Customer data platforms and your website

Sometimes people ask me which is the best customer data platform. Unfortunately, there is no best Customer Data Plaform (CDP), just like there’s no best shoe.

The trick is to know what questions to ask as you start this process. In this short video, I want to talk about your website.

First, I want you to forget about it.

The Internet has changed the way we think about things to such an extent that we often assume our website is the starting point for all tech questions. That’s not always true.

For some businesses — like a restaurant, or a gym — web traffic might not be the first consideration, but they might still need to harmonize customer data from multiple sources.

That’s the main use case of a CDP – to collect data from several different sources and merge it into a “golden record” for each customer so that you can take appropriate action.

As you think about a CDP, ask yourself what customer data you have, where it’s stored, and what would you do with that data if you had it organized the way you wanted it. Possible sources might be …

* Prospect lists or sales leads
* Email data (lists, opens, clicks, unsubscribes)
* Purchase information
* Questions / customer support
* Membership / rewards programs

And potentially a lot more, depending on your business.

Make a list. Note where the data is stored, how often it’s updated, what you currently do with it, and what you wish you could do with it.

Now think about your website

Now that you’ve thought about all your other sources of customer data, think about your customer data again in the context of your web traffic. Imagine that you could sort your web visitors into four buckets.

1. Customers who have self-identified (e.g., by a login)
2. Anonymous visitors who are customers that haven’t yet self-identified
3. Anonymous visitors who might become customers
4. Anonymous visitors who will never become customers

Eventually you’ll come to think of your web traffic in many more categories, but this is a good start. Try to estimate how much of your total traffic might be attributable to each group. (You’ll probably be wrong.) Then, develop a plan for each of those groups. That plan will influence what sort of CDP you’re interested in.

For example, if the vast majority of your visitors are in group #4, you might not even need a CDP. You might be better off with a Data Management Platform (DMP). But if most of your visitors are in group #1, you probably want a CDP that specializes in customer-centric use cases.