A Brief Guide For Salesforce Developers To Understand Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)

Have you realized data’s powerful aspects, or are you in the process? Data is the new king here, so those who own it can multiply the benefits. Big global companies get the fuel for their growth by using and reusing their data.

With millions of data created and shared across channels, it's a daunting task to collect and get insights in an understandable form. Salesforce launched a Customer Data Platform (CDP) platform to collect, manage and unify a wide range of data from various sources, enabling businesses and Salesforce Developers to understand customers properly.

In this blog, we'll take you deep into the world of CDP. Let's go ahead!

What Is A Customer Data Platform (CDP)?

Formerly known as Customer Audience 360 (CA360), Salesforce launched its CDP in May 2021. Since then, CDP has created quite a buzz for organizations looking to tap the opportunities presented by getting a single and complete source of trust around customer data.

Later Salesforce enhanced its capabilities by bringing Salesforce Genie. The Marketing team designs CDP to connect and unify customer data and present it in a single, coherent, and complete way.

Salient Features Of CDP Useful For Salesforce Developers

Privacy management
Type-ahead functionality
Easy connection to other solutions like Tableau, Datorama, Salesforce Einstein, and Mulesoft API
Complete compliance with GDPR and CCPA
Data ingestion services
Way to get customer engagement scoring
A powerful way for big data analytics through AI
AppExchange application sourcing
Data linking and fuzzy matching
Customer segmentation through event-focused data sources

Don't forget to check out: Integrating Salesforce CDP Marketing Cloud with Salesforce CRM: A Comprehensive Guide

What Are The Benefits Of CDPs?

Getting a complete understanding of customers' data is more than important today due to the interlinkages of devices. As a business, you can use the data for the following purposes.

Personalized Marketing

Customers just love personalization. We are sure you love receiving an email or message that matches your requirements and addresses you directly. CDP helps deliver personalized experiences that remain solely based on preferences and behaviors.

As a business, reach out to a Salesforce development service provider, and have CDP. Utilizing customer data allows for the analysis of valuable insights, enabling the creation of tailored marketing messages, personalized product recommendations, and other customized experiences.

Customer Journey Mapping

One or two mediums no longer connect customers. They have many ways to connect to businesses: offline stores, social media platforms, emails, WhatsApp, Tele-calling, websites, and more.

Customer journey mapping is a way to know the various touchpoints of customers. Be it initial awareness, or post-purchase engagement, by mapping the customer journey, you identify improvement areas and optimize marketing and sales efforts.

Compatibility With Other Platforms

With CDP, Salesforce integration with Interaction Studio, Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Loyalty Management, Datorama, AppExchange, and AWS Cloud, is seamless. The developer doesn't need to write any unique code.

Make Better And Faster Decisions Powered By Data

CDP allows for improving audience segments by adding propensity, LTV metrics, and other data models. Moreover, you can monitor the consent and preferences while activating data and building segments.

It all transforms into better decision-making for all the stakeholders. With the help of experts, you can also share the data with analytic tools like Tableau and Marketing Cloud Intelligence for better insights.

How Does CDP Work?

Salesforce CDP works in three main steps. First, it gathers all the information about a customer, such as personal information, purchasing behavior, location, preferred way of interaction, etc., to further collect it in one place.

After That, it determines if all this information belongs to the same person. For example, if someone gives their email address and then later gives their phone number, the platform tries to link the two pieces of information together. It is called "cross-device identity,” which is helpful for Salesforce developers.

At the last stage, when CDP has all the information in one place and knows who it belongs to, it uses it to create personalized experiences. It involves sending them emails tailored to their interests or preferences.

The platform connects all these data email-sending tools or content management systems so everything works seamlessly, quickly, and efficiently.

Check out another amazing blog by Algoworks here: Rev Up Your Business With Top 10 Free Apps On Salesforce AppExchange

How To Build Salesforce CDP?

Get down to brainstorm to discuss CDP's aspects with the team. Work on guidelines, limitations, segmentation goals, users list, permissions, existing data source evaluation, and overall strategy creation.

Now, the Salesforce development company needs to set up and maintain CDP as per the guidelines created. Connect the platform with Salesforce CRM, Marketing Cloud Email Studio, Marketing Cloud Data Extensions, MobilePush, Mobile Connect, Interaction Studio, Ingestion API, and other compatible platforms.

Now, it's time to ingest data by bringing it and making sense of it. After That, prepare and model data before unifying source profiles. Once you get the required insights, use it to create and activate segments and act on the data.

Concluding Remark

“Data” is more than just a buzzword. Instead of being gut-driven, be data-driven to reach the pinnacle of your business growth. Now is the time to use several CDP capabilities for intelligent decisions.

Go the extra mile by incorporating this technology and stand out from the overcrowded marketplace. Hire experienced Salesforce developers or outsource the work to companies working in the Salesforce ecosystem to get things done.