There are new technological solutions constantly appearing for companies to take control over customer experience. But which one should I choose? Is there really a difference between this platforms?
In this blog we would analyze the differences between Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms, Data Management Platforms (DMP), and Customer Data Platforms (CDP). We would also the reasons behind the latest boom of CDPs in the US, with estimations rising up to a $15.3 billion market for 2026.
What is a CRM?
A Customer Relations Management platform, is a platform where you can store Basic Data from you leads. It is a must for any sales team, as it helps to store and structure information of your customers.
What is a DMP?
A Data Management Platform, is used to unify data in order to create and segment audiences, in really specific ways as the information integrated comes from different data sources.
What is a CDP?
A Customer Data Platform is a software that enables companies to unify every single piece of data obtained from customers (Including the data you have in your CRM), and unifies it with 3rd Party Data (or data obtained from the market in which you operate), to portray a 360 profile of your customers, in order to segment, personalize, and predict with the use of ML/AI.
Technological Evolution: From a CRM to a CDP
CRM (1990s)
CRMs emerged at the end of the last century as a way of storing basic customer information online. They were a very important step, sales teams were able to use them to have databases with leads and to carry out campaigns through them.
Today they are still a great help for lead management and lead storage, a great support for sales teams, but they do not cover all the needs of the contemporary company.
Nowadays, companies need to have a database that covers all possible customer data, not only basic information (age, sex, forms of contact, etc.), but they also need to enrich this information with behavioral and attitudinal data (product preferences, forms of purchase, contact times, favorite types of promotions, etc.).
DMP (2000s)
This is how the DMP (Data Management Platform) was born, with the intention of gathering all the information about your customers in a single platform, not only the sales data, but you could unify this data (extracted from a CRM), with behaviors and attitudes of your customers.
So with a DMP your company can create audiences and segment them in hundreds of ways so that your advertising or marketing teams can target their campaigns to much more specific audiences.
The DMP was the next step to CRM as it was much closer to the online personalization that companies were looking for.
CDP (2020s)
The unification of all possible customer data opened up a world of possibilities, but the key piece of the puzzle was missing, converting this data into actionable data. CDP was born to integrate all the aforementioned data with ML, allowing companies to know their customers like never before. It allows you to have a detailed picture of each customer as an individual so that you can personalize your campaigns to the extreme.
The 360-degree customer profile that you will obtain using a CDP allows companies to segment, personalize and predict behaviors with the use of Machine Learning. Customer Data Platforms thus emerge as the ultimate solution for omni-channel customer management, multiplying the knowledge you have of your customer to levels never before imagined.
WHY FLYDE?
Do you want your company to move on to the next level? A CDP is the key tool that will allow you to maximise the potential of your data and grow your business. Working like the big multinationals in the market, which already have this type of software, and having control over all your data is now very simple.
Moreover, if you do not have IT or Data Scientist teams, this tool will allow you to outsource this function. And if you have them but want to reduce their workload and give more autonomy to your marketing and business teams when it comes to working with data, implementing an easy-to-use CDP would be the best option for your company. It will allow any single member of your company to use it, as this softwares are prepared for them.
Start taking control of your data today.
Schedule a meeting with one of our experts and discover how FLYDE can help your company achieve its goals.
