Introduction
As marketing professionals, we all have had similar experiences. You walk into work every day, expecting what your agenda will be, and then throwing it out the window because unexpected things happen everyday in the marketing world, and you need to be ready for them. If you work for a modern, smart company, you will have a customer data platform at your disposal to review all the analytics that have been sent in while you were away. The platform has saved you time you know you will need to complete other tasks and deal with developments that have occurred while you were away from your desk.
Customer Data Platforms (as I’m sure you already know) build unified, unique profiles for each and every one of your org’s customers. It identifies the same individual across different platforms, across different devices, and tracks all their digital behavior! The data collected can be divided into two categories: engagement, and insight data.
So, let’s see what each of these types of data actually mean and how we can use them to our advantage.
Recap: What is Salesforce Customer Data Platform (CDP)?
In the Fall of 2019, Salesforce introduced the newest member to its already-wide range of products. Formerly known as CDP, Customer Data Platform organizes all the information collected from every customer in a company, and unifies said data into a single, unique profile.
Creating a golden record for each customer – the accumulation of all their first and third party data – helps marketing and sales departments understand their clients. This way, when creating segmented audiences, and identifying the best way to reach these clients (via email, social media, etc.), the client is engaged in a richer experience. Trust me, you want each of your customers to feel unique.
Engagement Data
As I stated earlier, the data collected through Salesforce Customer Data can be categorized into engagement and insight data. And you need the former in order to even delve into the latter.
“Engagement” refers to the digital behavior a customer has with your company – let’s use social media engagement as an example.. The number of emails they open, the videos they watch on your Youtube channel, the posts they like on your Instagram account – all of that data is accumulated into one single source of truth. So, what can you do with all that social media engagement?
First thing’s first: constantly check every channel, and then check again! Social media is an ever-changing world that moves and shifts incredibly fast. That is why keeping up with your customers’ social media activity with your org is so important. Maintaining all that information in one, single place (check Customer Data Platforms) can only help you improve customer loyalty and design the best campaigns targeted to the right audience.
Once you have consolidated this information into your CDP, respond to it. Being stagnant can only harm your reputation and ultimately lead to the loss of your clients. Pay attention to the feedback you receive, and be sure the person providing it feels heard – responding can only improve your chances of turning that individual into a lead.
Using all this information, marketers can then check into the customer’s behavior patterns and understand why that particular email was opened, why that social media post was liked, and why that Youtube video was watched from beginning to end.
Insight Data
Once all the engagement data has been collected by the CDP, the program will then calculate the insight data. What is insight data? It refers to the won revenue from customers, their privacy management, maintaining activity logs, and ultimately, the customers’ purchase intent.
The Customer Data Platform also has an array of insight services that help apply this data to the customers’ profiles through modelling.
In 2021, Salesforce presented Einstein Engagement Scoring AI to the world. The artificial intelligence-based software takes all the first party data collected from customers and helps marketing teams all over the world customize their messaging and campaigns even further. Making data smarter can only help you! Leverage this great tool to make every interaction with a client not only relevant, but effective.
Conclusion
Taking all the analytics and new information into consideration should be any marketing team’s first step when designing a marketing campaign. There is such a large culmination of information being thrown your way, it’s important to keep it all in the same place. In the modern world we live in, it is crucial to always be one step ahead and anticipate you customers’ needs before your competitors do. You want to make sure your customers not only receive messaging that actually applies to them, but you also want to ensure they feel heard and engaged. Ask them what they want! In the medical field, the first thing doctors ask their patients is, “Where does it hurt?” Well, marketers should take a page from their book and be direct, “What do you want?” Once you have your answer, use all that great, valuable information to further segment and target your audience.
