A business simply won’t survive if it can’t acquire and retain enough customers. So business leaders must all answer these two seemingly simple questions: How do you get new customers? And how do you keep the customers you have? CDP software can help.

There are many different answers to those questions, ranging from big-picture business strategies to small-scale measures in a company’s marketing and sales efforts. One way to attract and keep customers that often goes overlooked is using specialized tools like customer data platforms (CDPs).

CDP software has many applications, one of which is improving customer acquisition and retention. Here’s how you can put this software to good use in those areas:

What is CDP Software?

Customer data platform software, also known as CDP software, is a software solution that helps companies aggregate customer data from various sources into a centralized database. Typically, companies collect first-party customer data from many different systems like their customer relationship management (CRM) software, website analytics, email, and social media platforms. This customer data often ends up in data silos, preventing departments from efficiently sharing the information they have with other teams in the company.  

A customer data platform changes that. When you use a customer data platform, it connects and pulls data from all those disparate sources together. The CDP can then act as a single source of truth about your customers. You can use it to create complete, 360-views of each of your customers. 

5 Ways CDP Software Drives Better Customer Acquisition and Retention

The data that your customer data platform collects and manages is invaluable for improving your customer acquisition and retention. The following are five key ways that using CDP software can help you bring in new customers and retain the customers you already have. 

1. Mapping Customer Journeys

If you want to acquire new customers, you need to understand the ways that customers interact with your company. How are potential customers typically first exposed to your products or services? How long does it generally take customers to decide whether to purchase from your business? What do your customers do right before they purchase from your business for the first time? 

The answers to these questions are key to improving your customer acquisitions. A customer data platform helps you find and analyze all this information to better map out your customer journeys. Once your customer journeys are mapped out in more detail, you will be able to identify areas where you can make improvements. Even small positive changes in the customer journey will have a significant impact on your customer acquisition and retention efforts. 

2. Segmenting Customers

Customer segmentation is based on the idea that a one-size-fits-all marketing policy isn’t the best approach. Instead, you should separate customers into groups based on characteristics that they share and tailor your marketing efforts to each of those groups. Moreover, this line of thinking is especially applicable when it comes to acquiring vs retaining customers.

Your marketing efforts for brand-new customers generally need to focus on getting them familiar with your brand and your products. That’s not necessary with returning customers. They already know your brand and like it enough to complete a purchase. If you’re going to keep those customers around, you need to adjust your approach.

A customer data platform can give you access to all the data you need to effectively segment your customers. You can leverage demographic data, purchasing history, interactions with your website, and other key data points to build complex, useful audience segments. The next step is to take those segments and create targeted marketing efforts that fit each of them. 

3. Enabling More Personalization 

More than ever, customers are demanding personalized solutions and interactions from businesses. 76% of consumers claim to get frustrated when businesses don’t deliver those personalized interactions. The challenge for companies is to find a feasible way to personalize the experience for each customer. When you have thousands of customers, how can you possibly personalize your offerings for all of them?

CDP software can help. Since a customer data platform gives you access to first-party customer data from a variety of systems, you can use the CDP data to personalize your marketing efforts and solutions for each customer. Not only will this help you bring in new customers by making your business stand out, but it will also aid your customer retention efforts. 

4. Tracking the Success of Your Marketing Measures

No business leader wants to waste money by investing in ineffective or outdated marketing efforts. To ensure you’re putting your marketing budget toward the best marketing measures, you need to track the success of your campaigns. 

Many different digital tools can help you track key performance indicators (KPIs) on your marketing campaigns, but don’t overlook customer data platforms. You can use a CDP to track metrics like the conversion rate on your campaigns. The customer data platform will track customer data and give you the information you need to distinguish effective marketing efforts from low-performing campaigns you should discontinue. 

5. Facilitating Cross-Channel Marketing

Today, most businesses use multi-channel marketing efforts. They don’t just send promotional emails, use social media, or leverage digital ads—they do it all and more. If you don’t have the right system in place to track customer interactions across these different channels, though, you’re not getting the most out of your multi-channel marketing. 

A customer data platform will collect customer data in each of these channels and bring it together into a central database. From there, you can use the data to create more consistent, effective cross-channel marketing efforts for both returning and new customers. 

Upgrade Your Customer Acquisition and Retention with CDP Software

Using a customer data platform significantly enhances your customer retention and acquisition efforts. Between helping you segment customers and improving cross-channel marketing efforts, a CDP is the tool you need to bring in and keep more customers. 

Not sure how to get started with CDP software at your enterprise? Contact Live Earth for more information.