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What is a CDP and how can it help CRM?

January 8, 2025

In a world where data is the new oil, platforms that facilitate managing this information become essential. They allow efficient data utilization, freeing up time for tactical actions planned based on the insights generated.

In this scenario, Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) emerge as a solution to centralize and organize data, enhancing the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) strategy. But what exactly is a CDP, how does it work, and why is it so relevant for business and marketing processes? Let’s explore!

  • What You Will See in This Article:
  • What is a Customer Data Platform (CDP)?
  • CDP vs. CRM: What Are the Differences?
  • Benefits of Adopting a CDP in Your Company
  • How the CDP Boosts CRM and Inbound Marketing
  • CDP in Practice: Use Cases
  • How Sales Journey Can Help
  • Conclusion: Why Use a CDP

What is a Customer Data Platform (CDP)?


A CDP, or Customer Data Platform, is essential for companies aiming to optimize their customer journey and improve conversion rates. This tool is designed to collect, unify, and organize customer data from various sources such as social media, emails, e-commerce, and apps.

Unlike a CRM or other traditional solutions, a CDP goes further: it creates centralized databases that allow real-time data analysis. This helps companies better understand the sales cycle and customer journey, resulting in more informed decision-making.

Companies can use a CDP to optimize customer service by consolidating essential information that helps with follow-ups and personalizing interactions. On the other hand, this solution can also make a significant difference in the daily operations of sales teams, providing insights that streamline the sales process and increase conversion rates.

With a CDP, it’s possible to better understand consumer behavior and integrate this information into workflows, improving decision-making in marketing and sales campaigns.

Whether monitoring the customer journey, optimizing the sales cycle, or creating data-driven strategies, the CDP becomes an indispensable tool for driving results and strengthening customer relationships.

CDP vs. CRM: What are the differences?


While both CDPs and CRMs deal with customer data, their goals and features are distinct. Let’s understand better:

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

A CRM is designed to manage customer relationships, storing interactions and transactions. It helps sales and support teams monitor every stage of the sales funnel and provides tools to track the history of communications.

CDP (Customer Data Platform)


On the other hand, a CDP goes beyond interaction history. It consolidates data from multiple platforms, creating a more comprehensive and integrated view of the customer. Additionally, the CDP provides "actionable" data, enabling real-time automations and campaigns that go beyond the CRM’s scope.


While the CRM focuses on the "what" and "when" in customer relationships, the CDP adds the "how" and "why," providing richer insights that help with personalization and behavior prediction.

Benefits of adopting a CDP in your company


Now that we understand the concept, let’s look at the main benefits a CDP offers:

Data centralization


With so many different data sources—such as CRM, ERP, social networks, and e-commerce platforms—and, in some teams, multiple people handling the same customer, information can easily become scattered, resulting in inconsistencies and errors. The CDP solves this problem by centralizing everything in one place, ensuring practicality and organization.

Unified profiles


With a CDP, each customer gets a complete and detailed profile, integrating information such as demographic data, online behavior, purchase history, interactions, and personal preferences. This data centralization creates a 360º view of the consumer, allowing companies to identify behavior patterns, anticipate needs, and personalize their strategies much more accurately. Moreover, it facilitates access to information by the team, promoting more coordinated and effective actions.

Advanced segmentation


With rich data centralized in one place, the CDP allows for more detailed and strategic segmentation. This segmentation capability goes far beyond the basics, enabling personalized and targeted campaigns that meet each group’s specific needs and interests.
The result? More efficient marketing actions, higher engagement, and a unique customer experience. With advanced segmentation, your strategies stop being generic and become smarter.

Real-time personalization


With real-time data integration, the CDP allows companies to deliver dynamic and relevant experiences at the right moment. Imagine a customer browsing your website: based on their behavior, purchase history, and interests, you can offer a personalized discount or recommend products they are genuinely interested in.
This personalization can go beyond emails and messages; it encompasses the entire customer journey, from the initial interaction to the purchase completion. The result is higher engagement, increased conversion, and a customer who feels valued and understood.

In an increasingly competitive market, this agility and relevance can be the differentiator your company needs to stand out.

Improved marketing campaigns


With detailed insights and centralized data, your marketing campaigns gain a new dimension of efficiency and impact. The CDP allows you to identify consumer behavior patterns and preferences, transforming this information into targeted strategies.
This precision not only improves conversion rates but also optimizes the use of marketing resources, ensuring that every message is relevant to the right audience at the ideal moment.
The result? Greater engagement, higher return on investment (ROI), and satisfied customers with communications that truly make sense.

How the CDP boosts CRM and inbound marketing


In the world of inbound marketing, where the goal is to attract, engage, and delight customers, integrating a CDP (Customer Data Platform) with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) enhances results and elevates strategy efficiency. Here’s how this combination works:

Better understanding of the customer journey


The CDP enables full tracking of the customer journey, from the first point of contact to conversion and retention. With this 360º view, it’s easier to identify bottlenecks, map decisive moments, and create smoother and more relevant experiences for the consumer.

Advanced automations


With integrated data between the CDP and CRM, it’s possible to build sophisticated automations, such as sending personalized messages based on real-time user behavior.

Insights for decision-making


While the CRM generates insights from past interactions, the CDP goes further, using artificial intelligence to predict future behaviors and trends. This allows companies to plan more effective campaigns, strategically align resources, and anticipate customer needs.


In conclusion, integrating CDP and CRM not only improves alignment between marketing and sales but also turns scattered data into actionable strategies. This takes inbound marketing to a new level, allowing your brand to deliver personalized experiences, create deeper connections, and achieve impressive results.

CDP in practice: Use cases

To illustrate how a CDP can transform data management, let’s look at some examples:

E-commerce


An e-commerce platform can use a CDP to consolidate website navigation data, purchase history, and email interactions. With this, it’s possible to:

  • Offer personalized product recommendations based on customer behavior.
  • Create more segmented remarketing campaigns, targeting users with a higher conversion likelihood.
  • Identify inactive customers and create specific actions to re-engage them.

Financial sector


Financial institutions can integrate data from different systems, such as transaction history, digital behavior, and profile data, to:

  • Offer personalized products and services, such as credit options or investments aligned with the risk profile.
  • Identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities based on each customer’s specific needs.
  • Improve customer experience by providing faster and more accurate solutions.

Healthcare sector


Hospitals, clinics, and healthcare providers can use a CDP to unify patient data from appointments, electronic medical records, health apps, and digital interactions. With this, it’s possible to:

  • Personalize care: Send appointment reminders, check-ups, and exams based on the patient’s health history.
  • Identify behavior patterns: Detect patients at high risk for certain conditions and direct them to prevention programs.
  • Enhance patient experience: Reduce wait times and offer more suitable services based on visit history and preferences.
  • Improve health campaigns: Create specific actions for different audiences, such as vaccination campaigns or incentives for adherence to ongoing treatments.

This approach not only improves care quality but also strengthens ties with patients, promoting trust and loyalty.

The future of CDPs


With the growing demand for personalization and compliance with regulations like GDPR, the role of CDPs is expected to expand. Technologies such as machine learning and integration with other platforms (like CRMs and automation systems) will make these tools even more powerful. Here’s a closer look:

Machine learning: Advanced machine learning features will allow for more accurate predictions and automated recommendations.

Deeper integrations: CDPs will become increasingly connected to CRMs, automation systems, and other tools, creating a unified and efficient ecosystem.

Greater adaptation to privacy regulations: With the evolution of data protection laws, CDPs will be crucial in managing consents and ensuring compliance in all interactions.

Digital transformation continues to open new doors, and the CDP is at the center of this revolution, helping companies understand, engage, and delight their customers uniquely and efficiently.

How Sales Journey can transform your customer management


Sales Journey is more than a CRM; it’s a complete solution that combines sales management, process automation, and intelligent data analysis. Inspired by the logic of CDPs, it enhances the strategic use of customer information to strengthen connections and achieve remarkable results.

Data centralization


Say goodbye to information scattered across different tools. With Sales Journey, you gather all data into unified and updated customer profiles. This centralization simplifies team work, improves collaboration, and enables more precise personalizations, providing memorable experiences for customers.

Intelligent process personalization


Adapt to your sales flow with ease. Sales Journey offers customizable features that help you manage leads, track opportunities, and create personalized proposals quickly and efficiently. All this saves time, increases productivity, and keeps your team focused on what matters.

Data-driven strategic decisions


With detailed reports and advanced indicators, Sales Journey puts data at the center of your decisions.
Identify trends, anticipate customer needs, and enhance marketing and sales strategies with rich insights that increase your chances of success.

Integration and compatibility


Sales Journey integrates with other tools in your ecosystem, providing a complete view of your customer base and eliminating information silos. This allows for fluidity in processes and guarantees seamless communication between your teams.

Sales Journey is more than a management platform; it’s a strategic ally that helps you transform data into action, providing tangible and scalable results. Discover the possibilities Sales Journey can bring to your company and take your sales operations to the next level!

Conclusion: Why use a CDP


The CDP (Customer Data Platform) stands out as an indispensable tool for companies seeking a more profound understanding of their customers and a more efficient customer management process. Its ability to centralize data, build unified profiles, and enable real-time personalization provides a significant competitive advantage.
By adopting a CDP, companies can:

  • Elevate customer experience to a new level of personalization and relevance.
  • Make informed decisions based on consolidated and actionable data.
  • Optimize marketing and sales campaigns with advanced segmentation.
  • Achieve greater agility and efficiency in customer management processes.

In today’s increasingly data-driven landscape, the CDP is more than just a technological tool—it’s a strategic enabler for companies that want to lead in their markets. Don’t be left behind; integrate a CDP into your operations and unlock the full potential of your customer data.

Mariana Bacci

Product Owner - Sales Journey

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