CDP and Marketing Platform: Why Combine These Tools

Data and marketing are concepts that are often mentioned together. Initially, there were no ways to study the customer other than direct surveys and observations. Modern IT technologies help not only to ask but also to track and predict user actions.

Marketing automation takes over communications: emails and other types. However, to make the right offer, accurate data is needed. At the same time, a marketing platform does not necessarily include information collection functionality. Data can be uploaded from other tools. A CDP platform is used as a storage and information collection service.

In this article, we will look at what these systems are, how these tools simplify marketers' work, and whether they can be combined for effective promotion.

What is CDP

CDP (Customer Data Platform) is a service for collecting, processing, and analyzing customer data from possible sources and consolidating this information into a single profile. Information is tracked not only from owned but also from third-party sources: on websites, in social networks, mobile applications, and analytical tools. That is, a customer base is collected.

Here's what data a customer data platform includes: contact (email, phone, messengers), demographic (gender, age, geography), interests, actions on digital resources (views, likes, cart additions), purchases, reviews, and others.

What functions does CDP perform:

• Unifying disparate data so that the marketing strategy is based on a data-driven approach and becomes as accurate as possible.
• Studying customer needs. The CDP platform marketing enables detailed analysis of customer behavior because it views each user from different angles and creates a unified profile.
• Detailed segmentation of the target audience. A significant amount of data about each customer allows for segmentation into narrow groups. This approach increases the chances for conversion.
• Personalization of offers. The more information about the customer, the greater the likelihood of meeting their needs and offering what is necessary and relevant.
• Data analytics. CDP as a marketing automation platform also includes tools for analyzing customer data. This is essential for planning marketing campaigns. Often, machine learning and other tools for data analysis and predicting consumer actions are used in services.

What is a marketing platform

A marketing platform is a system that implements full or partial automation of marketing. Services within such a tool manage separate promotion channels or implement omnichannel marketing. The work is based on incoming data.

Marketing platforms include email, push, SMS, and messenger mailing services. These are also ways to automate social media work, advertising, content production, e-commerce, and others. In other words, all that are responsible for the brand's connection with the customer.

What functions a marketing platform performs:

• Attracting a new audience. Marketing tools automate advertising, content creation, and publication, which is important for increasing brand recognition and virality.
• Engaging users through email marketing—newsletters via email and other channels. Continuous communication is maintained with the customer to create a strong connection with the brand, enhance loyalty, and motivate actions: reactions to content, subscriptions, purchases.
• Retaining the audience. Marketing automation systems help to timely send advantageous offers to clients.
• Resource savings. Marketers do not need to spend a lot of time creating campaigns. In services where mass mailing is expected, you can choose an email or message template.
• Improving customer experience. Automating communication with the audience makes responses to user queries instant. An email service can send a welcome series of emails immediately after confirming subscription, and a bot can respond to customer inquiries around the clock.

Problem of disparate data

Separately, CDP and marketing platforms provide benefits to businesses, but often problems arise due to a lack of connection between tools:

• Lack of data systematization. Collecting information in disconnected platforms and the inconsistency of databases can lead to chaos and inaccuracies. When data is scattered across several services, there is no overall picture of marketing operations and understanding of customer needs at 100%.

• Difficulties in information exchange between company departments. If marketing and sales gather information separately, it may differ. And this results in a desynchronization in operations. For example, marketing communicates one message in advertising campaigns while sales communicate another: the advertisement promotes a discount, but the sales team is unaware of such a promotion. When there is no unified and clear strategy, uncertainty arises, increasing the risks of wasting the marketing budget.

• Time and resource costs. Disparate systems must be combined to track the entire customer journey. If automatic integration is not possible, marketers have to spend time on routine tasks, which hardly increases work effectiveness.

• Customer dissatisfaction. The inconsistency of marketing tools can lead to duplication of communications. For example, when different managers call the same customer, or a new newsletter arrives when the customer has already reacted to a previous one and even made a purchase. Such actions cause irritation and work against loyalty.

Why combine CDP and the marketing platform

Integrating the marketing platform with the customer data platform opens new horizons for the company's marketing.

Simplifying the customer journey. Thanks to integration, data is not lost, it becomes possible to track user paths, and seamless omnichannel communication arises. For example, a person writes to the brand via email, then through a messenger, and the system already “knows” what issues the user previously contacted about. The customer does not need to explain the situation again, saving time.

Accelerating marketing operations. Combining data services and communications makes information exchange instantaneous. Information about advertising campaigns comes in real-time, which is important for timely adjustments if needed.

Collecting precise data. Integrated systems do not duplicate information and automatically compile it into one profile. This results in more complete customer profiles, according to which campaigns with precise targeting are created.

Enhancing personalization. A large volume of data and the rapid exchange of it between different systems become a powerful basis for individualized offers. For example, based on data in CDP about past purchases, a personalized offer is sent via email. Suppose the customer bought dog food, and there is data on the frequency of repeat purchases. As soon as the time approaches, the system triggers an automatic reminder that it is time to replenish supplies.

Budget savings. Integrating CDP and the marketing platform provides maximum data accuracy. Consequently, the quality of advertising campaigns improves, making them data-driven and more predictable. This increases the probability of success, meaning sales and return on marketing investment. The advertising budget is spent only on effective actions.

CDP and marketing platform 2 in 1 — is it possible?

Modern marketing tools are becoming more sophisticated and strive to meet business needs. Thus, systems emerge that combine the functionalities of CDP and marketing platforms.

One such system is the Altcraft CDP Platform — a service that includes tools for collecting, processing, and analyzing data, as well as for communicating with customers. This is an omnichannel platform designed for the most convenient management of all marketing processes in one window and hyper-personalization of marketing.

Data from the CDP is automatically pulled into advertising campaigns, which can be implemented through its email service, integration with push, SMS channels, and messengers. It is also possible to plan a sequence of emails or messages in a special constructor. You can assemble the appearance of each with the offered blocks or choose a template.

Analytics for advertising campaigns is updated in real-time in the form of convenient reports. It is also possible to conduct A/B testing, add forms and surveys to newsletters.

As a result, marketing automation with Altcraft CDP Platform:

• Increases your business efficiency by 45%.
• Raises conversion rates by 15%.
• Reduces marketing costs by 13%.

At the same time, it guarantees complete data security for clients and responsive system support.

Summary

There are platforms for marketing and customer data (CDP) on the market. The former are responsible for communications with customers, while the latter focus on collecting, storing, and processing data.

In CDP, user profiles are formed with information about them, which is used for personalizing marketing campaigns, analytics, and future strategy planning.

Marketing platforms implement various types of emails and other communications with customers to attract, engage, and retain the audience. This speeds up communication with users, enhances loyalty, and boosts sales.

Disparate work of CDP and marketing platforms can lead to chaos in data, errors in advertising campaigns, loss of time, money, and customer loyalty. Therefore, the best solution is to combine the two systems, which increases work speed, simplifies the customer journey, enhances experience, and strengthens personalization.

The functions and advantages of CDP and marketing platforms are successfully combined in the Altcraft CDP Platform, where marketing can be conducted in a single window.