The Opportunity For Growth Through CDPs
Sales and marketing teams are used to operating under pressure. Responding to often rapidly evolving customer needs has always been part of the role.
But over the last few months, we’ve experienced an unprecedented and fundamental change to the way we conduct business and increased levels of uncertainty across the majority of industry sectors. With the coronavirus-19 leading to lockdown and widespread disruption, organisations have had to adjust and in some cases, transform their entire business model. Many businesses have had to move to remote working with very little warning and are having to adapt to survive.
And the sad truth is not all businesses will.
There are undoubtedly tough times ahead. Economic trends have predicted the worst global recession since the 1930s and GDP is expected to retract by 40% according to JP Morgan. Those that don’t respond quickly and flexibly to our ‘new normal’ may not make it.
But despite the challenges, the business world is also seeing a huge increase in digital-enabled interactions and a new, virtual approach to the way we connect with clients and prospects.
We’re seeing an acceleration in digital transformation. The companies who are the most digitally savvy are likely to be those that thrive and capitalise on new opportunities amid the chaos.
The current terrain
Sales and marketing teams have been feeling the pressure to make more use of technology for a while.
Many will have probably had investment or development planned that has now been accelerated by the pandemic. But there are also other factors that will keep digital transformation as a pressure point within businesses.
One of those is customer behaviour. The use of digital solutions is increasing significantly. Last year, there were 4.39 billion internet users, who spent an average of six hours and 42 minutes per day online. That equates to 1.2 billion years’ worth of time collectively.
The enforced lockdown has introduced many audiences to digital habits that will last beyond the pandemic. And whether increased digitisation was happening before or due to coronavirus, it needs to be met with strong effort from businesses.
It’s also about cultural change. Just like our customers, we’re operating from home. Google Meet is doing two-billion minutes worth of calls every day and Microsoft Teams is just shy of three billion.
It remains to be seen what aspects of remote working businesses will continue when things go ‘back to normal’. Regardless of the extent of change, it’s clear that businesses will need to think about how they can remain competitive and deliver revenue growth in a new environment.
Using technology as a driving force in sales and marketing is likely to become more important than ever. Scott Brinker’s famous Martech Map included 5000 martech companies in 2017. Fast-forward to 2020 and there are now 8000.
Brinker’s map is a visual representation of just how quickly the martech landscape is growing and the plethora of choice. It can be a pressurised and daunting investment decision, especially for those turning to martech for the first time to survive market changes.
The rocky road ahead
The overall density of the martech space is an extreme hurdle for businesses.
There’s just so much going on that it can be really difficult to identify the technology and insights that are the best fit to make your business successful in a digital world.
It can take so long untangling a mass of information that by the time sales and marketers attain the insights they need, it’s already too late and a prospect has been bagged by the competition. In a recent survey we conducted, marketing professionals actually pointed to outdated data as their biggest challenge.
Some marketing teams are event culling martech tools because they create too much information, increase siloes and reduce efficiency rather than delivering improvements.
To extract the best value from martech, a single, simple integrated system can provide the centralised insights you need to deliver success.
A Customer Data Platform (CDP) allows sales and marketers to simplify their tech stack across the customer journey in three stages:
- Firstly, it pulls data from siloed tech stack sources such as your CRM and third-party data sets.
- Secondly, it creates segments which are pulled from the 360 degree view you’ve created.
- Thirdly, this means you can easily activate these audiences through outreach channels.
In any organisation, having good integration across all your systems is essential because it means reaction time can be quick.
If we think back to the situation we find ourselves in due to coronavirus, everyone is online, everyone wants the same responsive and personalised service they’ve always had. Having access to the right technology and the right data is essential not just now, but as a survival approach for the future.
Find out more about D&B Lattice, Dun & Bradstreet’s CDP solution.