Customer expectations are higher than ever, and personalisation has moved from being a competitive advantage to a fundamental requirement. Today’s consumers expect every interaction to be tailored to their preferences, and businesses that fail to meet these expectations risk losing sales and loyalty. According to Forbes, 81% of customers prefer companies that offer a personalised experience, and 70% value businesses that recognise them and understand their history.

The Foundation: Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are the engine behind effective personalisation at scale. Unlike CRM systems, CDPs unify data from various sources — online and offline — enabling real-time updates to customer profiles, dynamic segmentation, and more relevant, timely communications.

The benefits for enterprise marketers are significant:

• Higher marketing efficiency by triggering 1-to-1 communications, rather than broad-brush mass marketing
• Improved customer experiences through greater empathy for each individual, enabling brands to speak to their current needs or based on previous actions
• Better prediction of customer wants, leading to increased sales, conversion rates, and order values

Building a Single Customer View‍

Creating a single customer view is the foundation of true 1-to-1 marketing. Imagine having a single, coherent profile of your customer that captures every interaction they have with your brand, whether online, in-store, or through customer service.

But building this unified profile isn’t without its challenges…

• Siloed data sources
• Inconsistent data formats
• Complex and long customer journeys over different devices
• The need for real-time data synchronisation
• Privacy regulations and consent management

CDPs address these issues by:

• Collecting and cleansing data from various sources
• Managing multiple identifiers (cookies, device IDs, email addresses) and helping to  create a device graph
• Connecting offline interactions with online customer profiles
• Ensuring compliance with privacy regulations and consent preferences

This unified view enables marketers to understand each customer's unique journey and preferences, laying the groundwork for truly personalised experiences.

Data-Driven Segmentation

With a CDP and a queryable single customer view, marketers can leverage real-time behavioural and historical transactional data to create dynamic customer segments for 1-to-1 marketing communications. You might look at factors such as:

• Product category affinities
• Onsite search and browsing behaviour
• Price sensitivity
• Product returns
• Sociodemographic scores
• Churn risk

Cross-Channel Personalisation

Once you’ve established a single customer view, the next step is to put that unified data into action. CDPs help marketers to unleash real-time data and dynamic segmentation to craft personalised journeys across every channel a customer interacts with.

• Email Service Providers (ESPs) and push notification services
• Digital advertising platforms (across social, CTV, and the open web)
• Website/Ecommerce
• A/B testing tools
• In-store customer service and call centres

With these connections in place and a joined up customer profile, marketers can orchestrate highly personalised and coherent experiences across touchpoints. A cohesive approach not only enhances the customer experience but also improves marketing efficiency and effectiveness, leading to higher engagement rates and increased customer lifetime value.

For example…

1. Instantly send a cart abandonment email based on web activity
2. Retarget product ads based on browsing behaviour
3. Upsell similar relevant product on social channels with a tailored offer
4. Recommend those products in a more prominent position on your website
5. Send a push notification to provide a delivery update
6. Quickly pull up the customer’s profile when they call to discuss a product question
7. Suppress acquisition campaigns after a purchase is made.

Conclusion

As customer expectations continue to evolve, so too must your approach to personalisation. CDPs offer the powerful tools you need to deliver personalised, cross-channel experiences that foster loyalty and drive growth. Now is the time to evaluate how a CDP could transform your marketing strategy and help you stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape. Consider exploring how a CDP could enhance your marketing strategy and help you stay ahead in today's competitive landscape.

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