Systems of Insight and Systems of Engagement — Don’t Decide

Listening to a lot of Martech vendor pitches that are all starting to sound the same? Unsure which type of technology is supposed to solve your problems and fulfill your use cases? We’re trying to solve pain points around not only customer data management and real-time engagement, but also navigating the martech and data management landscape. That’s why we’ve put together this post outlining the differences between three of the most commonly confused types of software — the Data Management Platform, the Customer Data Platform and the Customer Data and Engagement Platform. Keep reading for an easy-to-digest summary!

______________

What is a Data Management Platform?

MarTech Advisor states that “a Data Management Platform (DMP) is a tool that consolidates data from a variety of first, second, and third-party data sources, and further allows organizations to segment their audience to deliver an ultra-targeted display ad experience”.

Defining characteristics

• Manages known, unknown and look-a-like profiles to improve advertising
• According to Martech Today, “A DMP offers a central location for marketers to access and manage data like mobile identifiers and cookie IDs to create targeting segments for their digital advertising campaigns”
• Key use cases revolve around discovering new audiences and customer acquisition through improved digital advertising and paid media campaigns

______________

What is a Customer Data Platform?

According to the CDP Institute, a CDP is “A marketer-managed system that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems.” The number of CDPs in the market doubled in 2017 leading to some confusion around what constitutes a CDP and what doesn’t. However, many CDPs satisfy some or most of the below criteria.

Defining characteristics

• Creates a unified view of each individual customer from disparate sources
• Marketers can leverage the customer data captured to segment and engage customers, whereas, with legacy systems they have had to rely on IT to access this data
• CDPs deal with known and unknown customers and can recognize and ingest personally identifiable information on customers
• Data is accessible to other systems for analysis and to manage customer interactions

______________

What is a Customer Data and Engagement Platform?

A Customer Data and Engagement Platform gathers customer data from various channels to provide a unified view of the customer for real-time insight and action. You can think of a Customer Data and Engagement Platform as a combination of a system of insight and a system of engagement.

Defining characteristics

• Customer Data and Engagement Platforms provide marketers with the ability to trigger campaigns with native or third party execution, along with offer management/recommendations and loyalty rules to provide better and more sophisticated engagement
• Marketers can utilize calculated metrics to determine which audience segments get which type of promotion or message
• Deliver closed loop offers redeemable at the POS
• Leverage known customer profile information and transactional data to enhance retention and loyalty strategies

______________

Data + Engagement in One Platform

SessionM combines systems of insight with systems of engagement to enable brands to act on the data they collect in real time. Our SaaS-based platform detects customer engagement as it occurs across channels, associates that activity in real time to an operational customer profile that’s stored in the cloud, and enables optimal response to that consumer engagement with personalized campaigns, offers, or loyalty promotions. Our unique combination of data and engagement empowers many of the world’s most innovative brands to forge stronger, more loyal, and more profitable customer relationships.

Want to see the platform in action? Request a demo today!