Streamlining data collection with a Customer Data Infrastructure solution

With first-party customer data becoming more valuable than ever before, marketing teams need to ensure they have a solid plan in place for collecting it. But, this doesn’t simply mean teams should focus on collecting more customer data.

Rather, marketers need to know what data to focus on (i.e., what data is most valuable, both overall and for their present purposes), as well as which channels are needed to find this data.

This is where customer data infrastructure comes in.

Key functions of a Customer Data Infrastructure tool

A customer data infrastructure has one main purpose: collecting behavioral data from customers at all touchpoints at all stages of the customer lifecycle — specifically from the company’s first-party sources.

Some examples:

• Website behaviors: Pages visited, content/products viewed, time on site
• Social media behaviors: Products purchased via social channel, comments/DMs sent
• Email behaviors: Emails opened, links clicked

With a CDI in hand, marketing teams can gain a solid understanding of their customers’ digital experiences with their brand. Moreover, they can also identify the most critical moments within these journeys — allowing them to focus on optimizing their customer experience overall.

3 Benefits of using a Customer Data Infrastructure solution

There are three key reasons that a CDI can be game-changing for marketing teams looking to supercharge their first-party data collection efforts. Let’s look at each one.

1. Privacy and Compliance

Data security has become a top concern for both consumers and the companies that serve them. A recent report from Luxury Institute found that 98% of U.S. consumers see data privacy as a major concern, with 93% saying they would switch to competing brands should a lack of privacy become an issue.

In many cases, teams are also required by law to ensure that the data they collect from their customers remains secure at all times. But as the research shows, even when it’s not a legal requirement, it is generally in the company’s best interest to keep their user data private.

Modern CDIs, like MetaRouter, comply with privacy standards set by GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and PCI documentation. This not only guarantees the customer’s privacy, but also ensures your brand’s reputation remains intact.

2. Speed and Efficiency

Collecting customer data manually would be an incredibly time-consuming process — both for the marketer and the consumer. With a CDI, the data collection process can occur in real time without causing any type of interruption.

On the customer’s end, CDIs ensure minimal lag time and slowdown when on-site. Though the tool is constantly collecting behavioral data throughout the visit, it will never manifest in slowly loading pages or on-site content.

For marketing teams, a quality CDI will streamline the data-collection process across the board. By minimizing data bloat and eliminating duplicate data, CDIs make it as easy as possible for team members to find the exact data they’re looking for at any given moment.

3. Owned Data Pipelines

Because CDIs collect customer data directly from first-party sources, marketing teams will have complete visibility of said data at all times. What’s more, CDIs ensure that any data that can be collected will be collected. In other words, CDIs leave no stone unturned — and leave no data housed within so-called “black boxes.”

The result: A comprehensive collection of first-party data that tells the whole story of the customer’s digital experience with the brand.

Using a data warehouse to organize, store, and retrieve customer data

A data warehouse, or cloud data platform (CDP), allows marketing teams to store the data they collect on their customers for safekeeping. But they are much more than just empty digital silos, and they offer much more than just a place to stockpile customer data.

Yes, from a high-level perspective, data warehouses are all about streamlining the storage and retrieval of incoming customer data. Critically, however, they also process this data as it comes in, formatting and categorizing it based on parameters set by the marketing team.

By categorizing and compartmentalizing customer data, data warehouses allow for laser-focused location and retrieval of any known information a team has on their audience members.

(Also of note: This all stands in contrast to data lakes, which serve as repositories for raw, un-manipulated data.)

Data warehouses + first-party data = ?

Though data warehouses can refine and store any type of customer data, they’re perhaps best-suited for use with first-party data. This is because marketing teams can create definitions for all possible incoming data and define any digital behaviors or events that may occur in which important data is to be collected.

This makes it incredibly easy for the data to be categorized within the data warehouse.

As a simple example, say a customer visits a company’s website. During their visit, they:

• Click on a blog post
• Visit a product page
• Add an item to their cart — but abandon the care before finalizing the purchase

The information gleaned from this engagement can be used to not only update the customer’s individual profile but also the overall audience metrics for the company.

Since each of these actions (along with others) is relatively standard, the marketing team will have created workflows to ensure the appropriate data is collected and organized properly. From there, the team can easily retrieve the information as needed to make improvements to the individual customer experience, and to that of their audience as a whole.

With Lytics Conductor, your CDI goals can quickly become a reality, without a hassle.