Customer data platform

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a software system that aggregates and organizes customer data from various touchpoints to build a unified customer profile. This unified data is then made available to other systems for marketing, customer service, and customer experience initiatives. Industry analysts, such as Gartner, define the evolution of the category as moving from basic data collection to including advanced analytics and, in some cases, artificial intelligence capabilities.^[1]

Features

Customer profile unification to create a single view of each individual.^[1]

Types of Customer Data Platforms

Traditional CDPs are all-in-one solutions designed to unify customer data from multiple sources within a single platform.^[1]

Data collection

CDPs are designed to collect data from a wide range of sources, both online and offline, and in various formats, and convert that information into a standardized form.^[1]

Identity resolution

Identity resolution is a core capability of a CDP. It creates a single, persistent customer profile by identifying and linking data associated with the same individual across various identifiers, such as email addresses, device IDs, and cookies.^[1]

Audience management

Audience management within a CDP involves collecting, organizing, and analyzing customer data for marketing and analytics purposes. It allows organizations to segment customers based on profile attributes, behaviors, and interests, which can be used to define segments for marketing campaigns. Many CDPs include no-code interfaces for building and managing audiences, allowing teams to manage data collection, segmentation, and orchestration through native integrations.^[1]

Segmentation techniques

Customer data platforms use several techniques to segment audiences, including:^[1]

Data activation

Data activation refers to the process of making customer data usable by business teams within the tools they rely on daily, for use in downstream business systems. Once audience segments are created within the CDP, they are sent to external systems, such as advertising platforms, CRM tools, email service providers, and analytics dashboards.^[1]

Mechanism

Data activation typically occurs through integrations or connectors between the CDP and destination systems. These integrations can operate in two primary ways:^[1]

AI capabilities

Artificial intelligence (AI) features in CDPs are used to automate data processing, and derive insights.^[1]