eBook

Building a Business Case

for a Customer Data
Platform
How to Make the Case to Senior Leadership
Table of Contents
Introduction 03

Definition of a CDP 04

Core capabilities of a CDP 05

Models of tech adoption 06

Four steps to building a business case 07

Ground your Initiative in use cases 08

Determine impact on people, process, technology 12

Socializing the vision 20

Presenting the value of a CDP 22

Conclusion 23

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Introduction
First-party data is the epicenter of today’s most successful Technology users such as yourself realize the potential of a CDP, but
companies. Netflix, Facebook, and Amazon, for example, put the single they don’t know how to get buy-in from senior business leaders who
customer view at the center of everything they do. And it’s paid off. are skeptical of adopting “yet-another-three-letter acronym” solution.

While a data management strategy will help you align goals and use So, we talked to leading industry analysts and marketing professionals
cases across an organization, technology is what enables you to who successfully got buy-in to write this eBook and teach you and
execute. But legacy tools have proven to be insufficient, as they’ve led your fellow growth teams how to build a business case for a CDP.
to disparate data scattered across a complex tech stack that inhibits
real-time access to a single customer view for marketing, analytics,
ecommerce, customer service, and other growth-focused teams.

That’s why a customer data platform (CDP) is designed to

help you liberate your first-party data: your most valuable
business asset.

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Definition of a CDP
According to leading industry analyst firm, Gartner, while capabilities like
data integration, identity management, segmentation, and activation are
“familiar features to marketers,” a CDP’s differentiating value is in the
”packaging, marketing, and productization of these features, and the
optimization for real-time use cases.” Gartner defines a CDP as:

“A marketing technology that unifies a company’s customer

data from marketing and other channels to enable customer
modeling and optimize the timing and targeting of messages
and offers.“

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Definition of a CDP

Core capabilities of a CDP

As Gartner’s definition implies, a CDP is much more than just a customer database. It’s a built-for-purpose solution that gives growth-focused
teams access to unified and actionable customer data that offers both confidence and utility whenever and wherever they need it. But not all CDPs
are created equal. Some focus mostly (or solely) on unification but offer little value when it comes to utility and activation of the data. Others tout
personalization offerings but lack the ability to truly unify customer data across channels and sources with the high degree of confidence
necessary. A true pure-play CDP will offer the following core capabilities:

• Unified, Persistent Customer Profiles: Your data points are translated into an attribute of an individual person that is persistently stored in a
customer profile that updates dynamically.

• Multi-Dimensional Segmentation: You can combine various customer attributes to build cross-channel segments or expand on out-of-
the-box behavioral and predictive segments.

• Customer Lifecycle Orchestration: You control how and where you activate your data so you can improve the outcomes of all your cross-
channel customer lifecycle marketing programs.

• Predictive Modeling & Analytics: You can run models that enable you to enrich your profiles with customer scores, build smarter segments,
and create new data visualizations.

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Models of tech adoption Waterfall Agile

Martech evangelist Scott Brinker asserts technology adoption shouldn’t be a

black-and-white choice between using a waterfall or agile approach. Gather Buy
Instead, the most effective way to maximize time to value is to blend the two Requirements
approaches and draw on the benefits of both. Your business case should
strike a healthy balance between gathering inputs upfront for an immediate
Evaluate Use
use case, while also defining a path to expand.
Options

Plan

Time
Learn
“There are very few ‘pure’ waterfall or agile projects in
the wild. Almost everything we do has some degree
Build/
of planning and goes through some adaptation Add more use
Buy
along the way.” cases

— Scott Brinker, Author of Chief Marketing Technologist

Expand to more
Deploy teams & users

https://chiefmartec.com/2019/06/dinosaurs-meteors-2-different-models-technology-adoption/

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4 steps to building your case
CDP implementation and adoption is a project — not a one-and-done task. Before you can present a strong business case to senior leadership,
it’s important to conduct some internal due diligence first.

1 2 3 4
Identify Immediate Determine Impact Socialize the Vision Present the Vision
Use Cases on the Business to Peers to Leadership

Identify your immediate Outline the impact on the Socialize the vision to Present to senior
use case. If you’re not business. Document the peers. To take full leadership. Define your
sure about what to start people, process, and advantage of a CDP, it’s first use case, including a
with, take the CDP technology that will be vital to find others within timeline for
readiness assessment to involved, including how the organization who are implementation to call
receive a starting set of all three will be impacted trying to achieve a out time to value.
use cases, based on your post adoption. Focus on common goal. Find an Highlight cost & time
score. efficiencies gained. ally and identify other savings to be gained and
potential use cases for present a roadmap for
the future. the future.

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Identify immediate use cases

Ground your initiative

Does your need for a CDP stem from an initiative to unify customer data
across all channels and systems? Or is the goal to improve marketing
performance and deliver better one-to-one experiences by more effectively
leveraging your own data? While your answer might be ”Both!”, choosing one
will help determine your starting use case.

Starting with a single use case allows you to prove ROI on a CDP
investment quickly.

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“
We spent the first year collecting all the data
we could in BlueConic. Now, we’ve shifted to
taking action on the data. We segment users
into different paths and ensure we
understand how far along that path they've
gotten. That's definitely one of the main things
that we have seen a huge benefit from.”

— Sarah Desmarais, Director of Marketing, CRM &

Audience Strategy, America’s Test Kitchen

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Identify immediate use cases

Start with a use case

To build a business case, you first have to identify your initial customer Specifically, our framework is designed to evaluate your
data platform use case(s). readiness for a CDP based on:
Defining your CDP use case(s) helps you understand the criteria for • Data Access: That is, your first-party customer data’s accessibility
your technology selection process. Along with dozens of our customers to your entire tech stack and growth- focused teams as well as the
and industry experts, we created a CDP readiness framework degree to which it is designed for speed, scale, and flexibility.
assessment to plot the most common use cases by objective and
customer lifecycle stage. • Data Confidence: Your level of confidence the data you have is
accurate, complete, and accounts for individual privacy
preferences (i.e., who has opted in and out of receiving marketing
messaging).

• Data Utility: Your business technology users’ collective ability to use

your data to execute on a variety of growth initiatives and, in turn,
help accelerate revenue growth and operational efficiency.

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Identify immediate use cases

Common growth initiatives

There are several common growth initiatives carried out by companies Audience Monetization
across industries today when their tech users can access and Many companies with a CDP — particularly media and publishing
confidently utilize their first-party data. Some of the most popular ones organizations and retailers — are able to monetize their first-party
include: data. For instance, they create micro, highly refined segments that can
be used for ads and other revenue opportunities.

Direct-to-Consumer Diversification
Customer Lifecycle Marketing
Traditional retailers are trying to catch up with digitally native retail
Marketers can orchestrate highly personalized messaging across
companies by building out their own collection of first-party data —
channels and touchpoints to their target audiences. Specifically, they
data they can use to drive prospects and customers back to their own
can deliver timely, relevant messaging to individuals based on where
digital properties.
they are in their respective customer journeys.

Digital Products & Experiences Analytics & Data Science Democratization

A number of companies use a CDP to reduce the distance between
Building experiences on top of first-party data no other competitor can
the output of analytics and data science efforts and the tech users
replicate: That’s the goal for consumer-centric companies today. With
responsible for activating on those insights. It also creates a closed
a CDP, they can drive dynamic, personalized interactions across
loop to bring data back from activation end points and into the hands
channels and, in turn, improve customer loyalty and CX.
of analysts and data scientists and their respective tools.

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Determine impact on the business
Now that you’ve selected a first use case, the next step is to determine the people, process, and technology needed for successful
implementation and adoption.

People Process Technology

Getting buy in from others can help There are two facets to consider when Not only do you need a CDP to unify
evangelize your vision for a CDP. determining process around a CDP: and activate your data, you need to
Articulating the business problem understand the data you want to
you’re trying to solve helps expand the • Incremental lift by orchestrating collect and what you want to do with
scope for a CDP, and determine who individualized marketing for every that data before deciding if a CDP will
in your organization needs to be stage of the customer lifecycle solve your needs. At times, a CDP
involved. might be a few steps from what you
• What is the internal process that really need to execute a tactic, so
A CDP implementation has to potential exists today, and how will it become starting with your use case helps you
to give huge gains across the organ- more efficient by adopting a CDP? ultimately choose the right technology.
ization, not just in improving KPIs but in
gained operational efficiencies.

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Determine impact on the business: People

Who needs to be involved?

While your particular business will determine who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed, for use cases, below is a sample RACI
chart to help you think through the teams that may be involved.

Customer Customer Customer Data

Objective Use Case Marketing IT
Experience Support Insights Science/BI
Deliver 1:1 content/ product
R A I A I C
Engage/ recommendations
Retain Recognize and interact with customers
R A R C I C
across touchpoints
Prevent and recover cart
R A I A I C
abandonment
Convert
Provide engaging experiences and
R R R A I I
build affinity with customers
Reduce ad waste/optimize ads R I I C I I
Acquire
Accelerate lead generation R I I R I I
Build a single source of customer data
R A I R A A
truth
Integrate Enable consent management R R I I A I

Create audience-based products A C I R C C

R: Responsible A: Accountable C: Consulted I: Informed

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Determine impact on the business: People

The marketing technologist

The use of first-party data across the organization resurges the importance of a dedicated marketing technologist role. The marketing
technologist isn’t responsible for specific marketing tactics. Instead, they’re the product manager for the tech stack and focus on how all parties
gain value from these investments.

88% 89%
82% 80% 80%
76% 77% 75%
70% 70%

Research and recommend Operate marketing Train and support marketing Integrate marketing Monitor data quality within
new marketing technology technology products as an staff on using marketing technology products with marketing technology
products administrator technology and products each other products

2018 2019

https://chiefmartec.com/2019/03/marketing-technology-job-responsibilities/

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Determine impact on the business: People

A CDP impacts the entire organization

A customer data platform is built for marketers – but it doesn’t completely eliminate the need for IT. Furthermore, the benefits of a CDP aren’t
limited to marketing. Liberating first-party data can benefit your entire organization: from customer experience and service to analytics and
commerce.

Accounting, billing, deliver, logistics information

Historical transaction information, call center prompts based on

customer preferences, product usage information
Marketing
Analytics
automation
Coordinate campaigns, preference
management, onsite experiences

Email CDP Segmentation

Marketing
Machine
Social Customer Support Learning/Scoring

Finance/Operations

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 Determine impact on the business: Process

What is the process?

Starting with a specific use case, understand the current process for executing it, and map how that process changes with a CDP. Below is an
example of how a CDP creates a more efficient process for applying machine learning to marketing, in particular.

1 2 3 4

Current Process Data scientists Collect raw data Cleanse data and Explore data to find
without a CDP: frame the problem needed from process it for patterns
disparate systems modeling

7 6 5
Upload output of
models to activation Construct machine
Interpret results
systems for learning models
marketers

1 2 3 4 Automated
Improved activation for
Explore data to find Select, import, or
Process with a Frame the Problem marketers. Increase
patterns tweak models value and time for
CDP:
test and learn

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“
BlueConic has helped Franklin Sports have the
infrastructure to ‘go live’ immediately. Our CEO
could come to us and say, ‘Hey, we need to get
this live on our website today.’ And we can say,
in two seconds, ‘We just pushed it through.’
And we’re actually pushing it to specific
people. And excluding others.”

— Aaron Seitz, Digital Marketing Manager, Franklin Sports

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Determine impact on the business: Process

Audit your martech stack

Audit your martech stack to understand where you want to collect Where do you want to collect data to build customer
data from and where you need to send data to for activation. Some profiles?
technologies, such as an email service provider, will be used for both
data collection and activation. Lastly, determine any overlapping • Can the CDP collect data across all customer touchpoint channels
capabilities in your stack and where a CDP can provide value by including online and offline sources?
liberating data and making it useful to marketers. • How flexible is the CDP in storing data?
What activation channels do you need to send data to? • How long does it store historical data for?
• Can the CDP connect to systems you use to communicate with
customers and prospects? How do the connections work and how
often is data passed between them?

• How fast can you create a segment to send across your activation
channels?

• How does a CDP open new possibilities to interact with customers in

the right context and moment?

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Determine impact on the business: Technology

Will the technology scale?

To understand if a CDP can handle your use cases today and in the future, you need to know the foundation on which a CDP is built. Different
database structures will influence the flexibility and cost of your platform over time as you grow your business.

Relational Event Profile

Enforces the relationship(s) between Enables massive raw data collection into Stores unified profiles at individual level
objects, so once the data schema is a big data structure, but forces business instead of a chaotic graph of
implemented, business users must work
within its restrictive structure. users to sort through data to determine deconstructed events or enforcing
what to map back to profile graph. restrictive schemas.
Needs to pre-define relationship between
unidentified site visitors and a campaign Most likely of these 3 database Data-agnostic architecture provides
in order to store that anonymous user architectures to explode in size and cost high-volume storage and fast read-write
information.
to scale, making it difficult for business speeds so data is always up-to-date,
users to discern which data to use. unified, and ready for activation
and analysis.

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Socialize the vision with peers

Socializing the vision

Liberating first-party data with a CDP can have implications across the Find an Ally
organization. Find an ally with common data challenges and see how
data liberation can help. Once pain points are identified, find someone whose challenges could
be solved with a CDP in the 4-6 week implementation process.
Define Pain Points Across Teams
Whether you are in marketing or another part of the organization,
Across customer experience, customer support, marketing, and getting one other person in a department to join forces opens up the
business insights teams, there is likely a need for better access to possibility to explore all the ways you can use a CDP to leverage the
unified first-party data and customers to meet specific goals. wealth of knowledge that comes from a unified customer profile.

Figure out pain points by team members. Ask questions like, “What
problems do you want us to address?”, “What are the business needs
you need us to support?”, “How can having access to data change
your day-to-day?”

Define a common goal for the problems you’re trying to solve, then
build a case off those use cases.

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Socialize the vision with peers

Utilization does not = value

In a blog post, Scott Bringer outlines martech evolution over the past few
years. While marketers feel the need to rationalize their martech stack, there
are still questions about martech stack “utilization” and what makes a new
technology “worth it.”

Evaluate the Martech Balance

Value, not utilization, should be the driving factor for investing in martech. As
Brinker notes, the growing sophistication of martech tools requires
acquisition of new skills to take advantage of new features… only if they are
valuable (light green portion pictured on the left).

“It would be kind of like measuring whether your subscription to Spotify is

worth it based on the percentage of their 35 million songs that you listen to.
All that matters is if they give you the songs that you enjoy listening to —
even if it’s but a tiny fraction of their massive overall catalog.”

CDPs can help you unlock the value of your other marketing technology by
unifying or activating your data across these disparate systems.

https://chiefmartec.com/2019/05/martech-stack-utilization-misguided-metric-disconnected-value/

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Present vision to senior leadership

Presenting the value of a CDP

A CDP helps you realize value. Prove value by outlining processes eliminated, time saved, and skill gaps solved with a CDP.

Without a CDP With a CDP

TASKS REQUIRED WITHOUT A CDP CDP PROVIDES OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES BY CLOSING

• Manually pulling lists for segmentation SKILL GAPS & PROVIDING DATA ACCESS

• Consent management tools to comply with GDPR, • Marketer-UI to control customer data and send
CCPA, etc. segments to other systems without IT/Data analysts
• Constant coordination between teams • Unified customer profile you can use for deep dives
into individual profiles
• Segments that update dynamically and with real-
RESOURCES REQUIRED TO COMPLETE TASKS time data to act on quickly
• Data Scientists (to create and apply machine • AI modeling based on unified, first-party data with
learning models across channel-specific data sets) data scientists able to access a single source of
• IT (to build custom integrations to create a single customer truth
view) • Tracking unknown users in their journey from
• Data analysts (to pull lists to activate segmentation) unknown to known on an individual & segment level

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Conclusion
Build a foundation.

Use cases lay the groundwork for why you’ll utilize a CDP. Articulate use cases to key business counterparts to evangelize the mission of a CDP. One
customer recommends choosing one to start with – then graduate to more sophisticated use cases.

Outline where a CDP can save time and money.

Whether it’s operational efficiency gains or increased revenue through better conversions, a CDP can solve challenges across the organization. For
example, one customer’s first use case for a CDP was GDPR since it impacted the entire organization, not just the marketing teams.

Choose a CDP that will suit your needs today and scale for tomorrow.

As you build the business case for a CDP, make sure you understand the ins and outs of connecting and extracting data from the system. The point
of a CDP is to act as a ”hub” for your other tech tools. If it can’t connect to specific systems or doesn’t store data in a way that makes the data useful
to you to improve marketing KPIs, then that might not be the CDP for you.

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Resources

Ready for the first step? Take a minute to complete our CDP
Readiness Assessment. Answer nine questions to get your
readiness score, a set of starting use cases based on your
score, and inspirational case studies from other companies
already using a CDP today.

Take the Assessment

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+1 888 440 2583 ⦁ [email protected]

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