The Right Data,

Right Where
You Need It:
CDPs, First-Party Data,
and the Power of Data Agility
Your customers are individuals, with their own individual Today’s customers expect personalized, consistent,
interests, preferences, and behaviors. And even as a group, real-time experiences. Marketers must become increasingly
they’re unique—sure, some customers may overlap with your nimble and flexible to engage with customers in a way that
competitors’ audiences, but many of them won’t—and that stands out. Delivering the right message at the right time is
means they need to be approached in custom-fit ways. dependent on high-quality customer data.

To do that, you need the right tools. But more than that, Great teams build a best-in-breed tech stack to deliver
you need to ensure that you have the right technology differentiated customer experiences. They also focus
ecosystem—one that allows you to slot in best-in-class on first-party data across all of their tools to power unified
technologies for all your different customer engagement campaigns in a compliant way. By removing data silos,
needs and to connect them together to support responsive, marketers now have a true 360-degree view of
relevant, and deeply human brand experiences. their customers.

Data agility makes that possible. And supporting true data Segment’s Customer Data Platform supports the data agility
agility for our customers has been a focus here at Braze since required of modern teams. With centralized customer data,
the very beginning, starting with the way we architected companies can understand customer journeys, build real-
our platform, and continuing in our focus on effective data time audiences, and create the personalized experiences
management and technology partnerships. Read on for a that customers expect. And it’s all unlocked through
full picture of what data agility can mean for your customer Segment’s integrations with robust platforms—like Braze—
engagement efforts and how Braze can help you get where that marketers already know and love.
you need to go.

Matt McRoberts, Nick Rasines,

SVP, Alliances, Braze Technology Partnerships Lead, Segment

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Data Agility: Your Marketing Tech Stack Must-Have

That personalized, high-converting email. That perfectly With the right data infrastructure, companies can
constructed audience segment. That seamless connection seamlessly move the data they need between different
between your customer service solution and your customer tools, providing a single view of each customer across
engagement platform. All of it depends on data. But, more departments—and, ultimately, a better end-user experience.
than that, it depends on your company’s ability to ensure that That makes it possible for companies to be as flexible as
the right data is available in the right places, right when you they need to be when it comes to testing out new, innovative
need it. And when a brand is able to ensure that the data at technologies or tactics, strategies or ideas without being
their disposal can move at the speed of their business, we held up by the re-engineering of data pipelines or having to
call that data agility. worry about losing historical data.

Data agility is arguably the most essential must-have for any

best-in-class marketing technology stack. Why? Because
it’s the difference between a truly connected ecosystem of When a brand is able to
customer engagement platforms and a bunch of
siloed solutions.
ensure that the data at their
disposal can move at the
speed of their business,
we call that data agility.

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Why Data Agility Matters for broken experiences that alienate their customers. Whether
Customer Engagement it’s sending outdated promotional messages highlighting the
money that a customer didn’t get to save on their purchase or
There’s a lot of noise out there for today’s consumers—and failing to update a VIP member’s web-based loyalty program
that can make it challenging for brands to ensure that their with points they earned on your mobile app, these bad
voice is heard. Providing relevant, value-add experiences interactions matter...and they add up.
to customers in timely, responsive ways is increasingly
essential if you care about building a strong relationship with It doesn’t have to be that way. If you make data agility
your customer...and to do that, you need data agility. a priority and ensure that the different systems,
technologies, and solutions that make up your customer
What happens to brands that try to provide these kinds of engagement ecosystem are able to talk effectively, this
brilliant customer experiences without investing in building kind of issue is avoidable. And one of the best ways to ensure
a stack capable of supporting data agility? They often find that there’s a seamless flow of data between different layers of
that problems with the way they’re managing the information your stack is investing in a top-flight CDP.
at their disposal can come back to haunt them by creating

Data moves between the stack to reach

consumers, whatever their device.

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How CDPs Can Support True Data Agility their ecosystem and across a variety of customer touchpoints
without requiring endless custom integrations. Investing
While it’s best to ensure that every technology in your time, effort, and resources in the right CDP for their data
customer engagement ecosystem is capable of connecting needs allows brands to be more nimble and to iterate more
with other technologies in a real-time manner, the reality is consistently, giving them the flexibility they need to adopt
that many brands rely on technologies that weren’t necessarily technologies that can drive innovative solutions to customer
designed for modern marketing’s fast-pacing, highly pain points and to support more impactful, more profitable
connected needs. By leveraging customer data platforms customer engagement strategies.
(also known as CDPs), you can ensure that the lines of
communication are open between as many different By investing in a CDP, brands can achieve three critical
technologies as possible, while also supporting increased capabilities: Data integration, data governance, and audience
data agility within your stack. management. Plus, by ensuring that they can provide a
seamless, continuous experience across a variety of customer
Think of CDPs as the blood stream for your stack. They’re touchpoints, companies with true data agility are able to
architected to integrate with a vast array of legacy systems provide a consistent experience that keeps customers
and forward-looking SaaS solutions, enabling brands to engaged across all interactions, whether online or off.
manage the seamless movement of data between all parts of

Data moving between the different layers of Pyrite Financial’s stack

CDP

CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT
INTERNAL SYSTEMS PLATFORM

CARD LIMIT
REACHED

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Portrait of a CDP: How Segment Makes supporting the creation of data-defined cohorts for more
Data Agility Possible for Leading Brands intelligent targeting that could be seamlessly transferred to
Braze for immediate action.
Founded in 2011, leading global customer data platform
Segment is built to support truly bi-directional data flows Uno’s tech stack—supported by Segment’s data agility
that enables its customers to easily collect, connect, and and the Braze platform’s customer journey management
take action on their data across any customer touchpoint. capabilities—allowed the company to build out powerful,
That makes it possible for these brands’ existing technology personalized cross-channel (email and SMS) campaigns. The
solutions—think analytics platforms, recommendation results were dramatic. This new approach boosted email
engines, etc.—to access and analyze nuanced data from a opens and opportunity completions and led to a 47%
variety of sources and leverage it to trigger actions in other increase in message conversion rate, supporting uno Home
systems and support thoughtful iteration and more impactful Loans’ overall business strategy.
user outreach.
Uno Home Loans’ Results
What does that look like in practice? When Australian online
mortgage broker uno Home Loans needed to leverage
the tremendous amount of customer data associated 56% Average Email Open Rate

with its lending platform to support ongoing personalized

communications, they turned to Segment. The mortgage 47% Increase in Conversion Rate

broker used Segment to aggregate and manage its

26%
customer data, allowing them to stream information Increase in Opportunity Completion
When Customers Receive SMS
into analytics solution Amplitude for further analysis and

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First-Party Data: Supercharging and mobile app to the messages they send. Sources for this
Customer Engagement kind of data can be platforms (such as a brand’s website,
mobile apps, and servers) and channels (like advertising
Not all data is alike. And while a well-designed marketing channels, email, and more).
tech stack can seamlessly manage all different types of
data, there’s one type of information that’s particularly key to Segment’s first-party data collection is an invaluable tool for
effective customer engagement: First-party data. brands looking to personalize messages, build audiences
effectively, provide better experiences, and respect their
Unlike third-party data, which is often collected from audience’s needs and wants. By leveraging Segment’s CDP in
anonymous sources and without explicit consumer consent, your data stack, you can connect and unify your first-party data
first-party data is gathered by the brand itself with the (even if it comes from a wide variety of platforms, channels,
awareness of the customer it speaks to. First-party data and other sources), while also helping to ensure that the data
provides information about how that customer is engaging you have is accurate and that you’re catering each customer
with that brand’s digital presence, from the company’s website interaction to that unique individual’s preferences.

First-Party Data Third-Party Data

• Collected from users by the brands they patronize • Often collected by outside parties and then sold to brands
• Gathered with explicit user consent • Usually gathered without consumer knowledge or consent
• Used to power in-depth segmentation, personalization, • Used extensively to support AdTech activations
and other customized experiences and campaigns

• Can be compliant with GDPR and other privacy laws • Often conflicts with new privacy legislation
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GDPR, CCPA, and Beyond: Data Agility in Do you have a data tracking plan that can scale with your team
a Changing World and your company as it grows, to ensure accountability around
what data is being collected and how it’s being used? By
Many companies use both first- and third-party data as part leveraging Segment and Braze, you can implement effective
of their customer engagement efforts. But the passage of the data collection and management to support smart customer
European Union (EU)’s General Data Protection Regulation engagement, even in today’s challenging environment.
(GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and
other new privacy regulations has made taking advantage Balancing data agility with data privacy/security is a
of third-party data more difficult—and potentially more complex process, but it’s an essential one to get right.
legally fraught—for vendors and brands alike, so it’s even more Failing to prioritize data privacy and security can open your
important to ensure that you’re doing what you can with the brand up to penalties, including significant fines; failing to
first-party data at your disposal. focus on data agility can undermine the effectiveness of
your customer engagement efforts, hobbling your long-term
How can brands balance data agility with information privacy growth and revenue.
and security needs? First, do your due diligence on each
technology as you build out your technology ecosystem. Do
“[Traditional] AdTech is built on a foundation of trading
they prioritize both data agility and data privacy/security when
and selling aggregated third-party data from a variety
it comes to how they built and operate their solution? Are they
of sources—many of them unknown to the marketers
materially compliant with GDPR and other key data privacy
leveraging them. That data frequently changes hands
regulations? Are they taking ongoing steps to deepen their
between parties multiple times throughout the process
commitment to their security procedures? Second, take a and often isn’t tied to explicit permissions, which is a
long, hard look in the mirror and think about your company’s serious issue in our post-GDPR world.”
data maturity level. Data agility doesn’t mean everyone should
Myles Kleeger,
have access to all the data you hold; rather, you should be able
President and Chief Customer Officer, Braze
to provide each team with the relevant data for their jobs.

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Final Thoughts

No two marketing technology stacks are exactly alike.

Every vertical and every brand has their own specific set of needs that should be reflected in
their stack’s chosen solutions. But the one thing every great stack has in common is a focus
on data agility. Ensuring that you’re able to collect, organize, and interpret your data so that the
different parts of your stack can “talk” to each other more effectively is essential if you want to
make the most out of your marketing investments and programs.

Plus, when your data management and data agility capabilities are top notch, you have so much
more freedom to iterate. By ensuring that your new tools can communicate with the established
ones and vice versa, the inevitable growing pains of trying something new are a lot smaller, and
the process of building your ideal marketing tech stack can happen that much sooner.

Interested in learning more about the built-for-purpose tech stack and how it can support
your customer engagement efforts? Check out the Braze guide to marketing tech stacks and
ecosystem

For inquiries contact

[email protected]

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