As the customer data platform (CDP) market gains traction, more marketers are seeing the value in a centralized repository for customer data and are putting in the time and resources to work with a third party who will help achieve this goal.
Marketers are looking to unify data into one profile to tailor experiences to each customer to encourage them to buy more, more frequently — and forget the competition. However, according to eMarketer, 63% of respondents said data-driven personalization is a difficult tactic to execute. In other words, it’s great to have a shiny new CDP to ingest, merge, match, and cleanse data into one spot, but marketers need to take action on relevant data — quickly.
Now what?
Where marketers can get stuck is figuring out how to take advantage of the insights a powerful customer data management system will provide. According to emarketer, 84% of survey respondents agreed the potential of personalization has not been fully realized.
Additionally, according to Gartner’s 2018 Market Guide for Loyalty Management, “Consumer demands for excellent, tailored experiences inspire and justify investments in a range of technologies, from multichannel marketing hubs to personalization engines. Two-thirds (67%) of marketers surveyed are pursuing personalization.”
Marketers are now looking to activate the data they have collected, and use it in a way to guide profitable customer behavior — increased spend, frequency, or engagement.
Another Loyalty Program?
Loyalty programs can have a bad reputation – and for good reason. A generic, one-size-fits all approach isn’t going garner any loyalty and doesn’t make your best customers feel like you care. Setting up a sophisticated loyalty program baked in customer data is essential to deliver personalized experiences. Understanding customer preferences and previous purchases is a game-changer for a marketer looking to drive incremental value out of a loyalty program. Point systems and tier levels can be based on each customer taking specific actions and purchasing specific products to unlock exclusive rewards.
Powering loyalty programs with customer data benefits an entire organization, especially a marketing team. Generic point earning programs can decrease potential earning opportunity if a specific customer would have made that purchase anyway. For example, I’m an everyday coffee drinker, so sending me a point earned per coffee isn’t going to necessarily interest me- and the coffee is definitely something I’m going to buy anyway. Instead, send me an offer for a free Perfect Bar with my morning coffee purchase, and you will most likely motivate me to up my ticket size everyday afterwards.
This is why the concept of a CDP+ drives greater results than simply sticking with a pure-play CDP. In one platform, a marketer can unify data from any touchpoint and funnel it into one view, activate data into real-time campaigns, and execute a well-thought out loyalty program that drives interest and encourages customer loyalty and spend.
Interested in learning more about a CDP+? Read our Buyer’s Guide for Customer data and Engagement Platforms.
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