• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 18, 2022

Executives might well ask, “Why waste money on a customer data platform (CDP)?” after reading a new study by Forrester, commissioned by Zeta Global. 

The research -- titled “Marketers Need CDP Solutions That Transcend Data Management” -- found that only 10% of CDP owners feel their CDP meets all their needs. Worse, only 1% believe their CDP will answer future requirements. 

Moreover, 45% say their CDP has underperformed against business expectations.

Specifically, they say their CDP:

• Meets all our current and predicted future needs — 1%  
• Meets all of our current needs, but may not meet future needs — 10%
• Meets most of our current needs today — 26% 
• Meets some of our current needs today — 36%
• Does not meet our current needs — 26%

Email marketing is down the list as a primary CDP function, although it does appear among the top eight responses:

1. Identify customers — 64% 
2. Ingest data from various internal and external source systems — 59% 
3. Build target segments of customers for campaigns — 57%
4. Assemble robust customer profiles — 51%
5. Personalize customer interactions — 48%
6. Execute campaigns across channels including email, SMS, and push notifications — 46%
7. Activate data — 46% 
8. Support analytics like customer analysis, performance management, predictive modeling, etc. — 42% 

Given those needs, it is no surprise that 49% say the CDP is seen as an important priority at their companies. But only 17% say it is a strategic priority, and 35% say it ranks low in importance.

The main hurdles to leveraging a CDP are: 

• Security challenges — 54% 
• Technical support challenges — 52%
• Difficulty analyzing the data and finding actionable insights — 46% 
• Lack of analytics and importing functionality — 45%
• Inability to show (ROI) — 37% 

But most firms feel they need one — for these reasons:

• Increasing number of channels, touchpoints, and devices where customer interaction occurs — 44% greatly/38% somewhat
• Accelerating digital transformation — 42% greatly/40% somewhat 
• Increasing data volumes — 33% greatly/44% somewhat
• Customers increasingly expecting personalized/relevant information — 35% greatly/36% somewhat
• 41%
• Increasing number of data sources — 24% greatly/45% somewhat
• Increasing need to connect multiple technologies — 24% greatly/41% somewhat 
• Increasing data complexity — 27% greatly/35% somewhat 
• Accelerating speed of customer interactions — 24% greatly/33% somewhat
• Changing regulatory environment — 19% greatly/37% somewhat

The study was commissioned by Zeta Global and conducted by Forrester Consulting. Questions were fielded to 315 CDP users and decision makers in marketing, IT and customer experience in January 2022.