What’s a CDP? New Dummies Guide 2.0 Shows Enterprises How to Use Customer Data to Compete NOW

What is a customer data platform (CDP)? How are CDPs used in business? What’s the difference between CDPs, CRMs, DSPs, and DMPs? These are just some of the questions that the original “Enterprise Customer Data Platforms for Dummies” answered when it was released in 2018. But I think I speak for many when I say that 2018 seems SO very far away now. Today, on the cusp of the release of the 2022 version, the business world is a very different place. And while the fundamentals covered in the new “Enterprise Customer Data Platforms for Dummies 2.0” remain the same, much new content has been added to address urgent questions that are gaining in importance.

New: Digital Acceleration, More Case Studies

That’s why our new Dummies Guide on enterprise CDPs, by Wiley, includes such relevant topics as real-time CDP use in retail, how to accelerate digital transformation with CDPs, using CDPs to build a direct-to-consumer market in CPG companies, and using CDPs and customer data outside of marketing in diverse departments such as sales, support, and supply-chain quick reordering. The new edition also talks about orchestrating campaigns, something which CDPs such as Treasure Data now excel at, and features case studies at leading companies Subaru, PARCO, Stripe International, and AB InBev.

In particular, digital transformation based on knowing what customers want and how they want to buy it, has accelerated as companies have turned their five-year plans into five-month plans to adjust to massive, fast shifts in consumer habits. That’s because the pandemic has so fundamentally changed so many aspects of the customer experience: the way we buy things, play games, experience entertainment, and interact with brands and each other.

Also, use of CDPs has grown rapidly, with some observers predicting that CDPs will eventually take over many CRM functions. Already, CDPs can use CRM data as just one data source among many, combine that first-party data with other information, and deliver an extremely detailed single customer view (SCV) for millions of customers that can be used to personalize each individual’s customer journey.

Complete customer profiles also provide unified data for customer data analytics, and data-driven insights into everything from hidden customer demand to how to tell when a customer is ready to buy a car. And if you’ve ever seen Subaru’s “Dog tested, dog approved” commercials, you’ve seen the result of insights from customer data analytics that uncovered an unusual affinity for dogs in Subaru’s customer base. Knowing this has helped Subaru to improve its products, with new design features like back seats designed to better fit a pet carrier.

CDPs for Sales & Customer Support, Customer-centricity

The Dummies Guide has also added new material on “customer-centricity,” or putting the customer at the center of everything a business does. Increasingly, businesses are turning to expanded CDP use in departments other than marketing, such as sales and customer service and support, to develop greater customer-centricity.

CDPs, Data Privacy & Security Administration Also Covered in New Dummies Guide

How to administer enterprise data privacy and security has also become even more critical for businesses of all sizes, so the new Dummies Guide contains new information about how CDPs are, as the CDP Institute’s founder David Raab puts it, “foundational to privacy.”

Questions Like “What Is a CDP?” and “How Are CDPs Used in Business?” Still Explained

And of course, “Enterprise CDP for Dummies 2.0” still answers many basic questions as well. It’s a great resource for data driven marketers, as well as for sales and customer support pros. Check out the free Enterprise Customer Data Platforms for Dummies 2.0, in downloadable PDF format.