2 Therefore, you want a CDP
that returns results quickly enough to support
real-time interactions. To win the race, your CDP
needs to outpace the competition.
D. Built-in applications.
Many CDPs offer capabilities beyond assembling
data. Do you need segmentation, predictive
models, revenue attribution, personalized
message selection, or campaign management?
The applications your business goals require
will influence your CDP purchasing strategy.2
Outsmart the competition:
Companies that use CDPs effectively are 2.5X more
likely to increase customer lifetime value.4
The Playbook
Want to become a CDP power user? We’ve got what
you need.
Oracle CX Unity
is a customer intelligence platform embedded within
Oracle CX Cloud. It features online, offline, and third-
party data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to
optimize customer engagements and increase customer
lifetime value.
Oracle Marketing Cloud
is a portfolio of best-in-class B2B and B2C marketing
applications. Marketers can run them individually or
in tandem to create irresistible “1 to you” customer
experiences, drive unparalleled business results, and
unleash the greatness of their teams.
Sources:
1. "CDP Industry Update," The CDP Institute, July 2019, lp.cdpinstitute.venntive.com
2. Paul Greenberg, "How Customer Data Platforms Can Benefit Your Business," ZDNet, February 2017, zdnet.com
3. David Reinsel, John Gantz, and John Rydning, "The Digitization of the World from Edge to Core," IDC and Seagate,
November 2018, seagate.com
4. "Getting Customer Data Management Right," Forrester and Oracle, November 2019, forrester.com
Ready to come out on top?
For more marketing insights and thought
leadership, please visit oracle.com/marketingcloud.
