CDPs in B2B business

The necessity of a CDP

Most companies have plenty of information in different systems, owned by different owners . In B2B focused businesses these information comprise multichannel behavioural data, as well as attribute and transactional data from CRM solutions, marketing automation platforms (MAPs), call center solutions, survey and customer experience (CX) systems, and more. This results in customer fragmentation.

For example, when B2B companies can’t recognise and cater to their visitors, they might promote a “free trial” product offer to a current user, or promote a video on the homepage that a strategic prospect has already seen.

Without a 360° real-time view of each customer and prospect and their attributes, interests and intent companies are not able to target their customers. Consequently they are limited in their marketing and sales effectiveness. A CDP is the solution by brining all disparate customer and prospect data into one place, and making it meaningful and actionable. Collecting, Storing and Synthesising first- and third-party data across systems and channels to create a single, unified view of each customer, prospect and account. As a result companies can better understand and engage with their audiences.

Different levels of CDPs

CDPs can be segmented in mainly three different levels.

• A customer data repository. This type of CDP is often used for identity “stitching,” analytics and analyses, rather than action. The main users of this type of CDP are typically business analysts and data scientists. Often combined with a Master Data Management on top, complementing CRM data.
• CDPs that can also pass segment-level data to other systems. These platforms put the synthesized information and insights to use, but only at the segment (group) level – so marketing can, for example, message all customers that are likely to churn, deliver an appropriate homepage experience to all first-time visitors, show a relevant LinkedIn ad to existing users of particular product, etc.
• Systems of record AND systems of action, at the individual level. Encompassing all the functionality of Level 1 and 2 CDPs, Level 3 CDPs can also process and apply data for real-time, 1-to-1 personalization – all from the same system. Level 3 CDPs use machine learning and real-time processing to decide which individuals to engage, with what content, in which channel and when. For example, they could recommend relevant blog articles and eBooks based on an individual’s patterns of engagement and interest, trigger an email to a prospect who just abandoned a webinar sign-up form, or notify a call center agent about a customer who just viewed an article about how to cancel her account, etc.

CDPs massively impact Customer Experience. From an architectural view they are located between a company’s data sources and the engagement channels. In summary driving engagement among audience members on individual and segment level is the major purpose where the CDP is a classical system of record not able to support this vision as engagement layer.

CDPs in B2C & B2B and differences

On a higher level all companies want a unified view of their customers with the clear purpose of data activation within the different channels and disciplines: marketing effectiveness, customer service, product development and more – having a positive impact on the bottom line. Especially between B2B and B2C organisations CDP strategies may vary. B2B companies are often highly interested in insights they can trace – and actions they can take – from their?prospect?data (e.g., triggering a Slack or SMS to sales based on a prospect’s activity, targeting a strategic prospect with a special offer, etc.). Visitor data has more importance in the B2C environment by activating insights related to existing customers.

In addition, as account-based marketing (ABM) plays a greater role in B2B companies’ go-to-market strategies, CDPs help them effectively execute those strategies. CDPs often serve as a central hub for buyer/prospect information and communications – with the ability to target key accounts, understand visitor intent, access and activate unified profiles, orchestrate buyer journeys and – importantly – deliver or trigger personalized experiences (over email, web, etc.) based on a complete, up-to-the-moment understanding of the individual?and?account.

Questions from B2B CDP Buyers

A question often arises: "Do I really need a CRM and a CDP?" - Both systems are complementing each other. A CRM will never be able to fulfil the role of a CDP - processing a high volume of data and complexity (e.g., complex behavioural data for known and anonymous users, unstructured data, multichannel interaction data, etc.). CRMs also weren’t designed to handle complex digital analytics data; stitch visitor/customer identity information together; and process, interpret and activate data with real-time, 1-to-1 personalization and messaging.

The following questions are useful and helpful to evaluate the right CDP dimension fitting the individual needs.

• Data Capture & Integration?(e.g., pertaining to data ingestion in real time from offline and online channels, how the platform integrates with third-party systems, out-of-the-box integrations, etc.)
• Understanding Customers, Prospects and Accounts?(e.g., encompassing processes for identity stitching and resolution; contact and account de-duping; storing/processing attribute, survey and deep behavioural data; applying affinity modeling and predictive scores for a more complete picture of each person, etc.)
• Deciding on Actions?(e.g., looking at how the CDP decides what to say to whom, and when and where to say it. Questions often span audience analytics, segmentation, AI and machine-learning models applied, etc.)
• Engagement?(e.g., looking for a business user- and administrator-friendly UI/UX, whether the CDP supports use cases for personalisation and journey orchestration, how it executes personalisation across channels, suppression capabilities, testing processes, etc.)
• Analysing Results?(e.g., questions related to reporting, audience visualisation and data modeling)
• Supporting?(e.g., whether IT can easily add functions, as extensions to the core system, to support business users and without having to build custom solutions from scratch)

Use Cases of a CDP in B2B

The following goals are reflected in use cases for CDPs in B2B businesses.

• Gain a holistic view of customer subscriptions?(Who is a trial user? Who is a freemium user? Who is a paid customer?) to better target marketing communications and try to drive upsells.
• Trigger messages to their sales team, based on prospect or customer behavior, to improve internal productivity and agility.
• Power ABM strategies and initiatives?– synthesising information to target key accounts with customised messaging and offers.
• Deliver segment-based and 1-to-1 personalisation?in real time and across channels to improve conversions and engagement.

Summary

Even though a CDP needs to be seen as a significant investment, the good news is that it definitely will pay off. The good news is that also B2B businesses can benefit from a CDP solution. Since expectations towards Customer Experience in B2B increasingly adapt to B2C experiences (influenced by GAFAs and FAANGs) a CDP for B2B focused companies is becoming fundamental - dare to start the personalisation journey - ONE TO ONE!