This article is written by Leverage Lab CEO AnnMarie Wills
You’ve likely seen a post or heard some conflicting views around customer data platforms, data warehouses, or unbundled CDPs. As a first-party data consultant and tech agnostic organization, we want to be clear, both sides are right. And, both sides could be wrong, at times. As Customer Data Platform (CDP) adoption continues to accelerate at a high rate, emerging ideologies have split the first-party data movement into two camps: composable best-of-breed vs robust platform camp. Leverage Lab believes this tussle over platform solutions vs. a data warehouse-first tech strategy loses sight of the most important questions for customer data-centric organizations. As a result, we prefer to focus on the destination, or more precisely, the business case outcome. In other words, what are you trying to accomplish by leveraging your data, and how do you gauge success?
Our belief has always been that technology is a tool to help you reach your goals. You should always begin with your goals and use cases before exploring technology.
I was talking with a potential e-commerce/retail client the other day, trying to understand where they stand in the spectrum of going from data chaos to full data clarity as they attempt to build a more robust customer-centered journey. The more we were talking the more I realized they were focused on the wrong thing. They were chasing shiny new features and benefits of software to get a 360-degree view of the customer. That’s nice, but it’s not going to make your CEO or board of director’s happy when you can’t prove ROI. And, they were laying down significant money for this technology without realizing the challenges it may cause their team in the future and the missed opportunities they haven’t even considered.
That’s probably why marketers are feeling the squeeze on their investment decisions. Only 33% of marketers were satisfied with their investment, according to recent research in April conducted by Forrester. Just one percent felt it met current and future needs. We suspect most of these marketers jumped to purchase before mapping out their use cases or chose the wrong CDP platform for their long-term needs.
We just wrote a comprehensive point-of-view eBook around this topic based on various research studies we’ve observed. There’s no cost. Just let us know if you’d like the 14-page eBook and we’ll send it to you. Shoot us an email at [email protected].
Building a customer-centered journey based on rich data across all platforms at every stage takes significant work. Stay diligent. Stay focused. Stay true to your goals. It’s worth it.
If you ever want to talk or even vent, we’re here to listen and offer our perspective. Reach out any time.
