Today’s businesses have vast opportunities to learn about their customers. They can listen to customer service conversations, see how customers behave in an application, gauge the sentiments of social media comments, look at reactions to promotions, and more. However, marketing teams may find it challenging to integrate this data, as they are fragmented. Additionally, it is practically difficult to customize their efforts to the degree that audiences demand.
CDP solutions can solve this dilemma by centralizing customer data from all sources, organizing it, and allowing businesses to gain meaningful insights from it that can be used for providing customized experiences. However, with multiple customer data platform for B2B available, choosing the right solution that best meets a brand’s goals is crucial for delivering the experience that customers expect.
How to Choose CDP Solutions
A company’s objectives and the technical proficiency of its team are the primary considerations for choosing CDP solutions. Irrespective of the industry, businesses need to follow certain foundational steps before choosing their CDP solutions.
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- Analyze the Current Position: Companies need to examine their available resources and platforms for storing information and handling customer data. The CDP solutions that they choose should enhance their current technology stack.
- Evaluate the Company’s Requirements: It is necessary to analyze the current practice and find areas for improvement. Companies can talk with relevant stakeholders, such as the leaders of marketing and analytics members, in order to discuss priorities and determine goals to work with the retail customer data platform.
- Determine the Salient Aspects: By making a list of the essential CDP features that companies will need to accomplish their goals, they can choose the right CDP solutions. Companies that concentrate on carrying out marketing campaigns may seek a platform that offers automation features, customer journey mapping, and audience segmentation tools.
- Examine Available Platforms: Companies need to investigate the offerings of various CDP businesses. They can compare a platform’s offerings against their list of desired features. They can also consider additional elements such as customer support, scalability, usability, and implementation simplicity. The additional factors to compare include minimum contract durations, add-on fees, and data storage restrictions.
What to Look for in a Customer Data Platform for B2B
Once companies have established a comprehensive list of criteria and precisely identified their needs for CDP solutions, there are a few more important things to look for before choosing one. As not all CDPs can meet the needs of a B2B company, businesses need to consider several other factors when choosing a customer data platform for B2B.
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A CDP Partner More Than a Vendor
The fact that many marketers believe they must invest a lot of time and resources in integration is one of the main CDP pain points. This results in needless expenditure on third-party, outsourced providers who are probably not related to the team and solution that a B2B company wants. Rather, they can seek out a partner whose primary offering includes native integration and implementation services.
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Usability of Data
The CDP solutions should enable the companies to get the most out of their consumer data. The secret to successfully operationalizing the data is its flexibility, i.e., the capacity to use it at the pace of business and access it in a clean manner. The CDP solution should include:
- Low-code technology that provides marketers with insights and data sources that would otherwise be difficult to acquire and utilize.
- Long-lasting, multifaceted identity resolution that has the breadth and depth required to accurately resolve anonymous users to known users.
- The capacity to add consumer intent signals that indicate which clients and prospects will react to a campaign the best.
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Segmentation Capabilities
Earlier, marketers chose which audiences to target in a campaign based on past data. However, the Customer Data Platform (CDP) solutions that businesses opt for should come equipped with advanced features to segment audiences based on various characteristics. This helps to identify groups of people who are highly likely to respond to and/or convert to the company’s offer.
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Channel Optimization
Customer opt-in is one of the crucial features that determines the effectiveness of channel outreach. For instance, marketers send emails to all those who have subscribed to their email list. However, companies can forecast which channel each individual is most likely to respond to by opting for the CDP solutions with AI features. In addition to improving the customer experience, this helps marketers spend less on touch points that are unlikely to generate sales.
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Strong, In-house Data Governance Tools
The CDP solutions should simplify, not complicate, data governance. Companies should seek out a customer data platform for B2B with both bespoke and pre-built data tagging features. These features can help in efficient segmentation and targeting.
Bottom Line
CDP solutions are increasingly becoming important as they help to improve business outcomes. For companies, they serve as a central tool for improving personalization and audience targeting. A customer data platform for B2B gives a better view of how the company wins and retains customers over time.
By choosing the right customer data platform for B2B, companies can significantly improve the omnichannel experience, acquire consumer insights, and optimize data management. Companies that prioritize data-driven personalization with CDP solutions will experience improved revenue generation, dynamics of customer retention, and engagement with the customer.
