Today, you can pick integrations from 8,000 martech solutions available on the market. The only problem is that complex software combinations generate a large volume of siloed data that is hard to process. Unstructured contact information, customer preferences, and behavioral data obtained through multiple channels don’t make for a single customer view.
That’s when a customer data platform can help. Such software collects customer information, structures it, and creates detailed buyer personas to guide marketers in their efforts. You can access all critical details collected in one place to make online and offline marketing well-synchronized and powered with unified data.
Acknowledging the importance of customer data platforms, Inkit constantly works on integrations with tools for product segment marketing. This time, we are happy to announce the partnership with Segment, a leading CDP. To learn more about this service and the benefits of customer data platforms read on about:
- What is a customer data platform?
- 5 benefits of using a customer data platform for product segment marketing alongside online and offline marketing channels
- Segment CDP as a new Inkit’s integration capability: Who needs it and what Inkit + Segment direct mail can do for your business
- Setup guidelines for Inkit + Segment direct mail
What is a Customer Data Platform?
A customer data platform (CDP) serves as a unified customer database that can be accessed by other systems and tools. It pulls information from different sources, including warehouses, mobile, and web, cleans it, and combines to generate customer profiles. This information usually includes identity data (name, demographic data, location, social, etc.), descriptive data (occupation, hobbies, family), and behavioral data.
How a CDP works
When a CDP detects that a customer interacts with one of the added data sources, it records this activity and sends it to the marketing tool. After that, the tool may take action. Since the customer data platform supports different types of integrations, the final marketing interaction will depend on your existing marketing stack. For example, you can send new leads an email when they subscribe, deliver them a postcard once they share their physical address, etc. With segmented customer data, you get tons of marketing options to choose from.
5 Reasons to Use a Customer Data Platform for Product Segment Marketing Alongside Online and Offline Marketing Channels
A customer data platform unites online and offline marketing tools into a single system. You get one place to automatically collect customer data in real-time, segment, and manage it. Without this, you won’t be able to run effective cross-channel product segment marketing campaigns, get a single customer view, and group leads into target audiences. Here are some other ways to benefit from connecting online and offline marketing tools through the customer data platform.
#1. Product segment marketing campaigns can be cross- or omnichannel
Communicate with your target markets through multiple channels simultaneously. Since a CDP eliminates data siloes and updates information in real-time, you can tailor your marketing interactions at one touchpoint to what is happening at another. A customer data platform is essential to run cross- and omnichannel product segment marketing campaigns.
#2. Customer data platform makes online and offline interactions better targeted with customer segmentation
Marketing teams can use CDPs for product segment marketing and other marketing strategies based on creating target markets. Some CDPs even offer the ability to group various data points and customers into categories to generate audiences or Personas. Thus, you can rely on personal traits, behavioral patterns, or geographic segmentation to narrow down your custom mailing lists and make online and offline customer experience more personalized.
#3. CDP boosts security and helps to achieve regulatory compliance
Since all data is collected in one system and encrypted, you don’t have to worry about data leakage or security breaches. By integrating a marketing technology stack through a customer data platform, you achieve robust data security, and hence, meet the requirements of data protection regulations, including GDPR and the CCPA.
#4. You create a single customer view for enhanced customer service and marketing
Unified customer profiles are among the main benefits of any CDP. They help marketers achieve a 360 customer view and learn everything about the preferences, problems, and experience of your leads. Thanks to this, you contact consumers with more relevant marketing messages across both online and offline channels. The single view also boosts customer support since you can analyze customer journeys to quickly determine the reason behind a specific request.
#5. Customer data platform simplifies integrations
Customer data platforms allow engineering and marketing teams to smoothly integrate various additional tools with a single API. No need to connect dozens of tools to each other wasting a lot of time and effort. This frees your resources and helps multiple teams to better coordinate their work relying on the same data.
Segment CDP as a New Inkit’s Integration Capability: How Inkit + Segment Direct Mail Can Benefit Your Business
Segment is one of the leading customer data platforms for data collection, target audience segmentation, and smooth software integrations. It processes customer data coming from different channels (Sources), orders the information, and sends it to integrated tools (Destinations) for customized marketing, analytics, and activation.
Segment now connects with Inkit via a webhook to power automated and trigger-based direct mail campaigns. Together, Segment gets access to data on offline customer touchpoints, and Inkit’s mail marketing becomes more data-driven and focused on specific market segments.
What businesses need Inkit + Segment direct mail?
Such integration is a real catch for businesses that communicate with consumers through online and offline channels simultaneously. First of all, it optimizes the work of marketing and sales teams automating a lot of their daily tasks, including mail printing and delivery. Besides, marketers and sales reps get one source of customer data to launch strategic multi-channel campaigns and align their efforts. Apart from that, Inkit + Segment direct mail integration significantly simplifies the life of engineering teams. Segment provides an SDK compatible with hundreds of tools, which eliminates redundant code and helps tech specialists to focus on more critical tasks than coding.
Why combine online and offline through Inkit + Segment direct mail
Although Segment has a strong focus on mobile and web data collects, these channels reflect only a part of customer interactions. A lot of communication between a company and consumers happens offline, through direct mail. As a touchpoint, mail marketing impacts customer behavior across other channels and their buying decisions. Hence, without accurate and updated data on direct mail, a company won’t achieve a single customer view and full control over its marketing efforts.
For those who still don’t use mail marketing, Inkit + Segment direct mail is an optimum way to integrate mail marking into the current martech stack. Mail is highly effective for lead generation, win-back campaigns, and other marketing interactions at different stages of customer journeys. Print communications can grasp customers’ attention when online messages are ignored. In particular, direct mail shows 10x higher response rates than emails, paid search, and social media.
Finally, without direct mail, you won’t be able to implement a holistic cross- or omnichannel strategy.
Quote from Segment:
We’re excited to see our ecosystem of integrations continue to grow. Inkit has recently launched an integration with Segment, adding a new direct mail component to our catalog. We look forward to seeing the value our mutual customers are able to create from this exciting update.
Setup Guidelines for Inkit + Segment Direct Mail
For Inkit + Segment direct mail campaigns, you will need to integrate the tools through a webhook. To do this, complete the following steps:
- Create Inkit and Segment accounts (if you don’t have them yet).
- Go to Inkit’s dashboard and copy your API key.
- Go to Segment’s Destinations page to set up Inkit as your destination.
- Click “Add destination” and browse the Destinations Catalog to select Inkit.
- Specify the copied Inkit’s API key in the Segment’s Settings UI to complete connecting the webhook.
Need help with Inkit + Segment Direct Mail integration? Don’t hesitate to contact us for assistance.
