Own every stage: Elevating the customer journey with a CDP

Imagine a world where you can anticipate your customers' needs, deliver personalized experiences across their journey, and drive meaningful engagements at every touchpoint in the marketing funnel. Sounds like a marketer’s dream, right?

Well, forget the outdated funnel metaphor. Today's customers are dynamic — flitting between channels, evolving their preferences, and expecting brands to keep pace. Siloed third-party customer data and generic outreach simply won't cut it anymore. 

First-party real-time data is where the future of customer marketing is, and if you’ve invested in a cloud data warehouse like Snowflake, you’ve probably heard of a composable customer data platform (CDP). What is it, exactly? 

In short, a CDP is your secret weapon for understanding and engaging customers at every measurable stage of their journey.

Think of a CDP as the conductor of your customer data orchestra: It harmonizes information from websites, emails, apps, and CRM systems, transforming it into a symphony of insights ready for you to personalize. It’s a cheesy metaphor, but you get the picture.

So, how does using a CDP translate to concrete results within every aspect of a customer journey? Let's explore what a 1:1 personalized customer experience could be with your CDP.

Take your customers from curious browsers to devoted advocates with a CDP

Remember Sarah, the outdoor enthusiast searching for a tent on your website? Instead of a generic welcome message, she sees a banner showcasing camping tents based on her previous searches – the perfect example of a CDP in action!

Intrigued, she delves deeper. But Sarah's not just any hiker; she's eco-conscious and enjoys solo adventures, so your CDP-powered paid ads target relevant Facebook groups like, "Sustainable Solo Backpacking," reaching Sarah with laser-focused precision.

But it doesn't stop there. When Sarah subscribes to your newsletter, she receives an email offering an exclusive 15% discount on eco-friendly tents, personalized based on her browsing behavior and interests — meaning that your business will see a significant increase in click-through rates compared to sending out generic emails.

Keep your customers interested and engaged throughout their journey

Sarah bought a tent! She loves it so much that she even buys one for her cat. Fantastic!

But Sarah’s customer journey doesn't end there. CDPs are experts at transforming one-time buyers into loyal fans. Imagine sending Sarah a post-purchase email suggesting complementary hiking poles and a reusable water bottle based on what other tent buyers purchased.

You could also send her personalized training tips and exclusive trail snack offers, gleaned from her website interactions (who doesn’t love snacks on the trail?). 

And, on her birthday, Sarah receives a special text message offering a discount on a personalized adventure experience, like a guided kayaking tour or a wilderness survival course.

This unique offering shows you care about her individual interests and adds a special touch to her day — helping to build brand customer loyalty. One of our customers, ASOS, implemented a CDP to improve marketing personalization and saw over 80,000 products used for personalized recommendations.

Sarah is the perfect example of a happy customer who continues to engage with your brand. But what about customers who last visited six months ago and haven’t made a purchase in over a year?

Here’s another place where a CDP can help. CDPs identify at-risk customers, allowing you to send targeted "We miss you!" emails with special discounts or reminders about their loyalty program points. These re-activation campaigns can help recover at-risk customers and lead to a win-back conversion rate of 5.3%.

Seal the deal with an end-to-end frictionless customer experience

Cart abandonment – the online retailer's nemesis. But fear not! 

With access to real-time data from your cloud data warehouse, you can identify Sarah as she abandons her cart, Merino wool socks still sitting inside. 

Here’s where a CDP shines: you can send her a personalized email that reminds her of the forgotten item and offers free shipping or a limited-time discount. Every recovered cart counts toward your revenue goals! 

In fact, Simon Data found that one customer using CDP-powered cart abandonment campaigns increased its trial conversions by 300% by optimizing abandonment.

But let’s take personalization even further. Imagine offering Sarah, a loyal customer, express checkout, tailoring her payment options and promotions based on her past purchases — all while guiding first-time buyers with helpful prompts during the checkout process.

Delivering a personalized experience is all about creating a smooth, frictionless experience that makes buying from your brand a breeze. For a Simon Data customer, a high level of personalization translates to $350K incremental revenue per year.

How CDPs benefit enterprise marketing teams

This is just one example of how CDPs can provide an elevated customer experience that keeps your customers coming back for more. For enterprise marketing teams, CDPs can also:

• Streamline customer marketing workflows
• Create customer 360s with real-time data from various sources with identity graphs, painting a holistic picture of your audience and helping drive personalized experiences across all touchpoints, regardless of how and when a customer interacts with your brand
• Hyper-segment your audience with precision, creating targeted micro-campaigns. Imagine segmenting customers based on purchase history, website behavior, and social media interactions to create campaigns with dramatically improved click-through rates
• Identify anonymous users in paid search campaigns to improve your ROAS 
• Deliver seamless omnichannel experiences, ensuring your message resonates across all touchpoints. Picture Sarah seeing the same "We miss you!" email offer on her phone that she saw on her laptop, creating a consistent and connected journey
• Predict customer needs before they arise, making you a pro at proactive support. This can translate to increased customer satisfaction and reduced churn rates

A CDP is the key to unlocking personalized experiences that build deeper relationships, drive conversions, and turn marketing teams into customer journey rockstars. 

Remember: Don't worry, you don't need a data science degree to use a CDP. Most platforms are user-friendly and have plenty of resources to help you get started. If you’re ready to invest in a CDP, check out our CDP’s buyer guide.

‍