5 Best Customer Data Platforms

Yuliia Zablotska

Author at ApiX-Drive

Reading time: ~8 min

What are CDPs?

• Collection and unification of data. The platform organizes and categorizes data received from various sources such as email, web analytics, CRM, e-commerce platforms, social networks, and others. It enables the consolidation of information from all customer touchpoints into a single database.
  
• Data management. These services provide tools for managing client data and controlling access to it. They oversee the flow of information between different sources and transmission channels, ensuring privacy and compliance with GDPR regulations.
  
• Data activation. Customer data platforms assist in utilizing user data for marketing campaigns and other activities.
  

Types of Customer Data Platforms

• To consolidate and unify data. This category includes the simplest systems. They are only capable of automatically collecting data from different sources via API, then sorting and adding it to the repository.
• To check and sort data. More advanced AI-enabled platforms check the accuracy of the received data and look for possible duplicates. Additionally, they create customer profiles that map their journey and touchpoints with the company.
  
• For automated analytics. These CDPs replace professional analysts by effectively automating this process. They use AI to automatically process and analyze large amounts of data, and generate business insights based on research results.
  
• For comprehensive marketing automation. Services of this type comprehensively automate the entire marketing life cycle of a company. In addition to collecting, sorting, and analyzing, they independently perform certain actions based on the data. For example, they plan and launch marketing campaigns and then analyze their results.
  

Segment

• The Connections tool collects data about customers and their activities from mobile applications, servers, SaaS, websites, and other sources.
• The Protocols feature regulates the rules for collecting and storing data, highlighting the most relevant information.
  
• The Unify tool creates unique customer profiles based on behavioral data, taking it from touchpoints and combining it into a single whole.
  
• Twilio Engage builds custom audiences based on various attributes and then uses them to personalize your marketing campaigns.
  
• The system automatically populates customer profiles with data, helping companies interact with them more effectively.
  
• Over 450 pre-installed connectors optimize the collection of data from various sources, speeding up their processing and activation.
  
• Generative AI technologies automate data segmentation and create personalized campaigns based on text prompts.
  
• Segment architecture allows you to open access to data to any team or third-party software.
  
• The platform is easily customizable and scalable through integration with the company's technology stack.
  

• Team (up to 10,000 visitors per month) – starting from $120 per month.
• Business (includes everything in the Team plan, plus additional functionality) – the cost is calculated individually and is available upon request.
  

Totango

• The platform uses AI and ML algorithms to assess the engagement status and other parameters of each client. This allows a business to identify hesitant potential customers and retain them.
• Totango automates the collection and processing of data on deals and financial transactions (Salesforce, Netsuite), product usage, support tickets (Zendesk), customer feedback, and more. A CDP provides demographic and behavioral insights from every customer touchpoint.
  
• Dynamic No-Schema Active Customer Index technology accelerates the analysis of customer data. It gives businesses the opportunity to quickly receive valuable insights and improve interaction with their audience.
  
• Totango Spark gives employees the insights and tools to optimize the customer journey. This helps reduce churn, increase lifetime value, and increase conversion rates.
  
• The best customer data platforms use advanced technologies. Totango is one of them. It has a smart chatbot called Zoe with access to DNA-CX's robust database and analytics technologies. It quickly finds information for specialists and promotes the formation of a client-centric culture.
  

• Starter (up to 2 users and 500 client accounts).
• Enterprise (up to 10 users and 2000 client accounts).
  
• Premier (up to 20 users and 10,000 client accounts).
  

Insider

• CDP has more than 100 pre-installed integrations with systems from 20 categories: analytics, CRM, social networks, paid advertising, and more. With their help, businesses synchronize data about customers, products, and interactions across the entire technology stack.
• The platform automatically updates customer profiles with information about their purchases and other warehouse data. Two-way integration allows you to quickly transfer customer information to the warehouse database.
  
• The system collects data about every contact and every transaction from all channels and touchpoints, including websites, mobile applications, social networks, and even offline resources.
  
• With this CDP, marketers can aggregate and segment data across different brands owned by their company.
  
• The service makes it possible to flexibly manage clients' personal information through customizable identification processes. This minimizes errors and improves data consistency and accuracy.
  

Bloomreach

• The platform easily scales and adapts to business needs, organizing and analyzing huge volumes of data with high speed and accuracy.
• Bloomreach provides a complete picture of each client. It tracks in real time all their interactions with the company, past and present, and also predicts future actions.
  
• The service has a number of useful features, including out-of-the-box dashboards, retention analysis, custom reports, advanced cohorts, and more. With them, you can measure campaign performance, collect information on customer behavior, set goals, and generate reports.
  
• Loomi's AI assistant helps improve the user experience with relevant recommendations. In addition, it provides ready-made and customizable predictive models.
  
• Marketing automation lets you set up and run personalized campaigns based on customer data across 13 different channels.
  

Emarsys

• The service collects and unifies client data from a number of sources: websites, mobile applications, social networks, and email. The information obtained can be used to develop personalized marketing campaigns.
• Advanced segmentation and predictive analytics capabilities help companies better understand customer preferences and behavior. This improves engagement and conversion rates.
  
• The platform optimizes campaigns across different channels: paid advertising, email, SMS, social networks, push notifications, and more. To do this, it uses a system of process automation and triggers.
  
• The AI technologies underlying Emarsys functionality generate personalized recommendations and dynamic content, making customer interactions more personal.
  
• Built-in reporting and analytics tools effectively evaluate the results of marketing campaigns and measure KPIs.
  

Conclusion