Why a CDP is key to omnichannel marketing success

E-commerce is booming, consumer behavior is changing, and brands have never been under so much pressure to meet their customers wherever they are, with the right message, at the right time.

Combining digital and traditional marketing channels, omnichannel marketing means delivering seamless, unified messaging that acknowledges the previous touchpoints of your customers’ journey, whether they choose to engage with your brand on your website, app, social media, email, SMS, call center, or in your brick-and-mortar store.

Done right, omnichannel experiences can achieve revenue increases of up to 15%. But to get there, marketing teams need to turn a series of interactions into one cohesive, positive experience. This is where a next-generation CDP is invaluable.

Meeting customers in the moment

Connecting data sources across all platforms and channels, the CDP eliminates data silos, segments audiences in real-time, simplifies decisioning, and provides you with the necessary capabilities to test and experiment. A customer data platform empowers you to deliver consistent and relevant experiences that resonate with customers on any channel at any point in their journey, from welcome messages, to abandoned cart reminders, to post-purchase messaging.

Fueling faster campaign rollout

As CDPs are generally managed by marketing teams – with minimal input from IT and developer resources – marketers can roll out campaigns and analyze results without delay. The combination of democratized data and business-friendly user interfaces means pain points can be easily identified and brand experiences can be optimized quickly to drive up conversions, increase engagement, and improve overall performance.

Enabling seamless customer care

Studies show that disjointed customer experiences can further antagonize customers who are seeking assistance. According to research by Accenture, 89% of customers get frustrated having to repeat their issues to multiple representatives.

Without a single customer view in place, it’s impossible for your organization to know where your customers are coming from and where they should go next.

By unifying siloed data and fractured customer records and creating accurate customer identities, the CDP provides marketing and customer care teams with full visibility into the customer’s journey, allowing teams to deliver seamless customer support, make relevant recommendations, or guide consumers toward new purchases or brand experiences.

Best of all, these experiences are consistent and feel like a continuation of their last interaction, whether the customer engages with the brand through their call center, live chat, email, or face-to-face.

Driving customer retention and loyalty

The ability to provide each of your customers with individualized, meaningful experiences is the stardust that transforms customers into loyal customers and loyal customers into brand advocates. In fact, according to Salesforce research, 70% of consumers say how well a company understands their individual needs impacts their loyalty.

But the hyper-personalized experiences that today’s consumers expect rely on up-to-date, comprehensive customer profiles — a 360-degree view of the customer, based on a customer’s interactions across different channels and devices is essential. Pulling together data from every channel in real-time, the CDP simplifies this process, creating accurate customer profiles that provide a solid foundation for marketers to build omnichannel strategies and loyalty campaigns.

Omnichannel loyalty programs

The convergence of the physical and digital landscapes means retailers are leaning into omnichannel loyalty programs to attract new customers and retain existing customers in-store and online. Gamified experiences including giveaways, prize wheels, or other “instant win” incentives on websites and apps are being successfully utilized by brands to drive higher spend in-store and online.

At the core of these experiences is a deep understanding of customer behavior and the types of products or promotions that will attract specific individuals. Leveraging the CDP’s machine learning and analytics, marketers can identify consumer trends and buying patterns and use this information to shape omnichannel strategies that deliver engaging, personalized experiences — the type that ensure their customers return to their brand again and again — both in-store and online.

Building trust with customer data compliance

Data privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other emerging regulations require the centralized storage of data profiles, as well as the right to be forgotten and deleted.

By centralizing access to personal data and allowing different systems to share it without accessing each other’s data directly, CDPs are designed with privacy in mind. Customers can rest assured that their data is protected, and organizations can be confident that their omnichannel marketing activities are compliant with privacy regulations.

Delivering omnichannel customer experiences with Sitecore CDP

Sitecore CDP is a privacy by design, next-generation customer data platform that offers the core data management capabilities of a customer data platform, plus the advanced decisioning, predictive analytics, experimentation, and orchestration capabilities you need to deliver exceptional omnichannel customer experiences at scale.

Sitecore CDP is helping some of the world’s best-known brands deliver meaningful, revenue-driving customer experiences. Find out more about how a CDP can benefit your business or learn how to transform your customers’ buying journey by reading our overview of the omnichannel customer experience.