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Key Takeaways from Tealium’s 2021 State of the CDP Report

April 15, 2021

Tealium State of CDP 2021 coverJust days ago, Tealium published the 2021 State of the CDP Report, highlighting the biggest hurdles marketers faced last year and how customer data platforms (CDPs) fit into the equation. The report includes many compelling insights, including:

  • The biggest challenges marketers faced in 2020 and how CDPs will play a fundamental role in addressing them
  • Six key findings from Tealium’s survey last November
  • The role customer data platforms play in handling data privacy
  • The factors that help to measure CDP return on investment (ROI)
  • How to choose a CDP that integrates seamlessly with your marketing technology stack

What is a Customer Data Platform?

Customer data platforms allow you to capture and activate valuable online and offline first-party customer data across various channels, devices, and platforms. This data is then used to craft a single, specific customer view that can be used on other platforms for customer service initiatives, marketing campaigns, and customer experience improvements. For more information on CDPs, check out Tealium’s introductory article on CDPs.

Customer data platforms allow you to capture and activate valuable online and offline first-party customer data across various channels, devices, and platforms.

Key Takeaways from the Report

While Tealium’s 2021 State of the CDP report is chock-full of valuable insights, there were three that really caught our attention: 1) how CDPs will help navigate data privacy changes, 2) the growing demand for user-friendly artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive features, and 3) the struggles marketers have had in measuring the ROI of CDPs. Here’s a brief summary of each:

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Data Privacy Will be a Top Solution Area for CDPs in 2021

Data privacy regulations are quickly changing. California voters recently approved the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which introduces significant revisions and additions to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). On the browser front, Google Chrome followed Safari’s and Mozilla’s lead, announcing the sunset of third-party cookies. It’s clearer than ever that CDPs are a must for organizations to navigate the data privacy landscape.

icon of CDPs with user-friendly predictive capabilities

Marketers need CDPs with User-Friendly Predictive Capabilities

The big shift to digital has only underscored the importance of delivering an extraordinary customer experience to compete with other brands, but doing so is both costly and labor-intensive. The good news is that AI and machine learning have made it possible to scale these efforts. However, success with AI and machine learning requires collecting accurate data to serve as the foundation. CDPs are key to solving this problem.

While many organizations have succeeded in deploying AI, nearly a third cited a lack of expertise and the information technology resources necessary to accomplish this feat. For those struggling organizations, choosing a user-friendly CDP with predictive capabilities is the key to success.

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Marketers Still Struggle to Quantify CDP ROI

As the tech stack continues to grow for many organizations, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to measure the impact of customer data platforms. According to Tealium’s 2021 State of the CDP report, just 7% of organizations measure CDP ROI based upon revenue, and this percentage hasn’t changed since last year’s report. Of these organizations, less than a third have observed an ROI in less than six months as a result of implementing their CDP. This is likely due to the difficulties that some CDPs bring when integrating with third-party tools. Choosing a vendor-neutral CDP can solve most of these integration challenges, which can help prove an ROI more quickly.

Paving the Way for Success with Customer Data Platforms

Customer data platforms are critical to tackling many of today’s challenges. To ensure success, your organization should select a CDP that protects your customers’ data, complies with the changing data privacy regulations, offers user-friendly predictive capabilities, and enables easy integration with your suite of third-party tools. By choosing the right CDP, your organization will be well-equipped to adapt to what lies ahead.

By choosing the right CDP, your organization will be well-equipped to adapt to what lies ahead.

These are just a few of the many valuable insights from Tealium’s 2021 State of the CDP report. To ensure your brand is in the know, be sure to download the full report.

Is your organization looking to adopt a CDP for the first time or considering a switch to Tealium AudienceStream? If so, Blast is here to help. Blast is a Tealium-certified customer data platform agency partner and can help position your organization to maximize all that Tealium AudienceStream has to offer. If you have questions or you’re ready to EVOLVE your organization, contact us today!

Josh Morrow
About the Author

Josh Morrow is a Senior Conversion Optimization Strategist at Blast Analytics. He has extensive experience in helping enhance their customer experience through strategic a/b testing, personalization, user experience design, and conversion-focused copywriting.

Connect with Josh on LinkedIn. Josh Morrow has written on the Blast Digital Customer Experience and Analytics Blog.