1-to-1 Personalization and Customer Data Platform - Evergage … · 2020. 8. 27. · segment data...

Companies today are increasingly moving from a customer-centric vision to a customer-centric mandate – one overseen by a company’s most senior-level executives. Understanding each customer at an individual level is something most of us can comprehend, as we’re all customers ourselves. We would all like to be treated in a way that makes us feel valued and appreciated. Delivering on this promise and executing it at scale in a multi-channel world, however, is di�cult. Between your stores/branches, email system, loyalty program, call center, website, mobile app, DMP, social/adtech platforms and more – each containing valuable customer data – the challenge is daunting.

Enter the Customer Data Platform (CDP). CDPs hold the potential to help companies gain a deeper understanding of their customers by aggregating and synchronizing data sources into a single view that, in turn, can be used for conducting comprehensive customer analysis, creating and monitoring segments, and, potentially, taking action on the data. In this regard, CDPs can provide tremendous value.

If you are in the process of evaluating CDPs, it’s worth taking the time to consider your future plans surrounding your customer data. This short white paper examines some of the business realities of using Evergage, a combined CDP and personalization platform, versus a basic CDP. It also outlines key pitfalls of having a system of insight that is separate and distinct from the primary system of engagement.

Companies that decide to purchase a CDP that is only a system of insight – a CDP that aggregates customer data into individual profiles and enables analysis but does not deliver experiences (i.e., engagement) – will ultimately be disappointed. The reason is that such companies will eventually decide they want to act on the individual profile data stored in the CDP but will discover that it’s extremely di�cult. The goal of every business is not just to understand its customers, but also to engage them with maximally relevant content and experiences.

Systems of Insight and Systems of Engagement

Introduction

Why Your CDP Vision Must Include Engagement at the Individual Level

[email protected] | 1-888-310-0589 | EVERGAGE.COM 2019 EVERGAGE, INC. 2019 EVERGAGE, INC. [email protected] | 1-888-310-0589 | EVERGAGE.COM | 01

The image above shows the functionality of two common types of CDPs, one that is solely a system of insight (purple) and the other that’s a system of insight and activation at the segment level (gray). Both types have key shortcomings.

For this reason, most companies looking for a CDP are looking for systems that combine insight and engagement. However, the vast majority of CDPs can only activate at the segment level and not engage at the individual level. We describe the challenges with this type of CDP in the rest of this white paper.

The image above compares the capabilities of a limited CDP (gray) with those of Evergage (blue). Both solutions can share segment-level data with other systems but only Evergage can also engage audience members at the 1-to-1 level.

+ Deep Data+ Single Profile

+ Real Time- Not 1-to-1

Understand, Segment

CDP that is System of Insight & Segments

+ Deep Data+ Unified Profile

+ Real Time+ 1-to-1 Engage

Understand, Decide & Respond

SEGMENTS

1-to-1

Website, Mobile

ESP, Email

Call Center

Ad Tech / Social

In Store / POS / Branch

Delivery Channels

SEGMENTS

Data Sources

Transactions

Loyalty Program

Data Sources

CDP ONLY as a System of Insight


- Not Real Time- Not 1-to-1

Understand, Analyze




Understand, Analyze

SEGMENTS

Website, Mobile

ESP, Email

Call Center

Ad Tech / Social


Delivery ChannelsData Sources

Transactions

Catalog, Promotions

Site / App / ESPBehavior

Loyalty Program

Call Center

Data Sources

2019 EVERGAGE, INC. [email protected] | 1-888-310-0589 | EVERGAGE.COM | 02


Call Center

Catalog, Promotions

Two Platforms = Two Brains = Problems

Companies that decide to purchase a basic CDP, one that provides a system of insight while only activating at the segment-level, will inevitably need to purchase a second piece of technology: a personalization platform that can provide individual customers with relevant experiences and 1-to-1 engagement across channels.

Basic CDPs are primarily designed to evaluate and identify audience segments (e.g., high-value customers, those who have purchased leather boots in the past six months, etc.) and then pass the data to a separate system of engagement. Segment data is undoubtedly valuable in many situations (such as when sending an email to your high-value customers), but when the CDP can only pass segment-level data to another system for engagement, you’re not able to deliver 1-to-1 experiences or 1-to-1 content. As a result, your only option for greater relevance is a greater number of smaller segments mapped to specific campaigns, forcing you to trade o� relevance with increased complexity.

Having two platforms – a CDP and a separate personalization platform – e�ectively creates a technology environment with two “brains.” CDPs are a type of advanced, centralized brain full of customer data that generates insights from that data. The reality, though, is that to execute campaigns that engage audience members at a 1-to-1 level (and in real time), a personalization platform must also act as a brain. In fact, a personalization platform must serve as a more advanced and sophisticated brain than a basic CDP. It needs to leverage machine learning to sift through the vast amount of customer data and make the best decision about which experience, content, promotion, message or recommendation to deliver to each individual at any given moment (e.g., a person who just landed on your website, is opening your most recent email, is calling into your call center, etc.) and in what channel.

To deliver a fully relevant experience to an individual, Evergage needs all of the raw data about the customer including web behavioral data (tracked natively by Evergage), email interaction data, in-store transactions, loyalty program information, survey data, and more. It also needs the context of the company’s business including its catalog, promotions, physical locations, etc.

Now, you may be asking, isn’t this the same data you are integrating into a CDP? Isn’t the point of your CDP to be the central system for this information and to make smart decisions based on it? Yes! However, when you integrate data into a basic CDP first, you will inevitably have to redo many of those same integrations with your personalization platform because it can activate faster and at a more granular level when given access to the same data.

Limitations of Segments

Suboptimal Architecture


Likewise, consider the channels in which you want to reach a particular customer: email, web, mobile app, online ads, call center, in-store. For each of these channels, your fundamental approach – the way you will tie campaigns to segments and individuals – will be di�erent if you are able to engage at the individual level versus only to groups of people. So instead of creating 50 segments mapped to 50 campaigns, you can create one campaign powered by one machine-learning algorithm that personalizes at the 1-to-1 level. The power of 1-to-1 personalization is that you do not need to trade o� relevance and complexity.

Companies that implement a basic CDP often realize that they cannot activate on customer data, or can only do so at the segment level and not in real time. At that point, they often turn to Evergage to fulfill their objective of true 1-to-1 engagement. It is unfortunate to see such companies waste so much time and money implementing a solution that is best addressed by a combined CDP and personalization platform. In this case, two brains are not better than one.

The image above represents how Evergage (blue) would integrate with a basic CDP (gray). If Evergage has to rely upon segment data passed from a basic CDP, it will not be able to leverage the rich customer data that a company has stored in

other systems to deliver 1-to-1 experiences. To do so, Evergage must have direct access to data sources and systems.

To market to individual customers – at scale – requires a CDP that can both understand and activate at an individual level. Let's look at an example through the lens of two di�erent customers of retailer “Smart Saves,” Susan Jones and Susan Smith. Their profile data is seen below.

Why 1-to-1 Engagement: Use Case Example




Understand, Segment


1-to-1 Personalization Solution

To work, a personalization solution needs: SEGMENTS

1-to-1

SEGMENTS

SEGMENTSWebsite, Mobile

ESP, Email

Call Center

Ad Tech / Social


Delivery ChannelsData Sources

Transactions

Catalog, Promotions


Loyalty Program

Data Sources

Raw data from all the data sources, not just segments from a CDP

The ability to personalize every channel at the 1-to-1 level

To get 1-to-1, you will need to reimplement a “1-to-1 CDP” next to a stand-alone CDP.

1.

2.

Call Center

Each “Susan” has a distinct customer profile with di�erent purchase behavior, patterns and preferences.

Let’s say you want to engage both of these consumers via an email campaign to remind them that they have loyalty points to spend. You might begin by putting both Susans into a segment of customers that have outstanding loyalty points, and send them an email campaign with the same creative reminding them that they have loyalty points to redeem.

Both “Susans” receive the same email campaign because they are part of a segment of people that have outstanding loyalty points.

Susan Smith

Toys and Games

Candles & Di�users

Kids Electronics

Household Goods

3 Purchase, in store

Purchased, 190 Days Ago

Member of Smart Rewards

Visits Smart Saves’ Website

New Arrivals

Seasonal

Furniture

For the Home

Susan Jones

1 Purchase, in store

Purchased, 215 Days Ago

Member of Smart Rewards

No Recent Website Visits

2019 EVERGAGE, INC.

$450.00 1 0 $182.00 3 24

[email protected] | 1-888-310-0589 | EVERGAGE.COM | 05

The campaign may have some impact, but it is not particularly relevant to each person. Instead, you might decide to make additional segments for each kind of category a�nity. In this case, let’s say Susan Jones has a preference for seasonal furniture while Susan Smith has a preference for household goods. This would result in emails like the ones below in which each recipient receives creative content associated to a known a�nity.

Susan Jones receives the email on the left because she’s part of a segment of people that have outstanding loyalty points and a known preference towards seasonal furniture. Susan Smith receives the email on the right because she’s part of a

segment of people that have outstanding loyalty points and a known preference for household goods.

2019 EVERGAGE, INC.

These loyalty points reminder emails are more relevant and compelling because they have a more relevant banner and o�er.

Basic CDPs can only pass audience data to ESPs with associated content for that audience, but they cannot determine or pass individually relevant content for each individual. As a result, operationalizing the email example noted above, with a basic level of relevance, will quickly result in large number of segments you must set up in a CDP and then map those segments to a large number of campaigns in your ESP.

For instance, you would need to make a “have outstanding loyalty points” segment for every major product category (e.g., seasonal furniture + have outstanding loyalty points; household goods + have outstanding loyalty points, etc.) and map them to matching campaigns in your ESP resulting in numerous segments and campaigns to manage. You will also want to engage customers who are not in the loyalty program, who are active loyalty members, who are likely to churn, etc. More still, you may want to di�erentiate among customers not just by each di�erent category a�nity and loyalty status, but also by their tendency to respond to o�ers (and what type of o�er they respond to).



With these complexities, the number of segments you must set up and manage grows and grows and quickly gets out of control.

This is just one example on one channel, so you can see how the problem expands exponentially with di�erent campaigns across channels. As a result, most companies end up curbing their ambitions and instead settle for some group-level relevance – falling way short of a customer-centric mandate.

Unlike basic CDPs, Evergage can activate at the segment level and at the 1-to-1 level. Evergage can enable far greater individual relevance in every touchpoint and let a business scale with much greater simplicity.

With the machine-learning capabilities of Evergage’s real-time personalization and customer data platform,it is possible (and easy) to deliver truly personalized emails like this:

Susan Jones has shown that she doesn’t have any interest in patio/outdoor furniture but was

browsing couches on the site. Thus, even though she likes seasonal furniture, Evergage

algorithmically chooses a couch banner. Machine learning also calculates that she

will not likely buy without an o�er, so one is displayed. And Evergage-powered

recommendations show the most relevant couches for her.

Evergage’s machine learning determines that Susan Smith likely doesn’t need an o�er to

make a purchase, so she is simply reminded of her personal rewards level and that she only

needs one more purchase to receive a coupon. Relevant household goods products

are shown to her based on her history and preferences.

2019 EVERGAGE, INC.

To summarize this example, the Evergage-powered emails are:

• More Relevant: The banner, o�er, products and promotion are all personalized at the 1-to-1 level.


• More Scalable: Rather than creating lots of hard-to-manage segments in a CDP and then mapping them to campaigns with a fixed set of creative in an ESP, with Evergage, you simply set up a single campaign in your ESP and Evergage delivers all of the content personalized at the 1-to-1 level.

CONCLUSION

Evergage is the only solution purpose built to be a unified CDP/personalization platform that understands customers at an individual (and segment) level and then activates – at both levels – on that data across your channels. The power of our machine learning-driven approach enables much greater relevance, much simpler operations, much greater scale, and true real-time execution. The same cannot be said of basic CDPs. Basic CDPs will only help you aggregate your data, resolve identities and customer profiles, create segments, and select segment-level campaigns. Unlike Evergage, they won’t enable you to engage at the 1-to-1 level and deliver truly personalized experiences that a customer-centric mandate requires. After all, why go to all the trouble of integrating and aggregating vast amounts of data at the individual level if you’re not going to act on the data at the individual level? Be sure to talk to Evergage before making such a mistake.

Above we have outlined just one use case example on one channel, but the same points apply across websites, mobile apps, push notifications, call centers, in-store (kiosks/POS/clienteling), in-branch, and other channels.

1-to-1 Personalization and Customer Data Platform - Evergage … · 2020. 8. 27. · segment data...

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