Key Principles for a Successful CDP Adoption

The marketing world has seen a rapid uptick in the interest and adoption of CDPs, however, successful implementation depends on several factors. Craig Howard, Vice President, Technology, Chief Solution Architect, Merkle, discusses the key tenets marketers should keep in mind when planning for this.

The marketing world has seen a rapid uptick in interest and adoption of Customer Data PlatformsOpens a new window (CDPs). Marketers can’t help but be drawn to them by their promise of simplification and potential to fuel cross-channel programs and personalization. The marketplace has quickly become crowded with providers, making it confusing for buyers trying to evaluate and determine whether a CDP can help them. CDPs can provide significant value, but only if you apply them in the proper situations and with a thoughtful approach to integrating them into your overall martech ecosystem.

Also Read: Understanding Marketing Data PlatformsOpens a new window  

A successful CDP implementation depends on numerous factors, including these four key tenets that you should keep in mind when planning yours:

Ground your thinking.

Before you can assess a CDP’s value to your organization, you must first have a clear understanding of what your current marketing technologyOpens a new window can support and enable. Take an inventory of the capabilities you have access to, then identify the gaps you’ll need to fill to accomplish your business goals. Are there certain essential capabilities you are missing? Each CDP’s core strengths and maturity vary to some degree, so it is critical to understand exactly what you are looking to buy, and why you are buying it, in order to match the right CDP to your needs.

Performing this inventory assessment and provider evaluation is best done through the lens of a people-based marketing technology stack, which consists of many components across several layers:

It is critical to do your research and create an evaluation framework before buying. An educated buyer will understand the core value proposition and capability maturity of any particular CDP and how it will fit into the brand’s specific ecosystem. Gaining an understanding of a CDP’s legacy, as well as the focus of its investments, will help you identify the CDPs that best match the core capabilities that you are seeking. In addition, if you have the time and resources to support a proof of concept effort, don’t pass up on the chance to test drive potential platforms with a finite number of use cases.

Preparation – Don’t bite off more than you can chew!

A CDP will transform your usage of data by centralizing customer behaviors, profiles, and audiences for use across multiple channels in real time. It will also change your organization’s thinking as a whole. With adoption of such a technology, an enterprise evolution will be required across your people, processes, insights, and usage of content. The entire staff must be educated and aligned to understand how this new approach to audience management will differ. CDP adoption won’t succeed unless you think about how the platforms will fit into your organization and acknowledge and plan for the change management that will be required.

Also Read: How the Data Revolution is bringing Humanity back to your BrandOpens a new window

More often than not, brands take on too much with the initial launch of their CDP. It is critical to control your scope with your first release. Try to avoid over complicating your deployment by choosing use cases that are both achievable and will demonstrate immediate value. In addition, carefully choose use cases that will create momentum and excitement within your organization. Where possible, try to avoid a path that will encounter any technical or operational constraints that could impede fast progress. As you begin to plan your deployment, don’t lose sight of how the CDP is helping to enable your audience strategy. You are trying to create consistent experiences with your audience across touchpoints. What you want to say and how you want to speak with your audience are critical. Develop a testing plan to measure and drive insights and create a feedback loop to adjust the plan to change program investments in the future.

Sprint to value.

The common idea of “crawl, walk, run” should not be the mindset when implementing a CDP. Instead, think of it as “run, jump, leap, and fly.” The goal is to move fast and hit the ground running on executing use cases. If you’ve identified the right use cases in your planning, you will be able to execute in a matter of a couple months. CDP adoption is about acceleration; this comes from quickly enabling marketing in a variety of ways, such as centralizing your sources of customer data, leveraging out-of-the-box machine learning capabilities, or immediately providing data scientists with access to raw data.

Implementing a CDP is not just a CDP implementation project. Rather, you should think of it as a systems integration project, a data integrity project, and an analytics project. Understand the handshakes between a CDP and your channel platforms, the various data points needed to fuel that channel experience, and the state of the data required to effectively enable the channel.

Keep up with care and feeding.

With a CDP, you can’t just set it and forget it. I have never seen a marketing database that has remained static; a CDP is even more dynamic. Think hard about how you will care for and feed it, and be sure to build a strong core team that knows how to operate, maintain, and enhance it. Looking ahead, think of your ongoing enhancements as you did with your initial release. Use the same principals as you add new data sources to fuel the CDP, new and expanded use cases to execute on, and new channels to activate and leverage the audiences that you created. Make the most of your CDP investment by understanding and leveraging any out-of-the-box capabilities that you haven’t yet leveraged or that didn’t influence your buying decision.