Category: CDP

91% of marketers don’t feel they have a complete, fully utilized technology stack. 59% say they don’t fully utilize the marketing technology they have today.

The technological development of Marketing tools in the last decade has been huge, but marketing teams are yet unable to work on many of them, that is why there has always appeared an easy-to-use solution for every new Martech tool launched in the market.

Have new technologies changed the way in which marketing is done?

Definitely not, it just changed the channel and the possibilities, but the strategies maintain quite similar in its basis to the ones done 50 years ago.

The other day we compared the use of Cookies today, with observing people in the store (for a shopper 50 year ago), their movements and their preferences, in order to offer them something that matches their expectations next time. Same strategy with a huge difference in technology.

By this we mean that the technological development specially in Marketing areas has supposed a change in the capacity to process data. Now, we are able to personalize as a shopper did 50 years ago, but towards thousands of customers instead of 30 or 40.

More Martech tools than ever

A marketeer in 2022 is supposed to know about how to carry on marketing strategies, and at the same time know how to use: A Customer Relation Management platforms, an email marketing platform, Google Analytics, Google Ads., Facebook Ads., a Data Management Platform, and many more depending on the company.

This is driving marketeers crazy as every year a new tool appears, but without substituting another one. So every tool sums up to the ones previously used, making this teams waste time, or even worst have an IT Team to work on the platform. This also tends to happen with complex to use platforms, that need programmatic level users.

One CDP to unify them all.

The tendency in the last years has been to drive marketing teams into customer-centric teams, due to the importance of customers for companies. This is why Customer Data Platforms are becoming increasingly essential for Marketing Teams.

Customer Data Platforms (CDP) enable companies to unify all of their information from the sources available, plus the data obtained from the various platforms mentioned before, in order to allow marketing teams to work through one platform. This solves many problems of time and technical abilities required as the team would mainly access to this CDP to work on Customer knowledge.

Easy-to-use Customer Data Platform

A huge problem of Customer Data Platforms has been the difficulty to use inherent to this softwares. Due to the short living period of it, and the complexity upon the technology involved (Big Data and Artificial Intelligence), CDPs have been really complicated to manage and usually managed by IT or Data Science teams.

Marketing teams used to be involved only in the last part of the process, in making the data actionable. Although this seems a problem as each team needs to take control over their data. This is why FLYDE appeared in the market, to allow marketing teams to take control over their data, and to make this technology accessible to every single company.

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.

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.

Demand Forecasting has always been a crucial technique for companies in order to predict future situations, helping on inventory and production issues and to set up prices. The problem with demand forecasting has always been the same: you would never be able to have a certain answer, as you are predicting future scenarios.

However, current advances in technology and the progression of AI, have enabled companies to raise the percentage of this forecast to unprecedented numbers (over 90%). Although this is an important improvement, the greatest change isn’t the raise of the percentage that comes from the possibility to analyze much more factors than before but on the possibility to know the exact percentage of preciseness of that forecast, making companies able to know the exact possibility of a forecast to be correct and knowing how much to depend on it.

How has technology improved predictions so much?

Traditionally forecasting was done manually by companies, just by taking a clever guess over the historial sales, this wasn’t a forecast, but a guess. Nowadays the data obtained by companies is much larger, and this data can be stored and used in thousands of different ways obtaining companies great actionable insights.

The unification of huge sizes of information brought up a new problem: people where unable to read it and create insights from it in an efficient way. So Artificial Intelligence was created with the ability to read that information and simplify it for those teams. The use of AI over data enables precise predictions, and also the preciseness of those predictions. This preciseness would depend on the amount of data and the quality of it. For a company to become Data-driven it is crucial to be able to store and use wisely every single piece of data available.

Why is Demand Forecasting so useful?

1. Inventory and production efficiency boost

Stock issues have always been a problem for retail companies, as we have seen before demand forecasting has been done for many years, but in an unaccurate way. From now on, this could change radically as AI is enabling automated forecasting, which would help solving stock problems. With AI companies would be able to predict the amount of sells for each product to control their inventory and production as ever imagined, boosting their efficiency and saving large amounts of capital.

2. Setting up prices

Setting up prices has always been a complicated task for companies as it is not only a matter of trying to balance your numbers, it is fundamental to understand the demand of a product in order to set up prices, depending on the channel’s and product’s demand. This could be done with a demand forecast driven by data and AI.

Demand forecasting is another one of FLYDE’s possibilities

This solutions seem quite far away for medium companies as most of them tend to not be Data-Driven as big multinationals are. But there has been a radical change in the market, the entrance of FLYDE the Intelligent CDP easy-to-use, makes this technology approachable by any company (sector or size), and, most important, each team could have the control over the action driven by this platform.

FLYDE gives the possibility to companies to unify all of their customers data to exploit it in thousands of different ways. One of them is the Demand Forecasting which could be done through channels, products, product categories, or even by earnings. This different categories also give the possibility to be mixed within them to make as we have seen before the most precise forecast of the demand possible.

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.

What is a CDP, is it the same as a CRM? In this blog we will try to explain in a simple way what the use of each of them allows your company to do, and their main differences.

The massive expansion of CRM makes many companies see this as the end of their road to become a Data-Driven Company, however, every day there are more possibilities to know your customer and improve your Customer Experience. This is essential today as 52% of consumers have switched brands in the past year due to a bad Customer Experience.

What is a CRM and what is a CDP?

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a technological tool that allows companies to know their customers through their relationships or points of contact with them. Thus, the sum of your customers’ interactions with your campaigns, or promotional methods are accumulated in your CRM to achieve a better understanding of your customer.

Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a platform that allows you to bring together all the data collected by your company (1st Party Data); the data you have from third parties, such as Social Media, Google Analytics or the CRM itself (2nd Party Data); and socio-demographic data, or the market in which you operate data(3rd Party Data). The combination of all this data will allow you to obtain a 360º vision of your customer, which added to the use of Artificial Intelligence (which CDPs have integrated), you will be able to understand your customer or potential customers down to the smallest detail, and thus predict future behavioral trends.

Why are companies not happy with their CRM?

Did you know that 52% of sales leaders are not happy with their CRM? To understand this we need to look at the problems companies are encountering with their CRM:

• Tension between departments. Interdepartmental communication in a company is key, and therefore, the data they have and the way they deal with it must be aligned. Many companies find that this does not happen, leading to disputes between Marketing and Sales.
• It does not predict behavior. Analyzing the behavior of your customers is very useful to understand what they like, or what their preferences are regarding your company. However, with the advances in technology, not being able to predict behaviors with the necessary information is a bit vague.
• The data is not up to date. Many users have long complained that some CRMs are not constantly updated, and therefore their reliability can be low. By not having the data constantly updated (in real time), confusion can arise, and the data may not be read correctly.

Is the solution in the CDP?

CDPs where born with the intention of overcoming these problems. With an intelligent CDP, you will have all the information unified and updated in real time, all departments can have access to the same information, and the sum of the information from each department will make the data obtained more enriched.

But one of the biggest changes from a CRM to a CDP is the ability of the CDP to predict future behavior with AI. By studying the behavior of each person, by unifying all the data, you can know what their movements will be and be able to gain efficiency in your campaigns, and anticipate the movements of users.

If you have John as a customer of the loyalty plan of your clothing shop, and you unify the data that he gave you when he joined (name, date of birth, address, etc.) with: his purchase record, the analysis of your sales by dates in recent years, and the effect that certain types of campaigns (online, posters in the street, etc.) have on the audience to which John belongs. You will be able to know with very high accuracy how much John will buy next month if you run an online campaign.

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.

Summer is here! A really nice season for people, but a tough one for many companies that are willing to maintain the loyalty of their customers during a few months of changes in habits.

In this blog we will explain the possibilities that any company has access to in 2022, at a technological level, to know their customers in depth and thus achieve unimaginable levels of Customer Engagement and Experience, even during the summer months.

Know your customer

It is becoming increasingly important to know your customer, as this is the key factor that will distinguish you from your competitors. In today’s world, companies have available huge amounts of customer data: tastes, preferences, socio-demographic data, everything the company needs to improve its realtionship with customers.

But all this data needs to be actioned. There is no point in having access to huge amounts of customer data if your company is not able to use it. In this way, you will get a 360-degree view of each customer, which will allow you to offer them a unique experience compared to your competitors.

Get ahead of the game!

If you are able to unify all this data, with the use of technological tools such as a CDP, you will be able to put this data to good use. With these actionable insights obtained, your company would be ahead of your customer’s movements.

By taking the data on your customer’s behaviour over the last few years in summer, added to the data on the last purchases of this customer, and the level of engagement they have at this specific moment with your brand; you will be able to anticipate with an extremely high percentage of accuracy, the behaviour that this customer will have in summer.

So you can see if in July they tend to disconnect from certain social networks like Linkedin, and start to focus on others like Instagram, which will make you intuit that they are on holiday and therefore the emails you send them will remain unread, thus losing your engagement, as your emails will start going into the spam folder.

Personalise your campaigns

This brings us to the fundamental point that every company knows nowadays, but they don’t take it to the limit they could with the right tools: hyperpersonalisation. In 2022 we are all aware that our customers demand personalised attention, the problem is that when it comes to locating each customer and their tastes, companies are not being able to meet expectations.

Campaigns must be targeted to each specific customer, according to their needs. It is no longer enough to know your average customer, or your Buyer Persona. Today’s Customer knowledge requires depth, requires having several Buyer Personas located and understood among your customers, and updated in real time.

If the customer is more assiduous to buy your product in holiday periods (you know because you have matched the holiday dates of the territory in which they live, with their purchases in your multiple channels), you should offer your product at the beginning of those holidays, and as we are creatures of habits and tend to take holidays on the same dates every year you can send them a reminder to buy, or a discount on a product that interests them (based on their last purchases), in their first days of holiday.

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.

CDP or Customer Data Platform market is growing exponentially. Once you have understood the utility of a CDP you may start to think on implementing a CDP in your company. However, how would you be able to know which CDP best suits your company? To solve this question we have developed a list with the main aspects that will help you make this important decision.

1. Do I need a CDP in my company?

Modern companies, no matter their size or sector, generate a massive quantity of data, both from its online and offline customers and channels. The problem of the majority of the companies is that they don’t use this data properly and, therefore, a complete or partial lack of knowledge of their customers and their behaviours.

A CDP helps companies unlock the full value of their customers in a very simple way: by unifying, collating and analysing all of their data from a single platform, enabling a complete understanding of their customers.

It is therefore an essential tool for any company that generates a large volume of data, is not getting the most out of it and needs to have a solid and complete customer database.

2. Is my data safe in a CDP?

The majority of the CDP offer a large list of guarantees, in terms of data-protection. However, they tend tto limit their data protection to the legislation of the region where it is settled, so it is always better to choose a CDP that comes from a territory with strong legislation in this area.

The United States, and especially Europe, have the most advanced legislation in terms of data protection, so it is always preferable to opt for a CDP from a company that comes from these territories bearing in mind that, in addition, if the CDP is European, it will guarantee compliance with the most advanced and secure data protection regulation on the market.

Not only that, at FLYDE we also offer you full internal control over data governance so that you can define which users have permission to which data, among other features.

3. Which functionalities should I look at in a CDP?

Every CDP should have the minimum requirement covered. However there are many functionalities that may vary in between the different CDPs.

Firstly, it is essential that the CDP fits with the expectations of your business. That is, thanks to the platform and its functionalities, meeting the objectives of the different areas is simple and can be done in a coordinated way between departments. For this, there are two fundamental points: analyse the tools available (more info about FLYDE Apps) and the ease of use of the platform. To make sure that the platform is what you are looking for, we recommend you to make a DEMO, this way you will ensure that anyone in your team can use it and you will see the platform in operation with real data.

Other functionalities that would make a big change in between the different CDPs is the use of Artificial Intelligence in the platform. The AI is the future when crossed over with huge quantities of Data and it would suppose a radical change to your customer comprehension.

Finally, other important features to look for in a CDP are those that are aligned to your business and objectives.

For example, if you have a loyalty programme, you will probably be interested in having a Dynamic Scoring. If you have an eCommerce with online and offline customers, a Single Customer View with a 360-degree view of the customer, or if you work taking into account KPIs by geographic area, a Geomarketing tool.

4. Could I integrate the different apps my company uses in the CDP?

As we have mentioned previously, a key feature of CDP’s is the ability to unify your company’s data in a single platform. A Customer Data Platform enables your company to integrate every single app used in order to unify all of your data. From Social Media to CSV files, through Shopify or the CRM your company is using, a CDP allows you to integrate all of these data sources to look at and analyse all of that data on a single platform.

Is it fundamental when choosing a CDP to look at the number of integrations available? Definitely not as long as the CDP provider offers to integrate your existing applications even if they are not in their current portfolio of integrations.

5. How much does a CDP cost?

We know that price when choosing a CDP, as well as in any other platform, is crucial. There is a huge range of prices in the CDP market depending on different characteristics that define each company.

One of the most important is the need for the support of a technical team or Data Scientist. This will make the CDP more expensive, as the more complex the CDP is to use, the higher the costs of its implementation and subsequent use will be.

The price is also influenced by whether you have technical services, the amount of functionalities you hire or the use of data, among other factors. Due to all these variable factors there is no fixed price range. Our recommendation is that you contact us and discover all the possibilities through a demo or a free trial.

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.