The top 9 benefits of a customer data platform

A great experience is one that’s personalized. Because customers expect their digital experiences to feel as if they were created just for them, customer data is now a key component of digital marketing. Forrester found that among Experience Leaders — companies that are leveraging data to create connected, contextually relevant experiences for every customer across all interactions and channels — 75% personalize experiences triggered by a customer’s real-time data. Data can stream in from a variety of sources, but it’s up to marketing teams to harness it correctly.

To truly know your customers, you’ll need to invest in a customer data platform (CDP) that can provide a unified view of their needs and behaviors. Capgemini found that only 45% of marketers have access to a CDP, meaning those that do have a competitive edge.

This post will guide you through the key benefits of a CDP for marketing teams and businesses:

1. Create unified customer profiles
2. Eliminate data silos
3. Improve personalization
4. Increase data privacy and compliance
5. Increase revenue
6. Improve omnichannel customer experiences
7. Increase efficiency
8. Improve customer experience
9. Use a single platform for B2C and B2B businesses

1. Create unified customer profiles

CDPs don’t just collect and store data. They process it into customer profiles that can be used to create single customer views (SCVs). Also called 360-customer views, SCVs are profiles created by a CDP from all the data gathered on a single customer. They provide marketers with a unified view of insights like their behaviors, information, purchase history, and interests.

For example, each time a customer engages with a brand — whether it’s logging into a mobile app, reading a blog post, searching for a product, adding that product to a cart, leaving it in the cart, or buying a different product later — it’s all filtered into a SCV that acts as a summary of every way that customer has interacted with that brand. Using this clear and unified view, marketers can understand their customers better and deliver more personalized experiences.

2. Eliminate data silos

When different teams or departments each keep track of different sources of customer data, it creates data silos. One team might know a customer’s name and email address, while another has data on their purchase history and website clicks. While all this information is valuable when it’s combined, if different teams hold different pieces of information they can’t gain a full understanding of a customer’s needs and behaviors.

A CDP gathers all your customer data into one place, even if data is streaming in from various sources. That way, a company can access all their online and offline data from every touchpoint all at once and create informed decisions on what experiences will resonate with their customers best.

3. Improve personalization

Customers expect digital experiences to be personal. Having a unified view of each customer helps brands identify which experiences will be most relevant and personal. This includes understanding not only what your customers want to hear, but also when and through which touchpoints they are most likely to interact with your brand — even as their preferences change.

4. Increase data privacy and compliance

Customers opt in to providing their first-party data in exchange for more personalized digital experiences. By agreeing to this trade-off, customers want to know their data will be properly protected. By pulling together data sources, creating complete and up-to-date profiles, and accessing those profiles quickly, CDPs help brands keep customer data secure and in compliance with regulations.

5. Increase revenue

CDPs allow companies to use data more thoughtfully. By using SCVs to create more personalized experiences, companies can increase customer engagement and brand loyalty —and that means higher conversion rates and increased revenue. In fact, McKinsey reports that personalization can lift revenues by 5–15% and increase the efficiency of marketing spend by 10–30%.

6. Improve omnichannel customer experiences

One of the major benefits of a CDP is the ability to combine data from every touchpoint and use it to dynamically create experiences that match a customer’s needs and behaviors. CDPs use actionable customer insights to activate experiences across relevant channels such as mobile, web, email, and social media. Because these experiences are informed by a unified profile, CDPs can adapt and curate a personalized, consistent journey — even as a customer’s needs and behaviors evolve.

7. Increase efficiency

Because all data is being collected onto one platform, CDPs reduce data gaps between departments and avoid the redundancy that occurs with data silos. By constantly updating data from various sources, CDPs instead have the most up-to-date insights on the kinds of experiences that will resonate with your customers. Using AI and automation, CDPs then use these profiles to create experiences that are informed by when, where, and how a customer likes to engage — and then deliver just the right experiences.

8. Improve customer experience

Customers want to feel understood. By turning unified data into SCVs, you can better serve your customers by creating personalized content that speaks to their needs. This shows that you value your customers while differentiating your brand to increase retention, loyalty, and ultimately customer lifetime value (CLV).

9. Use a single platform for B2C and B2B businesses

Both B2B and B2C marketers can benefit from a CDP’s comprehensive understanding of customers. Instead of requiring manual workflows, advanced skills, and IT support, real-time CDPs empower marketers to create profiles made up of consumer data, professional data, or both — and then enable teams to work closer together to personalize experiences for any audience.

Find the right real-time CDP for your business

By collecting data into SCVs, customer data platforms empower marketers with a unified view of insights like their behaviors, information, purchase history, and interests. They can then use this information to create personalized experiences efficiently and consistently. To get started, evaluate your marketing goals and data collection efforts to decide if the benefits of a CDP align with your marketing goals.

Real-time CDPs unlock additional benefits. Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform ensures that customer profiles are updated in real time with a customer’s activity — and inactivity. That way, marketers can feel confident they’re delivering customers the right experiences at a moment’s notice.

Take the interactive tour or watch the overview video to learn how Real-Time CDP collects B2C and B2B data from across systems and unifies it into real-time profiles ready for activation across any channel.