Why customer data unification matters for your business
April 19, 2022
You probably receive customer data by running marketing campaigns and conducting surveys. But without unifying this data under one roof, you’re working with siloed information and aren’t making the most of the available data.
In this post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about customer data unification. We’ll go through what it is, how it can benefit your company, and easy ways to start implementing it into your work processes.
What is customer data unification?
Customer data unification is collecting data from multiple sources, organizing it into customer profiles, and making these profiles available to your entire team. With this level of insight and clarity, appealing to customers is more straightforward.
And if you’ve been collecting customer data for a while, you already have the tools needed for successful personalization. You just need to put that information in a customer data platform, or CDP, and make it widely available.
Why is customer data unification necessary?
In short, data unification, also known as data stitching, is crucial because:
- Marketers can optimize campaigns around customers
- Customer profile unification is easier
- You stay up to date on customer needs
Marketers can optimize campaigns around customers
You have hundreds or even thousands of unique customers within your data sources. It’s impossible to appeal to all these customers individually, but by grouping them into categories and running targeted campaigns to these categories, you give yourself the best chance of success.
Unfortunately, understanding different customer traits is a hassle if you don’t unify data. And if you can’t appeal to these customer traits, running a successful marketing campaign is near impossible.
This is where customer data unification can help. It lets you create campaigns that appeal to specific groups.
Customer profile unification is easy
To build effective campaigns, you must unify all the pieces of information you have about your customers. That way, you can create profiles covering different customer behaviors like:
- Transactional: Data on customers’ purchasing habits
- Location: Knowing where your customer likes to buy
- Personal information: First and last name, phone number, and email address
- Predictions: Knowing customer lifetime value and promotional sensitivity
- Clickstream: Understanding the path customers take to buy your product or service
By connecting these points, you’ll understand your customers better, which pays dividends in the long term.
Stay up to date with customer needs
Your audience’s needs are constantly evolving. Fortunately, customer data unification allows you to spot trends in real time without the help of a third party. This means you can react and even predict customer behavior and tailor your marketing campaigns around this.
So instead of thinking of unification as a one-time activity, think of it as an ongoing process that you need to manage.
How to implement customer data unification into your business
Here’s how to get started with customer data unification in three easy steps:
- Remove all silos and consolidate data
- Analyze and measure the entire customer journey
- Build dynamic user experiences
Step 1: Remove all silos and consolidate data
Forty-seven percent of marketers say information is difficult to access. This siloed data is a significant reason behind failed campaigns. When you don’t understand your customer and their pain points, you can’t create compelling copy.
That’s why bringing all this information together is challenging. An effective way to make it more manageable is to start small and work your way up. For example, you could start by gathering your website and mobile app analytics under a CDP.
Next, make a list of all the different methods you use to collect data. These methods could be billing systems, email marketing campaigns, and surveys. Once you’ve put all this data under one roof, it’s time for step two.
Step 2: Analyze and measure the entire customer journey
The second step involves measuring customer data and using attribution models to determine which marketing campaigns are bringing in the most leads.
This process tries to spot patterns that help understand why specific campaigns are working while others aren’t. Maybe your social media ads hit customer pain points perfectly while your email copy is slightly off.
Measuring the entire customer journey enables you to understand the customer better than they understand themselves.
Step 3: Build dynamic customer experiences
Now comes the fun part. Use the insights found by analyzing the customer journey and implement them into your marketing campaigns to better relate with customers.
Consider using split testing to target different customer pain points to see which converts better. As you run campaigns, you’ll start noticing customer behavioral patterns, allowing for improved targeting.
Ramp up your marketing with data unification and Lytics
Customer data unification collects and organizes data from multiple sources and puts it under one roof. This is important because it allows you to understand your customer better and personalize your marketing efforts.
If you’re looking to take your marketing to the next level with customer data unification, consider a customer data platform like Lytics. Sign up for a free trial of Lytics Cloud Connect today.
