Customer Data Platform
April 16, 2024
Knowing how to implement a CDP is easier than you may think! During Digital Velocity ‘22 we asked some of our strongest users for their best advice on implementing a CDP and wow, did they come through!
CDPs do the hard work for you of organizing your customer data and making it usable. However we, in addition to our wonderful partners, believe that having an understanding of your data or a goal for it will allow you to expertly begin to manage it.
Sadia Khan, a Director of Demand Gen & Digital Marketing at United Airlines urged participants to have an understanding of your data before you implement a CDP.
“I would say, really get to understand your data. Your data is extremely valuable until you don’t know what’s in your data, what you want from it. By knowing what your data is about, you will be able to implement a good strategy with your CDP partner.”
– Sadia Khan, a Director of Demand Gen & Digital Marketing at United Airlines
Having an idea about what you want your data to help you with will impact the way you go about implementing it. Setting individual and company wide goals before beginning to implement a CDP will give you direction and purpose when figuring out how to best use your data.
Catch Sadia’s full session recording here!
Furthermore, Drew Isaacs, the Vice President for Marketing Operations at Novartis explains how one use case can lead to many… even into the hundreds!
“We wound up collecting 153 individual use cases. We went through a really interesting mapping process from the functional use cases and then where in the [customer] journeys those potential use cases could be applicable. We then went back to the team and had review sessions where we took another step to create what we call ‘journeys’. A journey is a combination of multiple use cases that we can then say ‘hey these would be applicable across multiple brands to address in-market issues’. Whether it’s awareness, access, or something else. We then prioritized the top 10 journeys.”
– Drew Isaacs, the Vice President for Marketing Operations at Novartis
Creating journeys, having goals, and understanding the data itself will all power your transition to using a CDP. Knowing what you are looking for and how to sort through it will make it all the easier to implement a CDP.
Catch Drew’s full session recording here!
Jason Paddock, Senior Director of Marketing Data and Technology at Oportun takes it back to the basics as he reminds us that your first step should be having good data.
“I think that the most important thing for you to understand is that your first party data is an extremely valuable asset. You must capture it in a normalized and clean way so that you can use it to take action. I want to repeat that again, you must capture, normalize, and clean your data in a way that you can use it to take action. I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase many times before, garbage in is garbage out.”
– Jason Paddock, Senior Director of Marketing Data and Technology at Oportun
Without clean data you will have a hard time creating accurate and useful actions. As Jason expertly said, garbage in is garbage out.
Make sure to catch Jason’s full session recording here!
Paying attention to the whole ecosystem and not addressing a CDP as a singular tool but rather a part of the whole system will in turn enable all tools to work to their fullest extent. Michael Davis, the Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Shift Paradigm discussed the importance of closing the data loop and making sure you account for the whole ecosystem.
“Recognizing that a CDP is part of a larger ecosystem is really important. The history of marketing automation in the market has historically compartmentalized different types of platforms. We have to recognize that when we start thinking about data systems and the ability to to close the loop, that involves more tools than just CDP. It involves databases, analytics tools, CDPs; it is an engine that involves the marketing side and being able to deploy against those experiences. When you think about standing up a CDP in your organization, you have to think about it in terms of that larger ecosystem.”
– Michael Davis, the Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Shift Paradigm
Watch Michael’s full session recording here!
Ido Bar Oz, a Senior Director of Global Tech & Cloud Partnerships at Braze shared similar thoughts during our travel and hospitality session.
“It’s critical for your CDP to work really well with the stack that you are already using or thinking about. It’s an integrated stack and the data flow and the data capabilities to move those data sets and those audiences between [all your] platforms is critical.”
– Ido Bar Oz, a Senior Director of Global Tech & Cloud Partnerships at Braze
While it is often easier to focus on the singular tool rather than the group you should implement a CDP with other Martech tools and strategies in mind. Doing so will allow you to more easily, and, more importantly, successfully create a high quality customer experience. Furthermore, having a CDP that is vendor neutral will assure an easy integration up and down your tech stack.
Catch Ido’s full session recording here!
Sadia Khan shared some more useful advice during our Travel and Hospitality session. She makes sure to stay on top of the ever changing landscape of marketing technology. She urges us to set aside time to research what is happening in the world of martech so you are not left behind.
“I would say any tool that you implement it’s gonna be outdated pretty soon. You have to stay up to speed; again the whole digital environment is very fast moving and evolves frequently. A CDP cannot be something you launch and forget about, you can’t be on autopilot here, you have to continuously be on. I would advise like once a month just block your calendar for a day and be like okay what’s new out there? What in this digital space? Have a media day with your agency so you can see what’s new in this space. See if you can get to know those tools and then see if it makes sense for you to implement them.”
– Sadia Khan, a Director of Demand Gen & Digital Marketing at United Airlines
The world of technology is constantly changing and staying on top of new trends and devices is critical. Set aside time and align the right people who can dive deep into those changes to make sure that your company is keeping up with the times.
Catch Sadia’s full session recording here!
Our aim is always to make it as easy as possible for our customers to implement a CDP. We never turn down an opportunity to hear from some of our amazing partners and customers to see how we can support and streamline their process. Remembering to keep your data clean and your goals clear will ensure that your company’s CDP implementation will be seamless!
Take a quick tour of Tealium’s Customer Data Hub today!
