With the hyper-digitisation of the modern era, truly understanding the buyer’s journey has become increasingly complex. They might browse a product’s web page one day, but purchase another device on another day. This creates “data silos”, making it difficult for CMOs to understand what the story-per-purchase is. For marketing teams building campaigns, success depends on understanding how customers navigate the funnel.
For the best results, formulated systems and processes must ensure that inferred data accurately reflects a buyer’s journey. Marketers should both understand the importance of data unification and evaluate the top platforms that can help achieve it.
Important approaches to data unification
Data unification is a powerful asset for growth. When businesses stitch together disparate data points into a single, persistent profile, they gain three advantages.
Elevating personalisation beyond basic segmentation
While basic segmentations of broader factors like age and gender provide valuable data, true personalisation requires a complete view of the customer. For example, if a user views a specific product on a mobile device, that product should at least appear in their peripheral vision when they access the website on their laptop. One of data unification’s strengths lies in its potential for personalisation.
Future-proofing for privacy
In a time when data breaches have become increasingly prevalent, robust privacy structures are an important pillar of an institution’s reputation. Regulations like GDPR and CCPA have become increasingly stringent, and compliance with them is integral to maintaining a positive consumer perception. Data unification is particularly important in this regard because managing user consent in multiple platforms can pose a risk with siloed data.
Having a single, centralised data source helps businesses stay compliant with important regulatory bodies and makes software easier to manage. A single source of truth for privacy requests enables risk management without reputational damage.
Unlocking true marketing ROI and attribution
Without connected mobile and web data, understanding attribution is largely guesswork. When there is a clear sense of which strategies work and which don’t, marketing and development teams can use that data to build optimal models. Understanding which cross-channel touchpoints drive real conversions is important to effective innovation and long-term growth.
Top 4 platforms for unifying web and mobile customer data
Identifying the right enterprise for unifying customer data requires balancing power with practical support.
1. Tealium
Tealium is a top choice for companies that need a flexible, powerful and secure way to manage their data. It is a recognised leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Data Platforms (CDP) and is built specifically to handle complex, global tech stacks.
While Tealium is a product, its power is sustained by high-quality, hands-on support. The company provides dedicated Customer Success Managers to ensure clients can navigate the platform’s extensive features effectively. Instead of just selling a tool, they serve as a partner to ensure data governance and privacy are effectively handled.
Key features:
- Real-time identity stitching: Resolves customer identities in web and mobile apps in milliseconds.
- Robust integration ecosystem: Offers over 1,300 pre-built integrations, making it one of the most connected CDPs available.
- Advanced privacy controls: Built-in governance ensures data is handled safely from the moment it’s collected.
2. Twilio
Twilio, recently merged with Segment, is a renowned option for businesses that prefer a great API. It is a complete central source that collects data from a single source, processes it and sends it to a collection of other tools. The approach makes the software a valuable resource for technical teams looking to build custom data transformations.
Key features:
- Developer-friendly APIs: Simplifies tracking occurrences in mobile and web with clean documentation.
- Data transformation functions: Allows teams to write code to enrich and filter data before it reaches its destination.
- Data replay abilities: Enables historical data to be resent to new tools, making it considerably easier to test new marketing technologies.
3. mParticle
For businesses that have a more mobile-first model, mParticle is the industry standard. While their web data abilities still exist, the greatest strength lies in their Software Development Kits (SDKs), which can process the often messy data that mobile applications generate – like crashes or connectivity issues – and process them efficiently.
Key features:
- Specialised mobile SDKs: Provides optimised data processing for mobile-centred businesses through unique infrastructure.
- Advanced data quality Tools: Validates and cleans data right at the source.
- Feed-based integrations: Syncs data with mobile apps like Facebook and Snapchat.
4. ActionIQ
For teams that have already invested in big data warehouses like BigQuery, ActionIQ provides many data solutions. It embraces a hybrid approach, letting teams pull data directly from where it already resides, not copy it into the new system.
Key features:
- Hybrid system: Connects straight to the warehouse to avoid any data duplication.
- Warehouse compatibility: Works perfectly with major storage companies.
- Accessible UI: Uses a simple “drag and drop” system that is accessible to marketers who may not be tech-savvy.
Understanding the unified customer journey
Having a deep understanding of a customer’s journey through the funnel is nonnegotiable for businesses that want to remain competitive in today’s landscape. When it comes to building campaigns that drive revenue, there aren’t many assets as valuable as accurate and comprehensive data. By selecting the right provider that fits its needs, a business can turn data unification from a hurdle to a tool.
