I believe that if you clicked on this article, you have heard of CRM (Customer Relationship Management), the important tool for businesses to manage their customers. In recent years, the concept of "customer management" has given rise to many different platform tools, such as CDP (Customer Data Platform) and DMP (Data Management Platform), each with different features and functions. As a brand owner, how do you choose?

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Today, let's take a look at what CRM, DMP, and CDP are, and analyze why despite the emergence of so many new tools, businesses still need to have CRM.

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CRM, DMP, and CDP Introduction:

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a system for managing customer relationships. Its goal is to manage first-party data, such as customer behavior, preferences, or history records, while also helping businesses collect, manage, and analyze customer data to understand their needs, behaviors, and preferences, and improve customer loyalty and sales through better customer relationship management.

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DMP (Data Management Platform) is a platform that collects and analyzes third-party data from multiple channels or sources, such as website traffic, social media, and advertising campaigns, and integrates various data sources for businesses to understand target audiences and market trends, optimizing advertising placement, improving sales strategies, and increasing conversion rates.

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Unlike CRM, which knows the connection between data and individual users, from DMP data, we can know the web pages and products that specific user groups frequently browse, and then target these groups with precision advertising, but we cannot obtain personal information such as their real name or contact information.

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CDP (Customer Data Platform) can collect, integrate, manage, and analyze customer data from various sources to create complete customer profiles and provide more comprehensive demographic and behavioral data. CDP not only collects structured data but also unstructured data, such as social media, apps, and other third-party data sources, to help businesses understand customer behavior, optimize marketing strategies and customer experiences, and then create personalized marketing campaigns to increase customer engagement.

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Comparison of CRM, DMP, and CDP

CRM focuses on managing first-party data to deepen the relationship with each customer. CDP aims to unify customer profiles from various channels to enhance data readability and analysis. DMP, on the other hand, manages anonymous data to improve advertising and public opinion effectiveness. Each tool has a different purpose, and brands can choose more than one tool to create a comprehensive customer data management strategy depending on their strategy.

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How to choose a member data management tool for businesses?

Choosing which tool to use depends on each company's specific needs and situation. Companies can refer to the "Applicable Target Reference" in the above table and consider the following:

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📌Which department the company is currently focusing on developing

📌The industry the brand belongs to

📌The type of data the company wants to focus on collecting at this stage

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Then choose based on the different attributes of CRM, DMP, and CDP:

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📌CRM: used to manage first-party data. If the company has collected a large amount of customer data or has a certain number of fans on a social media platform, and wishes to deepen and manage customer interaction and relationships while increasing customer engagement, using a CRM system to manage customer interaction is the best choice.

📌DMP: If the company wants to improve the matrix of collecting data, analyze third-party data, and comprehensively observe market trends and dynamics to enhance the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, creating audience segmentation with DMP is the best choice.

📌CDP: If the company has multiple media channels for collecting data and wants to create a unified customer data file and design a personalized marketing experience, creating a unified customer information browsing platform with CDP is the best choice.

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Why is it recommended that companies prioritize having a CRM system?

Although DMP and CDP have advantages in managing and applying large amounts of multi-channel data, there is no doubt about the advantages of CRM in customer relationship management. By integrating complete data, CRM can provide a deeper and more personalized customer experience, improve customer loyalty and satisfaction. Here are the unique advantages of CRM:

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1. CRM system centrally manages customer information, such as basic data, purchase records, etc., to deeply and specifically analyze customer behavior, formulate accurate sales strategies, and then provide personalized marketing services.

2. CRM can integrate information and processes from various departments of the enterprise, reducing the cost of duplicate work and information transfer, and improving work efficiency and collaboration between departments.

3. CRM can effectively enhance customer loyalty and retention, build a stable customer base, and increase customer lifetime value.

In conclusion, a CRM system can not only help businesses manage customer relationships more effectively, but also integrate with other customer data platforms such as DMPs, CDPs, and third-party platform data to improve operational efficiency and competitiveness.

Recommendations for Choosing Data Management Tools:

DMPs focus on collecting, organizing, and analyzing large amounts of anonymous data to help businesses target their markets. CDPs provide comprehensive customer profiles and real-time information. Finally, by combining the customer management capabilities of CRM, businesses can deliver personalized marketing content to the right customers, enhancing overall customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

CRM, DMP, and CDP complement each other, with each tool serving a different purpose. Choosing just one will not cover all requirements. Instead, it is essential to consider how to clarify the company's urgent needs to achieve business goals, and purchase and combine these three data management tools' strengths to create a more comprehensive customer data management strategy.