This month, Andrea Ghibaudi, Managing Director, Americas at Silverbullet, interviews Andy Gremett, Director of Product Marketing at Treasure Data.
Many touted 2023 to be the year of personalization. The year where smart technology combined with customer data and consumer insights would come together in the most sophisticated way yet, to deliver meaningful, personalised marketing. And whilst I strongly believe that to be true, I think we should take things one step further, and place the ‘holistic customer experience’ (in essence, personalisation + context) as the top trend of the year.
How we, as consumers, interact with brands today, has drastically transformed – even over the past few years. As the world has slowly slotted back into place since the global pandemic, we are now faced with new challenges surrounding external economic, environmental, political and social forces, which is having an even bigger impact on how we engage with the brands we love, and those we are yet to find. One thing we do know is, consumer demands are stronger than ever before, with 73% expecting companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, and 64% wish companies would respond faster to meet their changing needs.
One of the most important components of creating a well-oiled customer experience strategy is in the adoption of data-centric technology, and the platform that sits at the very heart of that is a Customer Data Platform (CDP). Utilising a CDP drives greater efficiencies across a business and further helps to:
- Increase marketing ROI due to smarter customer targeting and segmentation
- Deliver better brand experience due to omnichannel views of customers
- Allow marketers to be more creative through built-in regulatory compliance solutions
So I thought, what better way to showcase how leveraging a CDP can help marketeers execute meaningful customer experiences, than chatting to one of the leading platforms, Treasure Data!
Please welcome, Andy Gremett, Director of Product Marketing, Treasure Data
Andrea: Before we get into the detail, can you first give us a top-line overview of the Treasure Data Platform, and what us provides?
Andy:: Of course! Treasure Data was built to radically simplify customer data management and help brands use all of their customer data to improve campaign performance, achieve operational efficiency, and drive business value with connected customer experiences.
Further, our customer Data Cloud integrates customer data, connects identities in unified customer profiles, applies privacy, and makes insights and predictions available for Marketing, Service, Sales, and Operations to drive personalised engagement and improve customer acquisition, sales, and retention. What really differentiates us here is that we lead with strength and scale as the backbone for the largest global, regional, nation-wide, and multi-brand businesses. In essence, we are an enterprise which speaks directly to the omnichannel view.
Treasure data’s platform makes it easier to understand and analyse customer behaviours, exploring preferences, trends, and making informed decisions. For example, it can track what content a customer has viewed, how they have interacted with a brand and on which platforms, as well as if they are likely to make a purchase. And with the growing prevalence of the omnichannel approach, connected customer experiences are key to growing your customer base, maintaining customer loyalty, and increasing the bottom line.
Andrea: Awesome, thank you. You mention above about connecting customer experiences – in order to execute meaningful customer experiences, it is important for marketers to understand the customer journey. Can you tell us a bit about how the Treasure Data platform aids in this understanding?
Andy: You are spot on – one of the key tactics in creating a connected customer experience is understanding the customer journey. In fact, we wrote about this too over on our site – check it out if you have time.
A customer journey, is the path that an individual customer or prospect takes as they interact with your brand, and so understanding the customer journey involves understanding your customers’ needs and perceptions. It typically isn’t linear and is often counterintuitive to what marketers predict. This insight can only be gained by collecting behavioural, transactional, and identity data over a period of time, and using this data to build a complete picture of each individual customer. In essence, a unified customer view.
The Treasure data Platform enables businesses to activate campaigns based on targeted, segmented, or personalised data to create more connected customer experiences across the entire customer journey across all channels.
Andrea: It sounds so interesting. So, I guess what would be really beneficial for our readers is to explore some use cases you guys are seeing across the CDP currently?
Andy: Of course, let’s take a look through a few examples.
Customer Loyalty Programs: In the current climate, keeping and growing existing customers is more important than ever. CDPs play a strong role in managing and being successful with a loyalty program. (Example here)
Next Best Action Campaigns: Using Predictive Analysis and Machine Learning
Customer Data Cloud allows you to create audience segments and apply predictive analytics and machine learning to determine the next-best action for each segment to take. This allows you to understand and orchestrate the customer journey by moving them from one stage to the next with the right campaigns, delivered at the right time, on the right channel.
Andrea: Awesome, thank you for sharing. Following on from that, what sort of initiatives are CDPs typically included in?
Andy: Digital transformation is an initiative that often includes a CDP. The ultimate point of ‘digital transformation’ is to help you best engage and serve your customers. To do that, you need accurate customer data to drive your processes, insights, and actions. A CDP’s ability to use all types of information from multiple sources allows it to create unified, robust customer profiles that contribute to deeper consumer insights–a competitive edge that is not easily matched.
By developing a deep understanding of your customers’ preferences and behaviours, you will gain a competitive edge. How? Well it allows you to gain a deeper understanding of your customers’ preferences and behaviours, resulting in increased customer loyalty and engagement. This data and insight allows you to identify and respond to market shifts quickly and efficiently.
Andrea: Finally, what would your final words of wisdom be to our readers in how they can execute meaningful experiences for their customers through the power of data and tech?
Andy: Good question! I would say, it is imperative to understand the customer journey in detail in order to build incredible results. Once you have nailed that down, you can use it to plan and inform your marketing strategy so that the customer experiences and interactions you deliver, effectively increase ROI. So if you’re looking to build a strong and enduring relationship with your customers in 2023, make understanding the customer journey a top priority. And of course, we are more than happy to talk! We work with you guys at Silverbullet on many joint projects and I believe your deep expertise in the customer data arena – combined with your knowledge of the Treasure data suite of tools – makes us a force to be reckoned with!
Why not chat to our Authors about how you can leverage Treasure Data and Silverbullet to transform your customer experience strategy:
