Harness the power of behavioral customer data in your CDP: A guide for marketing teams

Every customer’s click, interaction, and purchase is a signal — your customers constantly communicate their needs and preferences. But are you capturing and leveraging these invaluable insights in your marketing strategies?

The key to unlocking these insights is using behavioral data, which ultimately means assuming what your customers want and knowing it. 

So, how do you collect and activate behavioral customer data to supercharge your marketing efforts? And how does your Customer Data Platform (CDP) come into play? Let’s dive in.

Understanding behavioral data: The what, why, and how

Behavioral data is a digital footprint your customers leave behind as they interact with your brand. The trail of actions, preferences, and decisions tells the story of their journey with you. This data often includes:

• Website interactions (pages visited, time spent, clicks)
• Purchase history
• Abandoned cart and abandoned browse sessions
• Email and SMS engagement (opens, clicks, conversions)
• App usage patterns
• Customer service interactions
• Social media engagement

Why is behavioral data so valuable? Because it gives you real-time insights into what your customers are doing, not just what they say they'll do. 

You can collect behavioral data with your CDP, which acts as a central hub by collecting and unifying behavioral data from various sources. 

It then creates a comprehensive view of each customer (a customer 360), allowing you to see the complete picture of their interactions with your brand.

The role of behavioral data in customer engagement

Behavioral data provides crucial insights into your customers' actions and preferences. By analyzing their behaviors, you can better understand your customer's needs and motivations, enabling you to make more informed decisions about engaging with them effectively. You can:

1. Predict future behavior: By analyzing past actions, you can anticipate what a customer might do next
2. Identify pain points: See where customers are dropping off or struggling in their journey
3. Personalize experiences: Tailor your messaging and offers based on individual preferences and actions
4. Segment audiences: Group customers with similar behaviors for more targeted marketing
5. Measure engagement: Track how customers interact with your brand across different touchpoints

For example, behavioral data might show a clothing retailer that a customer frequently browses its website's summer dresses but never purchases them. This insight could prompt you to send them a personalized email with a summer dress lookbook or a special offer on dresses.

The many benefits of using behavioral customer data in marketing

Incorporating behavioral customer data in your marketing strategy transforms your customer relationships. The top benefits we’ve seen from our customers include:

An improved customer experience

Understanding customer behavior empowers marketers to create more relevant, timely, and helpful experiences. By analyzing patterns in how customers interact with your brand, you can anticipate their needs and preferences. 

This insight enables you to tailor your communications, product recommendations, and overall customer journey to each individual, resulting in a more satisfying and personalized experience that resonates with your audience.

Increased conversion rates

Let’s face it: the more personal the marketing, the more powerful it is. Personalized marketing based on behavioral data typically sees higher conversion rates than generic campaigns. When you present customers with offers, content, or products that align with their demonstrated interests and past behaviors, they're more likely to engage and purchase. 

When you engage prospects at the right time on their preferred channels, you're more likely to turn them into customers and casual browsers into loyal buyers.

Better customer retention

Anticipating customer needs and preferences helps keep them engaged and loyal to your brand. By using behavioral data to understand what keeps customers returning, you can proactively address potential issues, reward loyalty, and create experiences that strengthen the customer-brand relationship. This approach not only reduces churn but also increases the lifetime value (CLTV) of each customer.

More efficient marketing spend 

Behavioral data allows you to target your marketing efforts more precisely, reducing waste on irrelevant messaging. You can optimize your marketing budget by focusing your resources on the audiences most likely to respond positively to specific campaigns. This data-driven approach ensures that every dollar spent will more likely generate a return, improving overall marketing ROI and ROAS.

Deeper customer insights

Behavioral data provides a more nuanced understanding of your customers, informing marketing, product development, and customer service strategies. These insights can reveal unmet needs, emerging trends, and opportunities for innovation. 

By aligning your entire business strategy with these deep customer insights, you can stay ahead of the competition and continually evolve your offerings to meet changing customer demands.

Businesses can use behavioral and customer data to create a cycle of improved experiences, increased satisfaction, and stronger customer relationships. This data-driven approach enhances marketing effectiveness and drives overall business growth and customer loyalty. 

As you implement behavioral data strategies, remember that the key to success lies in consistently using these insights to deliver value to your customers at every touchpoint.

How Simon Data (and CDPs in general) use behavioral data

The Simon Data CDP is a central hub for processing and utilizing various data sources, such as Snowflake. It efficiently collects, organizes, and analyzes data from multiple touchpoints to generate actionable insights. It transforms zero- and first-party customer data into valuable information that drives marketing strategies and improves customer experiences.

Here's how it works:

1. Customer data collection: The CDP gathers behavioral data from multiple sources — your website, mobile app, email platform, in-store POS systems, and more

1. Data unification: A CDP then combines this data with other customer information (like demographics and purchase history) to create a unified customer profile
2. Analysis: The CDP analyzes this data to uncover patterns and insights
3. Personalized customer segmentation: Based on the analysis, marketers can create detailed and customized customer segments
4. Activation: Finally, a CDP makes this data and segments available to your marketing tools for targeted campaigns.

Let's say you're a sports equipment retailer. Your CDP might notice that a customer has been browsing running shoes on your website, has purchased running gear in the past, and recently downloaded your fitness tracking app. 

It would combine all this information into a single customer profile, potentially segmenting this customer into a "running enthusiast" group. This segment could then send targeted emails about new running shoe arrivals or local running events sponsored by your brand.

Strategies for using behavioral data in personalized marketing

Now that we understand behavioral data and how a CDP uses it, let's explore ways to use it in personalized marketing efforts.

Behaviorally triggered emails

Set up automated emails that trigger based on specific customer actions. For instance, if a customer abandons their cart, send a reminder email with the items they left behind. If they've been browsing a particular product category without purchasing, send them a curated selection of top products.

Dynamic website personalization

Use behavioral data to customize your website for each visitor. If a customer frequently browses men's shoes, ensure the category is prominently displayed when visiting your site. If they've shown interest in sale items, highlight your current promotions.

Cross-sell and upsell recommendations

A CDP helps analyze purchase history and browsing behavior to suggest complementary or upgraded products. If a customer buys a camera, it can recommend camera accessories separately or in a bundle. 

If they've been looking at premium versions of a product they already own, send them upgrade offers that provide a better customer experience while increasing average order value.

Behavioral segmentation for ad targeting

Create customer segments based on behavioral patterns and use these for targeted advertising. For example, create a segment of "high-value customers who haven't purchased in 3 months" and target them with a special "we miss you" campaign on social media.

Personalized app experiences

If you have a mobile app, use behavioral data to customize the in-app experience. If users frequently check the status of their orders, make the order tracking feature more prominent in the app interface.

Lifecycle marketing

Marketing teams can use behavioral data to identify where customers are in their lifecycles and tailor their marketing accordingly. Send welcome series to new customers, loyalty rewards to frequent shoppers, and win-back campaigns to lapsed customers.

Content personalization

Customize your content marketing based on customer interests indicated by their behavior. If a segment of customers frequently reads your blog posts about sustainable products, create more content on that topic and ensure it reaches them.

Best practices for leveraging behavioral customer data

While the benefits of using behavioral customer data are clear, you must implement your behavioral strategy thoughtfully and responsibly. By following these best practices, you can maximize the value of your behavioral data while maintaining customer trust and adhering to ethical standards. Let's explore each practice in detail.

Respect behavioral data privacy

Transparency in data collection and usage is more critical than ever. Always inform customers about what data you're collecting and how you plan to use it. Adhere strictly to data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA. 

Give customers control over their data by providing clear opt-in/opt-out options and easy access to their information. This approach ensures legal compliance and builds trust with your audience.

Focus on value exchange

Use behavioral data to give customers genuine value, not just increase sales. Every interaction based on this data should aim to enhance the customer's experience, whether through more relevant recommendations, personalized content, or improved service. Customers who feel they're getting value in exchange for their data will likely continue engaging with your brand.

Test and learn

Continuous experimentation is key to optimizing your use of behavioral data. Regularly test different approaches to personalization, segmentation, and targeting. Measure the results of these experiments rigorously, and be prepared to pivot based on what you learn. This iterative approach ensures your strategies evolve with changing customer behaviors and preferences.

Combine behavioral customer data with other data types

While behavioral data is helpful on its own, it becomes even more effective when combined with other types of customer and business data. Integrate behavioral insights with demographic information, stated preferences, and historical data to create a more comprehensive customer profile. 

To sharpen insights, take it further and combine it with financial, ERP, or industry-specific datasets. The true power of behavioral data is unlocked when fully unified with the full breadth of data available in an organization’s data cloud. This holistic view enables even more precise and effective marketing strategies.

Enhancing customer insights and activation

Unifying behavioral data in your cloud data platform is a significant step to unlocking the actual value of behavioral data and ready to boost marketing performance, but it’s only the first step. For example, with Snowflake's and Simon's native genAI and machine learning capabilities, behavioral data ingested and unified within the platform can be analyzed to identify patterns, segment customers, and predict future actions more accurately. 

A CDP like Simon Data can then seamlessly use this enriched data to create valuable audiences and run consistent campaigns across channels. Combining Snowflake's powerful data processing and Simon Data's robust marketing tools allows organizations to deliver personalized, contextually relevant experiences, driving higher engagement and improved customer retention.

Keep behavioral data in real time

The power of behavioral data lies in its immediacy. Ensure your systems can collect, process, and act on this data in real-time or near-real-time. With a cloud data platform like Snowflake and a CDP like Simon Data in place, you can respond to customer actions and needs as they happen, creating more relevant and timely interactions.

 We’ve seen that real-time responsiveness can significantly enhance customer experience and increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Don’t overdo marketing personalization

While personalization can significantly enhance customer experience, it's important to strike a balance. Too much personalization can feel intrusive or "creepy" to some customers. Aim for a level of personalization that feels helpful and relevant without crossing into uncomfortable territory. Respect your customers' boundaries and give them control over how much personalization they receive.

Clean and validate your customer behavioral data 

The quality of your insights depends on the quality of your data. Regularly clean and validate the behavioral data you're collecting to ensure its accuracy and relevance. Implement processes to identify and correct errors, remove duplicates, and update outdated information. This ongoing maintenance is crucial for maintaining the integrity of your data-driven strategies.

By implementing these best practices, you can create a robust and responsible framework for using behavioral customer data. The goal is to use this data to benefit both your business and your customers. 

Review and refine your practices to stay current with evolving technologies, regulations, and customer expectations. With a thoughtful approach, behavioral data can become a powerful tool for creating meaningful, valuable, and lasting customer relationships.

Driving ultimate personalized customer experiences with Simon Data

Today’s customers demand more. For marketers, understanding customer behavior is no longer a nice-to-have — it's a must-have. By leveraging behavioral data through a powerful CDP like Simon, you can create marketing experiences that resonate.

Remember, the goal isn't just to collect data but to use it to create meaningful, valuable interactions with your customers. When done properly, behavioral data-driven marketing doesn't feel like marketing at all. It feels like a brand that truly gets you, anticipates your needs, and is there with the right message at the right time.

So, are you ready to use your customer behavior data? Your CDP is waiting, and your customers will thank you for it. Happy marketing!