Revolutionizing Digital Experiences with the latest Acquia CDP

Every revolution needs a champion. Technology has had some interesting wins over the years that have seen humanity’s creativity thrive. From the unrelenting fears of artificial intelligence, and the embrace of social media to upgrading and assessing data privacy, technology is an endless revolving door that is either making our lives easier or causing more problems. Regardless of unwavering opinions, the change is constant and here to stay.  From the onset, the ability to track, report and analyze data has been the driving force behind countless trends and improvements in marketing. 

To better address customer loyalty and data concerns while delivering top-notch service is a package deal most businesses are putting on delay. As discussed in our blog post on customer centricity, an organizational mindset shift must trickle down from the top. This means that whoever is in charge must take the lead in addressing or changing the culture of the organization to put the consumer first. Not just as talking points but as implementing strategies and systems that function effectively across departments. Marketing teams are recognizing the need to establish and maintain an ongoing relationship with technology if they should remain competitive. But what can you do to facilitate improvements and what systems are available to execute your strategies?

What We Will Cover

In this article, we will discuss Martech, explore the different types of customer data platforms, and why the Acquia Customer Data Platform (CDP) might be a leader in Martech. 

The Martech Revolution

Doxee.com defines martech as the fusion of “marketing” and “technology,” which includes a vast and articulated ecosystem where concepts, methodologies, tools, and professionalism have triggered a real cultural shift.

As a marketer, data plays a vital role in your campaigns and essentially every single step you take to function in your capacity. Where that data is coming from historically has been inaccessible or with issues because there was no easy way to consolidate what’s coming in from all sources. Businesses grow and will eventually need the tools required to carry out marketing and sales goals. You will need to figure out where your customers are and what they do. Those tools are key in getting reporting streamlined to aid in strategy implementation and assessment. Martech is recognizing the role that technology plays in realizing intended goals. 

B2B Marketing Is Changing

Martech.org highlighted that the B2B buyer journey is evolving rapidly as it becomes more digitized, less predictable, and more complex. Alongside technological upgrades, the challenge for B2B marketers is to support what is now considered a self-guided journey involving numerous personas on accounts and increasingly expanding buying teams. Strategies that were once traditionally B2C are now being adopted by B2B marketers. 

According to Salesforce’s 2020 annual State of the Connected Customer research, 80 percent of B2B buyers want a B2C experience. But how many B2B marketers are creating the strategies required to facilitate this need? 

The buyer-driven approach is rather like the basics of customer centricity. We are essentially allowing our companies to shift towards a more human approach, after all, the sales guy is human. So where do you start? 

1. Activate a buyer-driven marketing strategy: redirect your marketing efforts to meet your customers’ needs in a more personalized way. This eventually leads to an increase in your marketing return on investment; having identified those target customers with lifetime values and adjusting the strategy to meet their needs. 
2. Eliminate unnecessary silos across your teams: We are no longer facilitating or encouraging data silos. Later in this post, we will highlight the tool you need to accomplish this. 
3. Reassess the role of marketing automation as it relates to revenue effort: Time is a relative factor.
4. Increase and distribute equally your focus on interested buyers, engaged buying groups, and in-market accounts:
5. Build trust, authenticity, and compliance into every effort:

The success of a buyer-driven approach rests on your ability to eliminate slowly and eventually the martech stack. Martech stack is the group of technologies that marketing experts leverage to maximize online business performance and achieve marketing objectives quickly. According to Hubspot, a set of tools that you need to be called your Martech stack should accomplish the following tasks:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): A keyword research tool such as Moz is an example of a martech tool for SEO.
2. Content marketing: A content management platform such as CMS Hub can be used for content creation.
3. Social media marketing: A social management platform such as HootSuite is an example of a martech tool for social media marketing.
4. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Google Ads is an example of a martech tool for SEM.
5. Event marketing: A lead collection software like the one included in Marketing Hub can be used for lead capture during an event.
6. Advertising: A programmatic ad platform such as MediaSmart is an example of a martech tool for advertising.

But what if there was a single system that allowed you to leverage all of this? This is where a CDP comes in. 

CDP + Martech

A CDP at its core is a solution that captures and combines customer data, organizes it by the individual, and makes the data available to every aspect of the business as needed. The major claim to fame of a CDP is that the process of collecting huge amounts of data is automated across channels, devices, and users, then structured, deduplicated, and verified to ensure you can use the data effectively.

We have long dealt with information silos creating drawbacks in getting the results needed to facilitate organizational growth. Growth and customer loyalty go hand in hand but as we discussed in our blog post, Customer Centricity Excellence with Acquia Customer Data Platform, B2B organizations struggle with building and maintaining customer loyalty but there is a solution. Utilizing a customer data platform allows for easy integration and following a customer’s journey and anticipating your customer’s needs.  

The type of CDP you might need does depend on your current need and strategies. Here are the types of CDPs. 

1. Marketing Cloud CDPs

i.A Marketing Cloud CDP collects and manages data. It presents the information in a unique single customer view while connecting all the corresponding tools within the same software ecosystem. So while other marketing cloud systems exist, it is highly recommended to use the same software across the board to avoid integration difficulties. 

2. CDP Engines and Toolkits

This runs on the more technical side of things; a task for an IT professional to integrate into an already installed CDP. Organizations can tailor their CDP to hyper-specific organizational needs that might fall outside the capabilities of even the best CDP solutions. 

3. Marketing Data-Integration CDPs

This CDP is great for activating and delivering segmented campaigns to multiple channels. The drawback is that it lacks comprehensive views of analytics, dulling your decision-making.

4. CDP Smart Hubs

CDP Smart Hubs operate in real-time, so their effectiveness is definitely sought after. Its ability to time and target responses based on user behavior and event 

i.data aids in analyzing and mapping out your customer journey. 

So Why Do You Need A CDP?

If the answer isn’t already obvious, CDPs have been a constant for some time and due to their comprehensiveness, they stand firmly in a position of absolute prominence.        

Here are five benefits of using a CDP:

1. Unified Database
2. Predictive analytics driven by machine learning 
3. Data protection and privacy
4. Eliminating data silos
5. Operational efficiency 

The Acquia CDP

In July 2022, The CDP Institute issued a Read CDP Certificate to Acquia. In the report, they indicated that the Aquia CDP is a RealCDP with enhanced functionality and a full CDP Stack. They added that the Acquia CDP is an enterprise marketing solution designed to improve sales and marketing efficiency and results. Adding further that Acquia has a best practices vision and blueprint for this solution but the integration with Acquia Marketing Cloud is still new, retail-centric, and set up and onboarding is dependent on Acquia support services. 

The CDP Institute also noted that even though Acquia is still knitting together the functionality and repackaging this into a cohesive offering, given the significant progress made in the past year, AMC should continue to make great strides as a robust full-stack enterprise CDP solution.

Marketing leaders, analysts, and data teams need the right tools to efficiently implement a buyer-driven strategy. Time is money and having the right system to help your team achieve overall marketing goals and growth is crucial. Acquia’s CDP is designed to help you drive business results. For B2B entities drawing from some basic B2C concepts is key. Here are some key functions of the Acquia CDP. Which of these could you use in your current business? 

• Boost profitability, revenue, and marketing ROI
• Increase customer engagement and loyalty
• Increase operational efficiency
• Build your customer strategy on trusted data 

Acquia CDP is the foundation of Acquia Marketing Cloud. It accesses and uses data to deliver better consumer experiences but how does it differ from other CDPs?

• The data is available across the entire business either via UI in the platform or via API in their own systems. 
• Acquia’s CDP provides machine learning forward that can be leveraged out of the box or through their machine learning. Other CDPs are inflexible with learning. The system also enables data scientists to build their own models and share that with the platform
• They are the most proven CDP on the market with over 15 years of providing enterprise and are feature-rich and flexible  
• Configurable across the entire platform, a brand can configure any business specifications directly into the platform and they appear across the entire pipelines, like currency and geography
• Acquia provides a unified customer profile through Acquia’s Identity resolution engine.  This cleanse duplicates and creates a single persistent ID that serves as the foundation for analytics and campaign building. Other CDP’s IDs are not as compressive. 
• Acquia CDP provides out-of-the-box reports and dashboards, and proven analytics to track segments over time and this is available to all teams via data sharing and a UI that provides direct access. 

Your Next Step?

Based on your business and marketing needs Acquia tailors your CDP journey, whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced. Understanding the current B2B marketing landscape is crucial to your business. The martech revolution promises to herald a new and improved season of growth and engagement but first we need to understand what it means specifically for each organization. Data is the core of marketing and business strategies and to successfully shift to a buyer-driven approach we must eliminate some old ways, especially when it comes to data silos. CDPs are a natural solution for marketers and data teams because they provide a unique consolidation of the martech stack with varied additional features. B2B entities can benefit from an Acquia CDP to boost profitability and ROI while increasing engagement with a better understanding of the customer journey. 

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