Customer data platform buyer’s guide.

Why unified profiles are a must-have.

The amount of data and data sources that enterprise companies deal with can be overwhelming. A CDP should be able to link interactions from many sources, including online and offline engagement and through multiple mechanisms, so you can fully understand your customer.

Customers will interact with your brand in a variety of ways. Whether it’s through social media, email, in-app, on your website, or in person, your business must be equipped to gather key information about customer preferences and make it actionable, ensuring that every subsequent interaction is more meaningful.

How audience activation makes all your data more valuable.

Customers may interact with your brand a few times per month or several times throughout the day. You need a CDP that allows you to compile every interaction and instantly use that data to inform customer journeys for cross-channel marketing campaigns, email campaigns, targeted advertising, and other use cases.

Audience activation across channels allows you to offer cohesive and seamless customer journeys regardless of which channel your customer uses to interact with your brand. Without this capability, each channel acts as a silo in which personalization efforts are channel specific and not reflective of the entire customer journey. Combining audience data from all channels helps create more meaningful connections with your customers, which drives engagement, loyalty, and business growth at every step and interaction.

How your CDP can improve your audience management.

One benefit of using a CDP is that you can manage all your audiences from a single platform. You should look for built-in features like lead propensity scoring, look-alike modeling, AI-powered insights, and easy-to-use dashboards.

When you’re able to manage your audiences more effectively, you’re able to deliver relevant content to show your customers you understand their needs. When you understand who you’re talking to, you can allocate your resources toward the highest value audiences that are most likely to convert.

How your CDP can help you move beyond third-party cookies.

Even though it may be more difficult to track unknown user behavior without third-party cookies, the right CDP can help you make the most out of your data — while complying with data collection and usage regulations. CDPs are useful for collecting data from first-party data sources and then combining that with data from other sources to develop comprehensive user profiles with identity resolution.

You can use second-party data from data collaboration partners, but you need the right platform to seamlessly integrate that data with your own. Look for a CDP with built-in workflows and integrations for data collaboration. This enables you to work securely with key partners, like other brands and publishers, while combining third-party data with your first-party data to uncover richer insights.

How your CDP improves your data security and privacy measures.

Your CDP helps with ingesting consent signals, data labeling, and data usage enforcement — all to keep your operations compliant with industry and regional regulations. Leading CDP solutions can automate data usage enforcement so users can’t activate sensitive data by accident or in non-compliant ways. Your customers want to know which data is collected, where it’s from, and what policies you have in place to protect that information.

Staying compliant with privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) can be difficult, especially if you’re trying to manage data at a granular level for hundreds of thousands of users. An enterprise CDP ensures nothing slips through the cracks.

The right data governance and protection measures help minimize risks such as data breaches, unauthorized access, or data loss. Your CDP should include robust security features, end-to-end encryption, access controls, and regular data audits, to safeguard your business and its customers. If your business operates in multiple countries, you may need to consider a CDP that can support cross-border data transfers.