Data-driven marketing is not a new concept, but we’ve come a long way from where we started. Not only are marketers being asked to justify their decisions with data, they’re becoming increasingly more technically-savvy and willing to dive into the available data.
However, as data becomes the backbone for marketing strategies, businesses face the challenging task of determine how and where to store that data – specifically customer data. Without a central data storage location, customer data ends up being siloed and stored in each technology system where the date is originally generated. The other common scenario is that systems and platforms become “daisy chained” together with sub-par integrations. While this allows systems to “talk” to each other, there still isn’t a central location to store customer data.
Thankfully, there are technologies on the market that address this exact problem. However, it can be confusing to understand which one is right for you and your team.
In our eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Customer Database Solutions, we walk through some of the most popular customer database solutions. For each solution we share common use cases, the pros/cons, and who typically manages each solution.
In The Ultimate Guide to Customer Database Solutions, we cover the following systems:
Data Management Platform: A data management platform (DMP) houses anonymized audience and campaign data, and allows users to create audiences based on this data, and target digital campaigns across third-party ad networks.
Customer Relationship Management System: A CRM system is a tool that helps with contact management, productivity and more. They’re designed to improve your organization’s relationships with a variety of individuals, including customers, service users, colleagues and suppliers.
Data Lake: A data lake is a vast pool of raw data that is stored in an unstructured way. There is no hierarchy or organization among the individual pieces of data.
Data Warehouse: A data warehouse is a custom-built repository for structured, filtered data. It stores data in an organized manner with everything archived and ordered in a pre-defined way.
Marketing Automation: Marketing automation software platforms are designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple online channels and automate repetitive tasks.
Customer Data Platform: A customer data platform (CDP) houses customer data from every relevant data source, regardless of its format, and creates a unified contact profile. This is a database that marketing is capable of owning and maintaining.
Interested in learning more about each of these systems and making an informed decision? Download the paper today.
