Why you Have to Make Sure that your Data Platform has a Brain

Developing automation that is smart is very difficult to say the least. After all, you have to make sure that you retain rich and very accurate data and you also have to make sure that you make all of the right decisions when you use that data as well. If you want to get the best result out of your business then you have to make sure that you are doing both.

Smart Automated Marketing

When the term “smart” marketing automation is mentioned, most people become sceptical. When reflecting on this however, you will soon see that there’s a valid point behind all of this. It’s very much possible for your marketing automation to be somewhat dumb. This can do way more harm than good. Smart marketing automation, when you look at the contrast of it, uses the power of automated processes to try and create value that happens to exceed meaningful interactions across every channel and at scale. If you look at smart automation you will soon see that this is difficult to do, as you will need to maintain rich and accurate data and you will also need to make the right decisions in terms of how you use that data.

Customer Data Platforms

Of course, we all know that customer platforms of data are able to create a persistent customer profile. This does help in solving the first part of the issue that a lot of people face. The real question is, can a CDP also answer the second question as well? Before we delve into this question, it’s important to look at what a situation like this would look like. Start with the promise that any treatment that you give to your customers will involve some kind of decision as to how to act. Even if your decision is to ultimately execute the dumb automation that treats every single person the same irrespective of the situation that they are in.

Of course, if everything was equal then most companies would probably very much like to buy a single system that is able to combine CDP and any decisions that come with into two separate systems. The main thing that you have to remember is that not all things are equal and that the best choice isn’t always clear. It’s all about trying to compare the integration costs of having a separate system to the power that you get with having a single integrated engine. At the end of the day, it’s worth noting that some systems are way easier to integrate when compared to others and that some embedded decision engines are better when compared to others too. So you need to look at the options that are available so that you can make sure that you are making the best decision overall.

Only you can do this at the end of the day, so look at the business you have and also make sure that you explore the options that are available where possible.