Amy Brown

Organizations collect data from a wide range of sources and store it in any number of solutions, which can be spread across the business. For marketing departments trying to deliver personalized customer experiences, those silos present a problem, and a customer data platform (CDP) can seem like an easy answer. That could be the right conclusion, but it also might be premature. If you’re wondering how to choose a CDP, it makes sense to start with the basics. How to choose a CDP: 1. Understand the benefits and limitations of CDP solutions 2. Get internal alignment around the need and timing for a CDP 3. Surface your requirements, and prioritize your top 3-5 4. Map your core requirements to functionality you need in a CDP 5. Get stakeholder buy-in and secure a budget 6. Create a CDP selection matrix 7. Get external help if you need it 1. Understand the benefits and limitations of CDP solutions The CDP Institute defines a customer data platform as “packaged software that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems.” This simple definition goes a long way toward unpacking the pros and cons of CDPs. A CDP is packaged software. PRO: A CDP is prebuilt and doesn’t require as much help from IT to implement and maintain as other solutions like custom platforms and data warehouses. CON: Because it’s packaged software and not a platform, a CDP will be less customizable and less efficient than adding customized functionality to an existing architecture. A CDP must create a persistent, unified customer database. PRO: A CDP ingests data from multiple sources across the business, standardizes it, and uses it to build an identity graph to enable real-time customer identification that fuels targeted multi-channel marketing efforts. CON: A CDP overcomes some of the difficulty of identity resolution but obscures the methodology. You get a unified customer view, but not a lot of certainty that it’s accurate. A CDP must be accessible to other systems. PRO: You can use the aggregated data and outputs from a CDP with your downstream systems. CON: The CDP you select must either come with the API connections you need for the rest of your martech and enterprise tech stacks or you’ll need to factor in costs for custom APIs. 2. Get internal alignment around the need and timing for a CDP Today’s martech stacks are growing fast, and it’s not always clear whether the functionality your marketing team needs already exists in the broader enterprise architecture. Overlapping features and blindspots are a problem — but also an opportunity. Gathering a cross-functional group that includes marketing, IT, data, and product teams can help you figure out how to get the most from your technology investments across the business. If you’re wondering how to choose a CDP, you might be surprised to find that many of the core functions you’re looking for in a CDP are already available in your CRM, MDM, data warehouse, analytics, and BI solutions. For example: Some analytical CRMs can track real-time online events like website browsing, adding to cart, and the like, much like CDPs. Your data warehouse may allow for an identity graph overlay and machine learning algorithms that can play a key role in enterprise-wide customer identity resolution. Your IT and data teams may already have identity and access management processes in place, and that single source of customer data truth could be integrated with your existing martech stack. So, how do you know if your organization needs a CDP? Your cross-functional group can explore potential use cases in light of departmental needs, budget, and existing functionality. While every organization is different, here are some ways to frame the conversation. You might need a CDP if: Your organization has a large volume of customer data stored in multiple places, and you either can’t or haven’t been able to integrate it into a single, real-time view Your marketing team can’t access customer data or perform data tasks without help from data and IT teams You can’t unify your online metrics, CRM data, and offline touchpoint and transactional data, making it hard to build a 360-degree view of your customer You’re moving to a first-party data strategy, but you don’t have systems in place to use your data to inform audience segmentation and personalized campaigns You have functionality gaps in your current martech stack that match up to CDP features You might NOT need a CDP if: You have a minimal and well architected martech stack Your customer data is simple or straightforward enough to analyze easily without additional tools Your marketing plan doesn’t require a lot of personalization, either because your products and services don’t require it, or because your roadmap doesn’t call for it in the short term Your customer data strategy has already mapped your needs to existing solutions and your roadmap doesn’t include a CDP Your budget doesn’t allow for duplicating storage costs, building and operating data ingestion processes, or keeping up with the steep total cost of CDP ownership Your security requirements don’t allow for third-party customer data storage Your internal IT and data teams find more affordable and secure means to implement identity and access management, democratize data access, and connect data storage with martech tools 3. Surface requirements, and prioritize your top 3-5 As you meet with your cross-functional team and discuss your need for a CDP, you can also surface requirements and use cases for a CDP solution. From your larger list, choose 3-5 top priorities to help you choose a CDP. Some common examples of CDP use cases include: Streamlining identity resolution, and making those outputs more accessible and actionable Combining online and offline data Creating more personalized content experiences on your website Using more strategic targeting in your multichannel campaigns Integrating and standardizing data across systems and making it easier to use those outputs in omnichannel marketing efforts 4. Map your core requirements to features you need in a CDP After you identify your top 3-5 use cases, map those core requirements to features you need in a CDP. For example, if one of your core requirements is enabling more targeted multichannel marketing campaigns in the EU, you might need to look for a CDP that offers GDPR-compliant identity resolution processes. Be sure to note which systems and solutions you’ll need to connect to your CDP both in terms of data ingestion and output sharing with downstream systems. Your CDP will need integrations and APIs to enable those connections. Common CDP integrations include CRMs, analytics tools and dashboards, advertising platforms, BI tools, data warehouses, and data lakes. Meet with your cross-functional group again to confirm your conclusions and assumptions. This meeting is a good time to clarify any security and data governance implications for your CDP selection as well. 5. Get stakeholder buy-in and secure a budget Your next step is to get stakeholders on board for the CDP acquisition and to establish funding to make the purchase. Leadership needs to know the full report from your cross-functional team, but they’ll also have questions about what kind of return the organization can expect from the investment As you frame up the value story, consider thinking about what not having a CDP costs your company: Is your marketing team using a significant amount of IT or data team hours looking for information? If you were to solve your data connectivity issues with custom-built APIs, how much would that cost? How much are you losing in customer value by not providing a customized experience? How much time is your marketing team spending manually moving data from one system to another? 6. Create a CDP selection matrix The vendor selection process doesn’t have to be painful. Your team can feel more confident about choosing a CDP because you’re going into the process with defined use cases and requirements, as well as support from the organization. That said, with an ever-growing CDP vendor landscape, it helps to have a process for narrowing down your choices. To accomplish that task, many companies use an internally framed selection matrix or decision tree, customized to fit CDP-specific needs and requirements. These tools can help you think through solution options using your own criteria. However you handle the vendor review, plan to bring a short list of possibilities back to your cross-functional team for a final discussion before making a purchasing decision. 7. Get external help if you need it. Figuring out how to choose a CDP and where the solution fits into your larger customer data strategy isn’t easy. Fusion Alliance helps companies navigate changing customer data environments with a unique methodology that fosters collaboration, transparency, and shared ownership of digital transformations.   Whether you’re just getting started or stuck in the messy middle of a CDP selection process, we help you unpack your processes and partnerships to identify risks and opportunities so you can take the right next steps toward a future-focused customer data strategy.   Let’s talk. Keep reading: The Ultimate Guide to Creating Your Customer Data Strategy

Building trust into your customer data strategy In the rapidly changing regulatory environment around customer data privacy and security, it’s easy to get so caught up in specifics that you miss the big picture opportunity to build trust with your customers. Fundamentally, every box you check with your data: consent, collection, storage, use, sharing, and more is reflective of your respect for your customer. After all, how you treat their data tells customers a lot about how you’ll treat them. To take a customer-centric view of your data privacy compliance policies and procedures, we recommend a series of concrete steps applicable to any business or organization that deals with customer data in any form. While not exhaustive, this list forms a solid foundation for building trust in your data strategy. Know where you’re vulnerable One reason businesses are uniquely susceptible to data breaches and privacy omissions is the ubiquity of customer data across business units. While different departments may source, store, and use data in different ways, its presence demands compliance. The best way to get a handle on the issue is to create a data map. This unified view of the information you have, where it’s stored, and how it flows within your organization is not only helpful from a security and privacy compliance perspective, but it can also be a helpful resource for the business. Build a comprehensive data map in our Customer Data Strategy workshop >> Set guardrails When it comes to collecting customer data, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Using your data map, think through your customer data requirements, and only plan to collect, process, and store what you really need to meet your goals. Many organizations find it helpful to spell out this less-is-more approach to data collection in a formal policy, and then make it part of their data culture and training. Pro Tip: Having written policies around customer data collection, use, storage, transmission, and sharing is important, but not sufficient. Building policies into your corporate culture takes focused planning and effort, but it pays off in compliance. Understand the current landscape Depending on your industry, location, and customer base, your company may be subject to different privacy laws, regulations, and requirements. Some common standards include GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. Your legal team probably already has a good handle on which of these apply in your current context, but do your security, IT, data, and business units have complete understanding of those implications? Consider cross-referencing relevant requirements to your data map to be sure your organization is fully compliant. Build an agile data privacy program What if your company is not currently subject to those regulations? As you build your data privacy program, it may be wise to look into today’s privacy standards as a near-future view. Legislatures and courts continue to support customer privacy, and policy changes at Apple, Google, and other large tech and search companies forecast trends to greater restrictions on customer data collection and use. Using current standards to anticipate future changes makes sense. Keeping your data privacy program agile and flexible not only ensures that you’ll stay ahead of costly changes in the future, but also builds customer trust — a valuable goal regardless of external factors. Establish a security and governance framework Depending on your industry, this may be a formal, full-time responsibility for an individual, team, or an entire department. Or you might opt for clear policies and procedures shared across business units. In any case, your customer data security and governance framework should include, at minimum: What types of customer data are collected How customer data is protected, during transmission, in use, and at rest What standards you follow for data security, quality, access, and retention Which protection measures you use when data is transferred, stored, or used, such as data masking, tokenization, format-preserving encryption, or keys Improve the user’s experience We commonly think of user experience on digital properties in terms of how a website or landing page looks and functions. But how you interact with your customers about their data is also part of their experience of your brand. Commit to clarity: rather than burying consent information in lengthy legalese, be up-front, clear, and simple in how your structure and format your consent management and opt-in features. As you think about the ways your customers experience your privacy program, some topics to consider clarifying include: How individuals can consent to (or opt out of) your company collecting and processing their data Why customers might want to share their data — that is, what they get out of the exchange in terms of improved experience, personalized discounts, and the like How you’ll establish that a user is over 16 or over 18, if your industry or topic requires that distinction How a customer can request to have their data deleted, and how your organization will comply Put the customer first Data privacy protections show no sign of slowing down, but companies with strong customer data strategies don’t need to worry. Whatever the future holds, building a customer-first approach to collecting, storing, and using data pays off in terms of strengthened relationships across the buyer’s journey and throughout the customer lifecycle. Not sure how to get started? We can help. Our team of digital, data, and technology experts partners with you to get your customer data strategy going — or back on track. Let’s talk >> Learn more about customer data strategy >>

You understand the implications of cookie deprecation and the importance of pivoting to a first-party data strategy. But, if you’re like many organizations, you might be wondering how to get customers to give you the data you need to make that strategy meaningful. You know that collecting first-party data is a tough ask from customers because you are one yourself. In a digital-first world, where data breaches make the headlines every week and privacy laws continue to tighten, people are increasingly wary of sharing their data. And yet, those same circumstances make it more vital than ever for marketers to collect it. How do you overcome data sharing reluctance and build a foundation of trust for your first-party data strategy? Every business is different, but we’ve identified three key steps that any organization can take to get – or keep – their first-party data gathering on track. Key 1: Be transparent Everyone knows companies need first-party data, but before they hand over their information, they want to know how you’re using it. Studies show that most people are comfortable sharing data with companies they trust, who use the data to meet customer needs — and if you plan on selling or sharing the information, they want to know upfront. Your best move is to explain how you store and use data in plain, uncomplicated language. Make the terms easy to find and the customer’s rights simple to understand. Then, highlight the ways you use the data you collect to benefit your customers. What benefits and experiences can they expect when they let you know about their interests and preferences? Key 2: Deliver value Don’t just talk a big game about personalized content. If you offer incentives in exchange for data, be sure it’s something that your customer actually wants. Your generic and sporadically published newsletter? Probably not it. A guide that helps the customer with a real issue they experience day-to-day? Probably more successful. What content meets the customer’s unique needs? What touchpoints build connections between your brand and the customer’s own values and personal identity? Smart companies build content and offers tailored to customer interests, needs, and buying stage, not broad filler work. Key 3: Be consistent Your customers expect a consistent experience every time they interact with your company, whether that’s on your website, chatting with customer service, or talking with sales. Rather than capturing these touchpoints in data silos, your technology needs to connect information across business units and channels, so the customer is tied back to a centralized profile and so that your organization can connect the dots. Whether you store the information all in one place or keep it dispersed, your analysis should be able to cross boundaries and deliver actionable insights that help you personalize content, marketing, and individual interactions so your customer has a seamless experience with your brand. Take the next step. Building a first-party data strategy is no easy task, but the results are worth it. If you’re not sure how to get started or think you might have gotten off track, we can help. Fusion Alliance helps companies reimagine how they connect with their customers through strategic solutions at the intersection of digital, data, tech, and cloud. Let us know how we can help >> Get the Ultimate Guide to Creating a Customer Data Strategy >>