Customer data platforms (CDPs) are used to consolidate and integrate customer data into one single database. These tools offer marketing teams relevant insights needed to run campaigns. A CDP can grab information from online and offline sources such as websites, mobile apps, and email platforms to offer a complete view of the customer. After retrieving this data, a CDP can then help organizations predict the optimal next move with a particular customer. This allows businesses to learn what needs to be done to retain specific customers. A CDP can also be used by customer service teams to cater their support to each individual. Marketing automation software, data warehouse software, and other platforms that store data can typically integrate with a CDP.
There are a few different types of CDPs to help businesses with varying use cases. A data CDP is the most common system of unified customer data to create a single consumer profile. A campaign CDP is used for campaign management, cross-channel, and multichannel marketing hubs. And an analytics CDP is strictly for the analysis of the type of data it holds.
To qualify for inclusion in the Customer Data Platforms (CDP) category, a product must:
Provide a 360-degree view of the customer
Gather data from multiple sources into one platform, including first-party, second-party, and third-party data from online and offline sources
Unify customer profiles across systems
Connect with other systems to allow marketers to execute campaigns
Improve targeting for marketing campaigns
