Face the music: Apple privacy changes hit e-commerce marketing
Apple privacy changes are right around the corner, and marketers who rely on Facebook ads are bracing for major impact. Here's what you need to know.
It’s time to take a closer look at customer data platforms, not just what they do, but what you need to know about implementing a CDP.
Not every trend needs to be adopted, but beware the professional who fails to recognize the legitimacy of emerging tools to move their business forward like customer data platforms can. And, meet the complex expectations of customers.
CDPs are a part of a sea change in the relationship between marketing and consumers. Because marketing is so tied to technology, it’s an industry that changes quickly – just as quickly as the technology itself.
The last decade has seen the rise of social media giants, which propelled an entirely new career: the social media marketer. That role in particular has some suggesting they are our future CMOs.
Of course, social media marketing as a role on a marketing team is actually older than an entirely different new role: the growth marketer. This role is so new in fact, that despite it being the most in-demand marketing role, few companies or hiring managers can agree on what it even is.
The rising dominance of a privacy-first web, marketers are needing to change once again.
For the last decade, third-party data has been the go-to source of information on prospects and customers, allowing marketers to collect, target, and message to large cohorts of people who never gave them permission to do so.
But the internet is changing, and third-party data is all but disappearing. In its place are data privacy and ethical data collection, forcing a renewed interest in first-party data. This is where CDP, or customer data platforms, comes in handy. As with all major shifts in technology, though, determining you need a CDP, choosing the right one for your business, and then implementing it isn’t as easily done as said.
To help squash any “is it just us?” concerns, following is everything you can expect when implementing a CDP.
Hint: It’s not just you. Most marketers (and their data teams) will go through this process and come out better for it.
Apple privacy changes are right around the corner, and marketers who rely on Facebook ads are bracing for major impact. Here's what you need to know.
Whether you are already worried about the new 7-day attribution window on Facebook and other advertising platforms, already concerned about the lack of visibility into organic search traffic from the iOS app, or just waiting until you lose most of your attribution data –– the first shock wave will be realizing that marketing will never be the same.
That isn’t to say that marketing didn’t used to be like this. The age of attribution –– or the last decade or so –– has been a unique moment in marketing.
It’s likely that trend will be reversed in the privacy-first era, getting us all back to a better-balanced marketing budget. Our reliance on data isn’t going to just disappear. Instead, marketers will look to customer data platforms to help connect the dots on the data they can collect: first-party data.
All marketing teams will need to adopt a CDP, but they won’t all choose the same ones. Budgets, existing marketing technology stacks, and individual team and company org charts will all play a part in which CDP a company chooses.
Direct-to-consumer companies may be drawn to cloud CDP providers since they are easier to use, have a great interface, and offer several clear and actionable next steps for putting the data to use.
Start-up technology organizations, on the other hand, will likely choose independent CDPs that can be set up, organized, and run by their tech and development teams. These CDPs collect data and then use APIs to send that data wherever makes the most sense for the team. This way, marketing teams can visualize data in the way they need, and the tech and development teams can do the same.
Larger, more established organizations will likely go with customer data platforms offered by their existing and preferred technology partners. And there’s a good reason for that. With all their data already running through a single system, why wouldn’t they just hook up a CDP and turn the data they already have into actionable insights?
If none of these examples fit your situation, worry not. There are incredible resources for getting started at the bottom of this post.
It's predicted that 70% of CDP vendors will be acquired by larger CDP vendors over the next few years. That means it's time for you to understand the types of CDP, and which is best for your business - because your business needs a CDP to survive in the future.
It’s done! Your team has determined which CDP is right for them. Now, it needs to be set up. That means you need to figure out which teams in your organization will do that setup, get it on their project management roadmap (i.e. in their sprint), and then test out the data to make sure it is accurate and helpful.
Most marketing teams won’t be able to set a CDP up on their own. You’ll want to work at the very least with a marketing operations team. In companies that have tech or data teams, those teams should take on the responsibility of setup. But, how do you get cross-departmental support for the initiative, and get it properly prioritized?
Internal communication will be key and will determine the speed of implementation.
CDPs are one of the fastest growing technology solutions in the market, and it’s easy to see why. Let's take a closer look at the advantages of customer data platforms that are spurring their growing adoption by companies.
You’ve already done all the work, felt each of the shock waves. Now it is time to get the value out of your new tool –– and start improving the customer experience while you’re at it.
Turns out, each shock wave builds a better mountain for your company and your customers to stand on.