We implemented a CDP at Pusher initially to help with some data integration what we didn’t expect was how much value we’d get from the tool. Here are 5 ways we’re using it today, writes, Mario Moscatiello, Growth Marketing Manager, Pusher
I joined Pusher last year as the company started ramping up more revenue-generating initiatives. As growth marketing manager, my role was to lead and facilitate programs that would help us scale to the next level, whether through forward-facing demand generation campaigns or behind-the-scenes ops-related activities. One of the most impactful things we’ve done for our growth is implement a customer data platform (CDP).
Customer data platforms are no doubt one of the most sought after marketing solutions these past several years. But even with so much hype surrounding the technology, there’s an equal amount of confusion about what a CDP really is and what it can do.
In this article, I’m sharing 5 concrete and tactical ways that we at Pusher have put our CDP to use, and the results we’ve seen so far. Those use cases are:
- Seamlessly migrating CRM and Marketing Automation Platform data
- Cleansing and managing data
- Prioritizing inbound leads
- Upselling customers
- Attribution reporting
Our Real Pain-Point: Data Integration
Our path to implementing our CDP did not begin with a Google search for “customer data platformâ€. At the time, we weren’t even looking for one. What we were looking for was a solution to solve some data integration issues we were experiencing between Salesforce and Marketo.
We deployed Hull’s platform with the premise that it could help us specifically with those data integration issues. However, over and above addressing data integration, we soon realized there were other marketing use cases we would be able to fulfill with a CDP.
Use case #1: Seamlessly migrating CRM and Marketing Automation Platform data
If you tell your management team that you want to migrate to a new tool, you will surely be met with reluctant voices. The amount of time it can take (sometimes, up to several weeks) and the switching costs can be barriers for a lot of companies, not to mention the fear of lagging KPIs due to this new shift in focus.
We decided to take on two migrations.
Given the challenges we were having integrating Marketo and Salesforce data in our specific context, we decided to migrate to Customer.io and HubSpot CRM, respectively.
The good news is that it didn’t take us weeks. It didn’t even take us days. Because a CDP’s core function is to unify data from all your different tools and data sources, all of our data was already in Hull, and due to this, we could easily send it to our new systems with their pre-built connectors.
After the migration, we realized that this particular CDP use case around data migration was a “bonus†for us. CDPs weren’t exactly built to aid in system migrations, but it ended up working out really well and making them as stress-free as possible.
Use case #2: Keeping data clean
Data management and cleansing is an ongoing process — it’s never just “one clean-up project, and doneâ€. We use our CDP to do a lot of the heavy lifting on keeping our data in check.
I won’t go into all of the ways we do this, but one method in particular has been helpful for us to maintain records that aren’t littered with blank or missing field values.
Our CDP has a feature that lets us do some data transformation with a little bit of Javascript knowledge (not ideal for the average marketer, but our vendor is releasing a more user-friendly UI option this year). The Hull Processor allowed us to create a rules-based engine to prioritize and populate field values.
For example, we created the data “fallback strategies†that help us prioritize the best data from a pool of several data sources. This cascading data “hierarchy†lets us say: “Okay, we have a value for the Job Title field with data from Clearbit. But oh look, they filled out a form submission on our website and provided their real job title. Let’s use that instead.†In this example, the more authoritative source was the form submission direct from the prospect, so we set the Processor to override the Clearbit value with the new one.
In the end, we were able to gain a lot more control over and confidence in the quality of our data.
Use case #3: Prioritizing inbound leads
At Pusher, we receive between 200 and 400 inbound form submissions per month — and we only have five sales reps. This meant that we had to really focus our sales team on the leads that would most likely yield revenue. We did this through a few tactics, namely:
- Data enrichment with Clearbit and Hull’s Clearbit connector
- Selectively syncing only ‘some’ leads to our HubSpot CRM
- Using Hull’s identity resolution feature to map the entire buyer journey
First, enriching our leads with Clearbit data lets us hone in on leads that fit our ideal customer profile, or ICP. Once the leads were enriched, we could build segments in Hull with our ICP criteria in mind, pulling data from multiple sources. What’s special about building segments in a CDP versus a marketing automation tool is its ability to pull from practically any source that you connect to: website tracking, CRM, marketing automation, billing, chat, and more. When we build our segments, our CDP is essentially querying the data from all sources in real time and generating a list of matching prospects that fit that criteria.
Second, because we wanted sales to focus on the right leads, we needed a way to make sure HubSpot wouldn’t get “polluted†with bad data. We used selective synchronization with Hull’s HubSpot connector to ensure only certain segments of ICP leads ever made it into HubSpot. Selective synchronization is a data management technique that lets certain data points through during synchronization, and withholds others. This way, downstream tools like a CRM can remain as clean and relevant to those users as possible.
Finally, our CDP’s ability to track anonymous visits (and then subsequently link them to their identified visits) helped determine if a lead that submitted an inquiry had actually been to our website in the days, weeks, or months leading up to that form submission. If they had, it was a clear signal that the lead had been researching us prior to that moment, and may be further down the funnel than a first-time visitor.
Use case #4: Up-selling customers
When we got this use case running, we knew we had something really awesome in place. With some proactive gestures made possible by having the right data in the right places, we were able to up-sell our existing customer base and increase revenue from these same customers by 30%.
We hooked our CDP up with our internal database, Pusher Global, to understand when customers were meeting plan limits, and created orchestrated alerts aligned to the right moments in the customer’s journey:
- One alert sent an email from Customer.io to the customer alerting them to approaching plan limits and proposing upgrades or offers
- Another alert sent a Slack message notifying the appropriate sales rep to reach out
With these simultaneous actions, our customers and our sales reps were well aware ahead of time, enabling both parties to be prepared for up-sell conversations.
Use case #5: Reporting
We’ve started testing the waters using our CDP for reporting purposes, but I’ll admit we still need to flesh out this use case a bit more.
Most CDPs are meant to act as an operational layer on top of data, not an analytical layer. Today, we’re doing a little bit of reporting with them, but they’re not built for that reason.
However, CDPs do store all of the data, including chronologically tracking customer behavior and interactions with your company. This means that paired with an analytics tool like Google Data Studio, you can get loads more visibility and insights from a marketing attribution perspective.
We’ll be diving deeper into this use case later this year. Stay tuned!
Getting Started With a CDP
A CDP’s value only increases with time and with the number of use cases implemented. What started as a quest to solve a simple data integration challenge with a CDP evolved into a gradual expansion of our use cases, driving substantial growth in our business. If you’re currently researching or in the market for a CDP, I would recommend carefully considering what’s important to your business. Where do you want to drive growth? Where do you think your business needs to be more efficient? From there, the initial use case will follow. Start small, with just one use case, and go from there!