What is Customer Data Platform?

CDP, short for Customer Data Platform, stands out as one of the fastest-growing marketing technology categories today. Emerging to address the demands in data and personalization, which are fundamental challenges in marketing, Customer Data Platform provides an indispensable solution for companies.

In today's world, customers seek personalized experiences and prompt services. However, ensuring consistency across different channels, consolidating customer data, and making real-time updates remain significant challenges for many companies. Customer Data Platform steps in at this point, enabling companies to unify all customer data in real-time and provide personalized experiences.

For example, Amazon can predict our future shopping preferences, and Netflix accurately recommends shows we are likely to enjoy. Customers demand personalized experiences and fast services, expecting companies to genuinely understand their preferences. This is no longer just a marketing advantage but a necessity. At Kofana Digital, we work towards keeping our clients ahead in the competition with our Data Platform solution, integrated seamlessly with Salesforce, empowered by artificial intelligence.

Working Principles of Customer Data Platform:

The primary task of Customer Data Platforms is to consolidate customer data from various sources into a single centralized platform. This involves combining customer interactions under a single customer identity and integrating different data sets. Customer Data Platforms also creates a cross-device user identity by matching known customer identities (such as email, mobile phone) with anonymous data (such as cookies, mobile device IDs). Once unified customer profiles are created, Customer Data Platform provides companies with the ability to use this data in real-time.

Core Tasks of Customer Data Platforms:

• Data Collection: Gathering customer data from various sources.

• Data Consolidation: Integrating this data into a unified customer profile.

• Data Activation: Making unified data available for real-time use.

• Data Predictions: Analyzing data to predict future trends.

What Are Customer Data Platforms Good For?

• Right Time, Right Ads: Unified customer profiles allow smarter use of marketing budgets, providing better targeting options for consumers. Customer Data Platform can analyze and determine the best time and platform to communicate with a customer by examining the results of multiple marketing campaigns. For instance, distinguishing customers who respond quickly to announcements sent via email from those who react to push notifications on the app and delivering messages during their most active hours on digital platforms is achievable. Particularly in communication campaigns with large data sets, CDP significantly increases efficiency.

• Personalization: Customer Data Platform allows you to offer personalized offers based on the online behavior of your customers on your website and app while telling you the right time and communication platform for the customer. Thanks to this feature, you can present the most accurate selections from your product portfolio to customers, leading to faster responses.

• Analytics: The data consolidated by Customer Data Platforms can be used to obtain deeper customer insights. For example, measuring customers' interest in a new product based on their online interactions, and examining how closely they follow your brand. This way, customers who are about to stop using your products or services can be easily identified, and improvements needed in new marketing strategies designed to win them back can be learned based on the power of data.

• Data Privacy and Ethical Use: The strength of Customer Data Platform lies in its ability to understand and respect consumers' data privacy concerns. Companies that build relationships based on trust must use customer data accurately and ethically. It is crucial to take necessary security measures to ensure that no malicious external user can access the system while transferring customer data only to the extent permitted by the customer. Salesforce, with its commitment to security in its DNA, offers many customizable solutions that include privacy and data usage permissions at every step.

Salesforce's Data Cloud product offers significant advantages to companies in consolidating, personalizing, and analyzing customer data.  Customer Data Platform strengthens marketing strategies by providing customers with stronger, connected, and personalized experiences, ultimately enhancing the competitive advantage of companies.

As the first business partner of Salesforce in Turkey, Kofana Digital focuses on evaluating customer data in the best possible way, not only knowing and understanding them but also offering meaningful and personalized experiences. Contact our expert team for Salesforce's Data Cloud & security solutions.