Supercharge personalization: Why data onboarding matters to marketers

Generic marketing gets you nowhere. Today, customers demand tailored experiences, and brands that fail to deliver risk getting left behind. 

That's where data onboarding and rich customer profiles (sometimes called customer 360s) give marketers the edge they need. Think of it as a tailored suit instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. 

What is customer data onboarding?

Let's break it down simply. Data onboarding is the process of taking all your real-time, first-party customer data (think purchase history, email interactions, loyalty program info, and the like) and making it accessible in one, organized place, such as a Customer Data Platform (CDP). 

Here’s a quick snapshot of how the Simon CDP integrates with Snowflake, a customer data platform, and other marketing tools to unlock your customer data.

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Great, but why does data onboarding matter to marketers?

You may not think data onboarding is all that impactful or affects your day-to-day, but here's where things get exciting for marketers. 

If your CDP is connected to a cloud data warehouse (CDW) like Snowflake, all your real-time customer data can easily flow between your warehouse and your martech stack for easy access and activation. 

This means you can deliver more personalized marketing campaigns, based on real-time information, faster.  With the ability to access and activate your goldmine of customer data within a CDP, you can:

Know your customers (like, REALLY know them): Onboarded customer data creates in-depth customer profiles that go beyond just a name and email. You can understand behavior patterns, preferences, pain points, and preferred channels — all the stuff that unlocks highly targeted messaging.

Personalize marketing at scale: Say goodbye to one-size-fits-all campaigns. Use rich data to segment your audience and deliver messaging that resonates. This means delivering not only offers and recommendations, but also website content tailored to a customer’s stage in the buyer journey, follow-up emails based on abandoned carts, and even ads targeted to their most recent product interest — the whole shebang!

Deliver omnichannel magic: Your customer's journey isn't a straight line. Customers go from browsing your website to interacting with an email to ghosting your texts and then, maybe, just maybe, they visit a store.

By onboarding your customer data from all your tools into your CDP, you can connect the dots and deliver a super-smooth experience across all channels, including website activity, email responsiveness, in-store visits, and responses to social media ads. It's about understanding the full customer journey, not just isolated touchpoints.

Measure what matters: When all your data is neatly organized, you can finally track those key metrics across campaigns. This means sharper insights and the power to justify every marketing dollar spent.

How does data onboarding work?

There's a bit of technical wizardry involved in onboarding for —  and integrating with — your customer data for a CDP, but here's the gist of the process.

1. Gather your troops (AKA your data)

Think beyond the basics! Behavioral data like website browsing patterns, content engagement, and even customer support interactions offer incredibly valuable insights into interests and intent.

This phase is all about identifying and extracting relevant customer data. Your sources might include:

• CRM systems: Hubs like Salesforce or HubSpot storing sales interactions, contact details, and lead status
• E-commerce platforms: Shopify, Magento, etc., containing valuable purchase history, abandoned cart data, and product preferences
• Email marketing platforms: Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and similar, offering insights on open rates, click-throughs, and campaign engagement
• Offline sources: Don't forget those loyalty program spreadsheets, survey responses, and even in-store purchase records

2. Cleanse and prepare your data for onboarding

Messy, inconsistent data is a marketer's nightmare. This step ensures your data is pristine for effective matching and analysis.

• Formatting: Standardize date formats, correct address typos, and make everything play nicely with your CDP
• Normalization: Transform free-form text (like product descriptions) into structured categories for easier analysis
• De-duplication: Spot and merge duplicate customer records to avoid skewed personalization

3. Match and unify your data

This is the heart of data onboarding. A CDP will expertly stitch together customer data from various sources, creating that coveted complete customer profile:

• Deterministic matching: Based on unique identifiers like email addresses or customer IDs for precise matches
• Probabilistic matching: Uses advanced algorithms to infer matches based on similarities in name, address, browsing behavior, etc. This is key for bridging offline and online data gaps

• Identity Resolution: Merges matched data points into a single customer profile, resolving conflicts and prioritizing accuracy

4. Time to activate your customer data 

Now your marketing superpowers are unleashed. Those rich data profiles fuel your campaigns across channels:

• Hyper-segmentation: Group customers based on demographics, purchase history, and even lifetime value
• Personalized content: Tailor emails, product recommendations, and website experiences based on real customer interests
• Omnichannel orchestration: Deliver coordinated messaging across email, SMS, ads, and even in-store interactions
• Attribution and analytics: Track campaign results with crystal-clear data, demonstrating ROI to stakeholders

Challenges and solutions in CDP data onboarding

While the power of data onboarding is clear, the journey isn't always without its speedbumps. Here are some common challenges and how to tackle them.

1. Challenge 1: You have data silos: Information is stuck in disconnected systems across your organization, making it difficult to create accurate customer 360s.

Solution: Prioritize integration. Top CDPs should have robust connectors to easily ingest data from your critical platforms (CRM, e-commerce, marketing tools, etc.).

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2. Challenge 2: Inconsistent data quality. Typos, outdated info, and differing formats wreak havoc on matching.

Solution: Implement data quality checks and validation at the point of collection. Build standardization processes as part of your onboarding workflow.

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3. Challenge 3: Privacy and consent: Today's customers are savvy about their data and they care about their privacy. Handling this sensitively is crucial.

Solution: Adopt a privacy-first mentality. Ensure your CDP offers clear controls for managing consent preferences and complies with regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

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4. Challenge 4: Matching offline to online identities: Linking in-store behavior to web activity can be tricky.

Solution: Leverage hashed identifiers (e.g., hashed email addresses) when possible. You can partner with a CDP that specializes in sophisticated identity resolution techniques.

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5. Challenge 5: Technical complexity: Onboarding processes can get technical, especially for non-technical marketers.

Solution: Choose a CDP built for marketers first that has a user-friendly interface and excellent support. Consider onboarding solutions designed to simplify the process for non-technical teams.

Remember, successful data onboarding and activation is a continuous journey, not a one-time event. As you collect more data and refine your marketing strategies, continue to optimize your processes for maximum impact.

Your next move: Data-driven marketing awaits

Every brand needs to put personalization at the heart of customer marketing. To stand out, you need to understand your customers on a deeper level – and that's where customer data and a CDP come in. They are the key to unlocking the experience that keeps customers returning for more.

Ready to deliver the 1:1 personalized experience customers crave? Let's chat! Simon Data can help you harness the full potential of your customer data.

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