Customer Data Platform (CDP) - Revision history

User at 14:04, 27 March 2024

2024-03-27T14:04:55Z

User at 17:36, 19 December 2022

2022-12-19T17:36:13Z

User at 14:49, 1 November 2022

2022-11-01T14:49:50Z

User at 20:01, 1 December 2021

2021-12-01T20:01:16Z

User at 19:28, 1 December 2021

2021-12-01T19:28:55Z

User at 18:49, 1 December 2021

2021-12-01T18:49:20Z

User at 17:59, 1 December 2021

2021-12-01T17:59:57Z

User at 17:49, 1 December 2021

2021-12-01T17:49:35Z

User at 17:23, 1 December 2021

2021-12-01T17:23:39Z

User at 17:04, 1 December 2021

2021-12-01T17:04:56Z

@@ Line 142: / Line 142: @@
 == See Also ==
-[[Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)]]<br />
+A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a unified, persistent database that consolidates customer data from multiple sources to provide a complete and coherent picture of each customer. It enables organizations to harness various customer data, including demographic information, transaction histories, digital interactions, and behavioral data. CDPs are designed to collect, process, and structure real-time data for analysis, campaign management, and customer experience optimization. By integrating data across various touchpoints, CDPs help organizations achieve a more personalized and consistent interaction with their customers across different channels.
-[[Customer Centricity]]<br />
-[[Customer Churn]]<br />
+*[[Data Integration]]: combining data from different sources into a single, unified view. Data integration is a key functionality of CDPs, enabling customer data aggregation for comprehensive insights.
-[[Customer Data Integration (CDI)]]<br />
+*Big Data Analytics: Covering the methods and technologies used to analyze large volumes of data to uncover hidden patterns, correlations, and insights. CDPs facilitate big data analytics by providing a consolidated data source.
-[[Customer Data Management (CDM)]]<br />
+*[[Customer Relationship Management (CRM)]]: Explaining systems that manage a company's interactions with current and potential customers. CDPs complement CRM systems by enriching customer profiles with a broader array of data.
-[[Customer Demographics]]<br />
+*Marketing Automation: Discussing the software platforms designed to automate marketing processes, such as email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns. CDPs can feed detailed customer data into marketing automation tools for more targeted, personalized marketing.
-[[Customer Due Diligence (CDD)]]<br />
+*Personalization: Covering the practice of tailoring products, services, and communications to individual customer preferences based on data. CDPs provide the deep customer insights necessary for effective personalization.
-[[Customer Dynamics]]<br />
+*Customer Segmentation: the process of dividing a customer base into groups of individuals who are similar in specific ways. CDPs support customer segmentation by providing detailed data that can be used to identify distinct customer segments.
-[[Customer Effort Score (CES)]]<br />
+*[[Customer Experience (CX)]]: Discussing the sum of all experiences a customer has with a brand throughout their relationship. CDPs help improve CX by enabling consistent, personalized interactions across all touchpoints.
-[[Customer Engagement]]<br />
+*[[Data Privacy]] and Compliance: Covering the legal and ethical considerations in managing customer data, including regulations like GDPR and CCPA. CDPs must ensure data is handled in compliance with privacy laws and customer consent.
-[[Customer Engagement Hub (CEH)]]<br />
+*[[Data Management Platform (DMP)]]: Discussing platforms used primarily in advertising to collect and manage cookie IDs and other data from digital campaigns. Unlike DMPs, CDPs focus on collecting, storing, and managing first-party customer data across all channels.
-[[Customer Experience Management (CEM)]]<br />
+*[[Artificial Intelligence (AI)]] and [[Machine Learning]]: the use of AI and machine learning in analyzing data to predict customer behavior, segment customers, and personalize customer interactions. CDPs often incorporate AI to enhance data analysis and application.
-[[Customer Lifecycle]]<br />
+*Omnichannel Marketing: strategies that seek to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience, whether online from a mobile device, a laptop, or in a brick-and-mortar store. CDPs are crucial for effective omnichannel marketing by ensuring consistent customer data across channels.
-[[Customer Lifetime Value]]<br />
+*Customer Insight: The deep understanding of customers derived from data analysis informs strategic decisions and operational improvements. CDPs play a vital role in generating actionable customer insights.
 == References ==
 <references/>

@@ Line 75: / Line 75: @@
 '''Step 4: Gather requirements''': There is more to a CDP than a way to consolidate data and solve your use cases. You also need to think of the other requirements for your CDP. Requirements are different than your use cases because a requirement is more like a feature, rather than an outcome. For example, if one of your requirements is that the CDP you choose should help you get a solid understanding of each piece of data being collected, you will need a CDP that can help you build a data-tracking plan. If you’re not sure what other requirements you need to consider, here’s a list of common requirements:
-*CDP should help with GDPR and CCPA compliance. If that’s something you’re interested in, then you’ll need a CDP that will that will enable you to suppress data collection or delete customer data when requested, which is a requirement for both the GDPR and [[California Consumer Privacy Act(CCPA)|CCPA]].
+*CDP should help with GDPR and CCPA compliance. If that’s something you’re interested in, then you’ll need a CDP that will that will enable you to suppress data collection or delete customer data when requested, which is a requirement for both the GDPR and CCPA.
 *CDP should help get a full view of our customer journey. If this is a requirement for your company, make sure that the CDP you’re evaluating has some form of identity resolution, which helps identify users across different channels.
 *CDP needs to have top-notch security. This is becoming a more frequent requirement. Make sure the CDP being evaluated has a credible, independent security certification like [[ISO 27000|ISO 27001]] or [[SOC 2]]. Those certifications ensure that the CDP is continuously monitoring and upgrading their security practices.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 == Definition - What is Customer Data Platform (CDP)?<ref>Definition - What is Customer Data Platform (CDP)? [https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-data-platform-guide Hubspot]</ref> ==
-A '''Customer Data Platform (CDP)''' is a [[Software|software]] that aggregates and organizes [[Customer Data|customer data]] across a variety of touchpoints and is used by other software, [[System|systems]], and [[Marketing|marketing]] efforts. CDPs collect and structure [[Real-Time Analytics|real-time data]] into individual, centralized [[Customer|customer]] profiles. According to the CDP Institute, a [[Vendor-Neutral|vendor-neutral]] [[Organization|organization]] dedicated to helping marketers manage customer data, a CDP is defined as “''a packaged software that creates a persistent, unified [[Customer Database|customer database]] that is accessible to other systems.''” This definition has three critical elements:<br />
+A '''Customer Data Platform (CDP)''' is a [[Software|software]] that aggregates and organizes [[Customer Data|customer data]] across a variety of touchpoints and is used by other software, [[System|systems]], and [[Marketing|marketing]] efforts. CDPs collect and structure real-time data into individual, centralized [[Customer|customer]] profiles. According to the CDP Institute, a [[Vendor-Neutral|vendor-neutral]] [[Organization|organization]] dedicated to helping marketers manage customer data, a CDP is defined as “''a packaged software that creates a persistent, unified [[Customer Database|customer database]] that is accessible to other systems.''” This definition has three critical elements:<br />
 – “packaged software”: the CDP is a prebuilt system that is configured to meet the needs of each client.  Some technical resources will be required to set up and maintain the CDP, but it does not require the level of technical skill of a typical data warehouse project.  This reduces the time, cost, and risk and gives business users more control over the system, even though they may still need some technical assistance.<br />
 – “creates a persistent, unified customer database”: the CDP creates a comprehensive view of each customer by capturing data from multiple systems, linking information related to the same customer, and storing the information to track behavior over time. The CDP contains personal identifiers used to target marketing messages and track individual-level marketing results.<br />
@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 *Data Access type CDP: These systems gather customer data from source systems, link data to customer identities, and store the results in a persistent database available to external systems. This is the minimum set of functions required to meet the definition of a CDP. Systems in this category often employ specialized technologies for data management and access. Many began as tag management or Web analytics vendors and have considerable legacy business in those areas.
 *Analytics type CDP: These systems provide data assembly plus analytical applications. The applications usually include customer segmentation and sometimes extend to machine learning, predictive modeling, revenue attribution, and journey mapping. These systems often automate the distribution of segment lists to marketing automation or advanced analytics products.
-*Campaign type CDP: These systems provide data assembly, analytics, and customer treatments. These treatments may be personalized messages, real time interactions, product or content recommendations, outbound marketing campaigns, customer journey orchestration, or other contacts. What distinguishes them from segmentation is they also specify the message to be delivered.
+*Campaign type CDP: These systems provide data assembly, analytics, and customer treatments. These treatments may be personalized messages, real-time interactions, product or content recommendations, outbound marketing campaigns, customer journey orchestration, or other contacts. What distinguishes them from segmentation is they also specify the message to be delivered.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 == Definition - What is Customer Data Platform (CDP)?<ref>Definition - What is Customer Data Platform (CDP)? [https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-data-platform-guide Hubspot]</ref> ==
-A '''Customer Data Platform (CDP)''' is a [[Software|software]] that aggregates and organizes [[Customer Data|customer data]] across a variety of touchpoints and is used by other software, [[System|systems]], and [[Marketing|marketing]] efforts. CDPs collect and structure [[Real-Time Analytics|real-time data]] into individual, centralized [[Customer|customer]] profiles. According to the CDP Institute, a [[Vendor-Neutral|vendor-neutral]] [[Organization|organization]] dedicated to helping marketers manage customer data, a CDP is defined as “''a packaged software that creates a persistent, unified [[Customer Database|customer database]] that is accessible to other systems.''”
+A '''Customer Data Platform (CDP)''' is a [[Software|software]] that aggregates and organizes [[Customer Data|customer data]] across a variety of touchpoints and is used by other software, [[System|systems]], and [[Marketing|marketing]] efforts. CDPs collect and structure [[Real-Time Analytics|real-time data]] into individual, centralized [[Customer|customer]] profiles. According to the CDP Institute, a [[Vendor-Neutral|vendor-neutral]] [[Organization|organization]] dedicated to helping marketers manage customer data, a CDP is defined as “''a packaged software that creates a persistent, unified [[Customer Database|customer database]] that is accessible to other systems.''” This definition has three critical elements:<br />
 Customer Data Platforms build customer profiles by integrating data from a variety of first-, second-, and third-party sources. This includes your [[Customer Relationship Management (CRM)|CRM]] and [[Data Management Platform (DMP)|DMP]], transactional systems, web forms, email and [[Social Media|social media]] activity,[[Website|website]] and [[E-Commerce|e-commerce]] [[Behavioral Data|behavioral data]], and more. CDPs inform people-based marketing — putting the customer at the center of the flywheel of your [[Organization|organization]].
@@ Line 24: / Line 27: @@
 #Customer data management: CDPs manage first-party data and consumer privacy and data rights by controlling the [[Dataflow|data flows]] between different marketing systems and managing consent. This is the world of [[General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)|GDPR]] and [[Data Privacy|data privacy]]; your [[Business|business]] needs to actively manage, and document that management of, consent and data flows.
 #Customer data activation: Once you have received permission to collect first-party user data and have unified and structured it into profiles, you can then take action on it. CDPs can create audience segments that can be used across the rest of your marketing platforms and channels.
@@ Line 78: / Line 90: @@
 Start by using an ROI worksheet. This will help you determine the cost of your engineers’ time. Without a CDP, your engineers have to spend hours building and maintaining integrations for each tool. Those hours add up quickly, which can result in significant costs just to build and maintain one integration. If you have ten integrations that need to be handled by your engineering team, you can see that the hours will quickly become unmanageable. That cost is one of the biggest reasons to use a CDP. Good CDPs should reduce the amount of time your engineers spend building integrations between tools, which can result in a huge cost savings. That is why you need to calculate the costs and consider ROI ahead of time. If you choose a CDP that does not give your engineering team the maximum amount of time-savings, it may not be worth the cost at all.
@@ Line 96: / Line 122: @@
 *A DMP can ingest CDP customer data to improve ad targeting.
 *CDP software can ingest customer data from a CRM.

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:28, 1 December 2021
Line 24:		Line 24:
	#Customer data management: CDPs manage first-party data and consumer privacy and data rights by controlling the [[Dataflow\|data flows]] between different marketing systems and managing consent. This is the world of [[General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)\|GDPR]] and [[Data Privacy\|data privacy]]; your [[Business\|business]] needs to actively manage, and document that management of, consent and data flows.		#Customer data management: CDPs manage first-party data and consumer privacy and data rights by controlling the [[Dataflow\|data flows]] between different marketing systems and managing consent. This is the world of [[General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)\|GDPR]] and [[Data Privacy\|data privacy]]; your [[Business\|business]] needs to actively manage, and document that management of, consent and data flows.
	#Customer data activation: Once you have received permission to collect first-party user data and have unified and structured it into profiles, you can then take action on it. CDPs can create audience segments that can be used across the rest of your marketing platforms and channels.		#Customer data activation: Once you have received permission to collect first-party user data and have unified and structured it into profiles, you can then take action on it. CDPs can create audience segments that can be used across the rest of your marketing platforms and channels.
		+
		+
		+	== CDP Types<ref>What are the different CDP types? [https://www.emailvendorselection.com/customer-data-platforms-eu-cdp/ Email vendor Selection]</ref> ==
		+	It might be good to first illustrate the three categories of CDPs we differenciate in the report. The image below shows the incremental scope of Data Access, Analytics and Campaign CDPs. Note that there are even great variations among vendors within each category.
		+
		+
		+	[[File:CDP Types.jpg\|400px\|CDP Types]]<br />
		+
		+
		+	*Data Access type CDP: These systems gather customer data from source systems, link data to customer identities, and store the results in a persistent database available to external systems. This is the minimum set of functions required to meet the definition of a CDP. Systems in this category often employ specialized technologies for data management and access. Many began as tag management or Web analytics vendors and have considerable legacy business in those areas.
		+	*Analytics type CDP: These systems provide data assembly plus analytical applications. The applications usually include customer segmentation and sometimes extend to machine learning, predictive modeling, revenue attribution, and journey mapping. These systems often automate the distribution of segment lists to marketing automation or advanced analytics products.
		+	*Campaign type CDP: These systems provide data assembly, analytics, and customer treatments. These treatments may be personalized messages, real time interactions, product or content recommendations, outbound marketing campaigns, customer journey orchestration, or other contacts. What distinguishes them from segmentation is they also specify the message to be delivered.

@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 Finding the right CDP for your company isn’t an easy process. There are a lot to choose from, but it’s not something that should be taken lightly. Your CDP will be handling customer data and when dealing with customer data, extra steps must be taken to ensure that data is safely and ethically handled. Below are 6 important steps that should be taken when choosing a CDP. Following these steps will ensure that you choose a CDP fitted to your goals and resources.
-'''Step 1: Bring [[Stakeholder|stakeholders]] into the process''': Before you even decide which CDPs are going to be evaluated, you need to bring internal stakeholders into the process. The CDP you choose will be working with data from different departments within your company, so it is imperative to have everyone's buy-in.
+'''Step 1: Bring stakeholders into the process''': Before you even decide which CDPs are going to be evaluated, you need to bring internal [[Stakeholder|stakeholders]] into the process. The CDP you choose will be working with data from different departments within your company, so it is imperative to have everyone's buy-in.
 *The question you need to ask yourself at this point is: Who else collects data that your CDP will handle?
 *There’s a good chance your sales team’s [[Customer Relationship Management (CRM)|customer relationship management (CRM)]] platform stores data that your CDP will need access to. A stakeholder from sales should be part of the buying process. What about your customer success team?
@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 You don’t need each stakeholder individually evaluating each CDP, but you will need their input on various parts of the buying process. At the very least, talk to each stakeholder and let them know why you are looking to purchase a CDP and what you hope to get out of it.<br />
-'''Step 2: Define [[Use Case|use cases]]''': Another big question you need to answer before deciding which CDP is best for your company: What is the reason for you to use a CDP? It is easy to get caught up in the fact that you need a CDP because it will consolidate your data into a single [[Customer Database|customer database]], but what are you actually hoping to get out of that? Consolidating your data isn’t going to make you more data-driven. It is just a step along the way. To choose the right CDP, you need to define your use cases ahead of time. Take some time to think about what you want your CDP to help with. Then, talk to the other stakeholders about their ideal use cases. From there, try to identify three or fewer ideal use cases. Limiting your use cases to just the top three will make it easier to evaluate all of the CDP vendors. Here are a few of the most common use cases:
+'''Step 2: Define use cases''': Another big question you need to answer before deciding which CDP is best for your company: What is the reason for you to use a CDP? It is easy to get caught up in the fact that you need a CDP because it will consolidate your data into a single [[Customer Database|customer database]], but what are you actually hoping to get out of that? Consolidating your data isn’t going to make you more data-driven. It is just a step along the way. To choose the right CDP, you need to define your [[Use Case|use cases]] ahead of time. Take some time to think about what you want your CDP to help with. Then, talk to the other stakeholders about their ideal use cases. From there, try to identify three or fewer ideal use cases. Limiting your use cases to just the top three will make it easier to evaluate all of the CDP vendors. Here are a few of the most common use cases:
 *Fully understanding our customer journey
 *Creating a more personalized customer experience on our website
-*Creating more targeted multichannel [[Advertising|advertising]] campaigns
+*Creating more targeted multichannel advertising campaigns
 *Combining online and offline data
 Once use cases have been defined, spend some time studying your potential CDPs. Look at their website; read reviews of their products; talk to colleagues at other companies who use these tools. Does your ideal use case fit with what any of these companies are doing? If yes, make a list of those companies. At this point, it is probably going to be a pretty big list.<br />
@@ Line 44: / Line 44: @@
 '''Step 3: Determine the tools needed''': You need to get a handle on the tools your company uses that will be connected to your CDP. To get an idea of the tools and functionality that will be needed, start by focusing on your use cases. Which tools do you need to accomplish the specific use cases that you laid out in Step 2? Make a list of those tools. Next, make a list of all the tools that interact with your customer in one way or another. You may want to include website tools, CRM systems, real-time live chat, payment processors, email platforms, and help desk systems, just to name a few. At this point, check and confirm with the stakeholders that you haven’t missed any important tools that will need to be connected. Most often the starting points are:
 *Analytics tools such as Google Analytics
-*Advertising tools such as the Facebook
+*[[Advertising|Advertising]] tools such as the Facebook
 *Customer success and live chat tools such as Intercom
 *[[Business Intelligence|Business intelligence]] tools such as Looker
@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 Don’t forget to look at review websites for user reviews of each CDP too.<br />
-'''Step 6: Consider [[Return on Investment (ROI)|ROI]]''': The ROI of the CDPs being evaluated is the final piece you need to consider. ROI does not mean that you should choose the cheapest option. It is more about which option will give you the best value. How do you determine that value upfront, before you choose your CDP?
+'''Step 6: Consider ROI''': The [[Return on Investment (ROI)|ROI]] of the CDPs being evaluated is the final piece you need to consider. ROI does not mean that you should choose the cheapest option. It is more about which option will give you the best value. How do you determine that value upfront, before you choose your CDP?
 Start by using an ROI worksheet. This will help you determine the cost of your engineers’ time. Without a CDP, your engineers have to spend hours building and maintaining integrations for each tool. Those hours add up quickly, which can result in significant costs just to build and maintain one integration. If you have ten integrations that need to be handled by your engineering team, you can see that the hours will quickly become unmanageable. That cost is one of the biggest reasons to use a CDP. Good CDPs should reduce the amount of time your engineers spend building integrations between tools, which can result in a huge cost savings. That is why you need to calculate the costs and consider ROI ahead of time. If you choose a CDP that does not give your engineering team the maximum amount of time-savings, it may not be worth the cost at all.
@@ Line 90: / Line 90: @@
 *Expanded enterprise collaboration. A CDP fosters cooperation among siloed groups because it gathers data from throughout the enterprise and supports customer interactions across many touchpoints. The unification of data allows enterprises to see how strategies for audience, customer experience and execution all fit together – and enables audience portability to ensure a more consistent, informed customer experience.
 *Improved data accessibility. A CDP is a centralized hub that collects and houses customer data from every corner of the enterprise. Pieces of data are normalized and stitched together to build unique, unified profiles of each individual customer. The result is a persistent customer database whose main purpose is to gather and share data more easily and efficiently across the organization
-*Streamlined systems integration. A CDP unifies data systems across the enterprise, from marketing and customer service, to call centers and payment systems. By creating a single “system of record” for first-party customer data, data redundancies and errors can be minimized, and data can flow more quickly into — and out of — marketing automation platforms, email service providers (ESPs), CRMs and other martech systems.
+*Streamlined systems integration. A CDP unifies data systems across the enterprise, from marketing and customer service, to call centers and payment systems. By creating a single “system of record” for first-party customer data, data redundancies and errors can be minimized, and data can flow more quickly into — and out of — marketing automation platforms, email service providers (ESPs), CRMs and other systems.
 *Increased marketing efficiency. A CDP unifies individual data with unique IDs that create more robust customer records. Many manual tasks are also automated by the CDP, allowing marketers to focus on the creative and analytical tasks they are trained for. The result is more accurate modeling, targeting and personalization in marketing campaigns, and more relevant customer experiences with the brand across channels.
-*Faster marketing velocity. In many cases, CDPs are “owned” by marketing, minimizing the need for IT or developer intervention to collect, analyze and act upon data. With control in marketers’ hands, the time to segment and build audiences, execute campaigns and analyze results significantly decreases. That said, engineers may still be needed to perform deep data analysis and facilitate integrations. This is especially true as CDPs extend beyond marketing and into sales and service functions.
+*Faster marketing velocity. In many cases, CDPs are “owned” by marketing, minimizing the need for [[Information Technology (IT)|IT]] or developer intervention to collect, analyze and act upon data. With control in marketers’ hands, the time to segment and build audiences, execute campaigns and analyze results significantly decreases. That said, engineers may still be needed to perform deep data analysis and facilitate integrations. This is especially true as CDPs extend beyond marketing and into sales and service functions.
-*Stronger regulatory compliance. A CDP creates greater internal control over customer data, streamlining data governance to comply with the many regulations now impacting brands worldwide. Marketers in the healthcare industry must comply with both HIPAA and HITECH regulations. Businesses that handle European data or serve customers in the EU must also comply with GDPR and those dealing with Californians must deal with CCPA
+*Stronger regulatory compliance. A CDP creates greater internal control over customer data, streamlining [[Data Governance|data governance]] to comply with the many regulations now impacting [[Brand|brands]] worldwide. Marketers in the healthcare industry must comply with both HIPAA and HITECH regulations. Businesses that handle European data or serve customers in the EU must also comply with GDPR and those dealing with Californians must deal with CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act). The majority of CDP vendors are both ISO and SOC certified for best practices in handling [[Personally Identifiable Information (PII)|personally identifiable information (PII)]].
 (California Consumer Privacy Act). The majority of CDP vendors are both ISO and SOC certified for best practices in handling personally identifiable information (PII).

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 *Is Not a CRM system: CRMs mostly store customer transaction data. They do not have insight into anonymous user behavior (often requiring a form fill or purchase), typically are focused on sales data and only have limited integrations to other systems.
 *Is Not a DMP: DMPs are cookie-based, do not create a persistent customer profile and integrations tend to be limited to advertising (not the full customer journey). DMPs are focused on 3rd-party data, with some limited ability to integrate 1st-party data, whereas CDPs have a much heavier focus on 1st-party data.
-*Is Not a Personalization tool: While some CDPs have built native execution tools such as website personalization, this is not a core functionality for the category. This takes focus away from solving the underlying data fragmentation problem that companies in the market are experiencing today.
+*Is Not a Personalization tool: While some CDPs have built native execution tools such as website personalization, this is not a core functionality for the category. This takes focus away from solving the underlying [[Data Fragmentation|data fragmentation]] problem that companies in the market are experiencing today.
 == The Purpose of Customer Data Platform (CDP)<ref>What is the purpose of a CDP? [https://www.oracle.com/cx/customer-data-platform/what-is-cdp/ Oracle]</ref> ==
 A customer data platform serves three purposes.
-#Collect and unify all first-party data: Many of the systems—such as email, analytics, CRM, ecommerce, and social sites—that marketers use operate in silos and don’t pass data back and forth. It’s hard to get a complete picture, and even harder to analyze what you’re looking at. The purpose of a customer data platform is to eliminate those issues by connecting all the tools that marketers use and acting as a single source of truth for first-party customer data.
+#Collect and unify all first-party data: Many of the systems — such as email, [[Analytics|analytics]], CRM, ecommerce, and social sites — that marketers use operate in silos and don’t pass data back and forth. It is hard to get a complete picture, and even harder to analyze what you are looking at. The purpose of a customer data platform is to eliminate those issues by connecting all the tools that marketers use and acting as a single source of truth for first-party customer data.
-#Customer data management: CDPs manage first-party data and consumer privacy and data rights by controlling the data flows between different marketing systems and managing consent. This is the world of GDPR and data privacy; your business needs to actively manage, and document that management of, consent and data flows.
+#Customer data management: CDPs manage first-party data and consumer privacy and data rights by controlling the [[Dataflow|data flows]] between different marketing systems and managing consent. This is the world of [[General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)|GDPR]] and [[Data Privacy|data privacy]]; your [[Business|business]] needs to actively manage, and document that management of, consent and data flows.
-#Customer data activation: Once you've received permission to collect first-party user data and have unified and structured it into profiles, you can then take action on it. CDPs can create audience segments that can be used across the rest of your marketing platforms and channels.
+#Customer data activation: Once you have received permission to collect first-party user data and have unified and structured it into profiles, you can then take action on it. CDPs can create audience segments that can be used across the rest of your marketing platforms and channels.
@@ Line 32: / Line 32: @@
 *There’s a good chance your sales team’s customer relationship management (CRM) platform stores data that your CDP will need access to. A stakeholder from sales should be part of the buying process. What about your customer success team?
 *There’s a good chance that your customer success team uses tools that handle customer data. A stakeholder from the customer success team will likely be part of this process too.
-*You don’t need each stakeholder individually evaluating each CDP, but you will need their input on various parts of the buying process. At the very least, talk to each stakeholder and let them know why you’re looking to purchase a CDP and what you hope to get out of it.<br />
+You don’t need each stakeholder individually evaluating each CDP, but you will need their input on various parts of the buying process. At the very least, talk to each stakeholder and let them know why you are looking to purchase a CDP and what you hope to get out of it.<br />
-'''Step 2: Define use cases''': There’s another big question you need to answer before deciding which CDP is best for your company: What is the reason you’re looking to use a CDP? It’s easy to get caught up in the fact that you need a CDP because it will consolidate your data into a single customer database, but what are you actually hoping to get out of that? Consolidating your data isn’t going to make you more data-driven. It’s just a step along the way. To choose the right CDP, you need to define your use cases ahead of time. Take some time to think about what you want your CDP to help with. Then, talk to the other stakeholders about their ideal use cases. From there, try to identify three or fewer ideal use cases. Limiting your use cases to just the top three will make it easier to evaluate all of the CDP vendors. Here are a few of the most common use cases:
 *Fully understanding our customer journey
 *Creating a more personalized customer experience on our website
 *Creating more targeted multichannel advertising campaigns
 *Combining online and offline data
-Once you’ve defined your use cases, spend some time studying your potential CDPs. Look at their website; read reviews of their products; talk to colleagues at other companies who use these tools. Does your ideal use case fit with what any of these companies are doing? If yes, make a list of those companies. At this point, it’s probably going to be a pretty big list.<br />
+Once use cases have been defined, spend some time studying your potential CDPs. Look at their website; read reviews of their products; talk to colleagues at other companies who use these tools. Does your ideal use case fit with what any of these companies are doing? If yes, make a list of those companies. At this point, it is probably going to be a pretty big list.<br />
-'''Step 3: Determine the tools needed''': You need to get a handle on the tools your company uses that will be connected to your CDP. To get an idea of what tools and functionality you’ll need, start by focusing on your use cases. Which tools do you need to accomplish the specific use cases that you laid out in Step 2? Make a list of those tools. Next, make a list of all the tools that interact with your customer in one way or another. You’ll want to include website tools, CRM systems, real-time live chat, payment processors, email platforms, and help desk systems, just to name a few. At this point, go to your other stakeholders and double-check that you haven’t missed any important tools that will need to be connected. Most often the starting points are:
 *Analytics tools such as Google Analytics
 *Advertising tools such as the Facebook
@@ Line 45: / Line 47: @@
 *Business intelligence tools such as Looker
 *Data warehouses such as Redshift
-Once you’ve determined the tools you need, make sure the CDPs you’re evaluating already have those integrations. If one doesn’t have the majority of the tools you use, knock it out of contention. This step might narrow your list by a large number.<br />
+Once you have determined the tools you need, make sure the CDPs being evaluated already have those integrations. Those which do not have the majority of the tools you use, knock them out of contention. This step might narrow your list by a large number.<br />
-'''Step 4: Gather requirements''': There’s more to a CDP than a way to consolidate data and solve your use cases. You also need to think of the other requirements for your CDP. Requirements are different than your use cases because a requirement is more like a feature, rather than an outcome. For example, if one of your requirements is that the CDP you choose should help you get a solid understanding of each piece of data that you’re collecting, you’ll need a CDP that can help you build a data-tracking plan. If you’re not sure what other requirements you need to consider, here’s a list of common requirements:
-*Like CDP to help with GDPR and CCPA compliance. If that’s something you’re interested in, then you’ll need a CDP that will that will enable you to suppress data collection or delete customer data when requested, which is a requirement for both the GDPR and CCPA.
+'''Step 4: Gather requirements''': There is more to a CDP than a way to consolidate data and solve your use cases. You also need to think of the other requirements for your CDP. Requirements are different than your use cases because a requirement is more like a feature, rather than an outcome. For example, if one of your requirements is that the CDP you choose should help you get a solid understanding of each piece of data being collected, you will need a CDP that can help you build a data-tracking plan. If you’re not sure what other requirements you need to consider, here’s a list of common requirements:
 *CDP should help get a full view of our customer journey. If this is a requirement for your company, make sure that the CDP you’re evaluating has some form of identity resolution, which helps identify users across different channels.
-*CDP needs to have top-notch security. This is becoming a more frequent requirement. Make sure the CDP you’re evaluating has a credible, independent security certification like ISO 27001 or SOC 2. Those certifications ensure that the CDP is continuously monitoring and upgrading their security practices.
+*CDP needs to have top-notch security. This is becoming a more frequent requirement. Make sure the CDP being evaluated has a credible, independent security certification like ISO 27001 or SOC 2. Those certifications ensure that the CDP is continuously monitoring and upgrading their security practices.
-Another good place to gather requirements from are the pricing pages of each CDP. Read through the features that are listed on those pages, and make a note of anything that’s going to be important to your company. For example, you might see that one CDP has an uptime guarantee, while another doesn’t. If an uptime guarantee is important, you might want to make it a requirement.<br />
+Another good place to gather requirements from are the pricing pages of each CDP. Read through the features that are listed on those pages, and make a note of anything that’s going to be important to your company. For example, you might see that one CDP has an uptime guarantee, while another may not. If an uptime guarantee is important, you might want to make it a requirement.<br />
-'''Step 5: Compare vendors''': At this point, you should have a list of just a few CDPs that fit your use cases, have the necessary integrations, and meet all of your requirements. Now, it’s time to compare each CDP. Don’t take pricing into consideration yet. Start by considering your industry. Find CDPs that have customers most similar to your company. If you work at an enterprise-level company, find a CDP that has a track record of working with companies at that level. If you work at a startup, make sure the CDPs you’re evaluating have experience in that space. Chances are there will be an overlap with CDPs that have a track record in all industries. If you have determined that all of the CDPs being considered have the right experience, it's time to go a step deeper. Make sure each CDP has:
 *A track record of accomplishing the use cases that you defined in Step 2.
 *A solution for data compliance. CDPs handle data, so they should enable your compliance with the GDPR or the CCPA.
@@ Line 57: / Line 61: @@
 *Excellent customer service to help you set up, use, and maintain your CDP.
 Don’t forget to look at review websites for user reviews of each CDP too.<br />
 '''Step 6: Consider ROI''': The ROI of the CDPs being evaluated is the final piece you need to consider. ROI does not mean that you should choose the cheapest option. It is more about which option will give you the best value. How do you determine that value upfront, before you choose your CDP?