Many customers obtain information online before making a purchase, concluding a contract or selecting a service provider. These "ROBO" customers (research online, buy offline) make up an important part of the customer base. But only if you link online and offline data can you get a complete picture of the customer journey for these customers.

If your customers only move through digital touchpoints - online auction platforms, comparison portals, etc. -linking online and offline data is not essential for survival. In many cases, however, companies offer their customers the choice of purchasing a product online or visiting a retailer and buying the product on site. This applies to both physical products and services. We've all been there: surfing the internet on the sofa in the evening to find out about one product or another and then going to the shop the next day after work to bring the object of desire into our own four walls.

The customer's move from the online to the offline world can have a variety of causes. However, if you know about customer behaviour by linking the offline purchase with the previous online information, you can specifically address this purchasing behaviour of your customers and use it to your own advantage.

All-round view thanks to a linked data world

No matter how good the analysis is, anyone who looks at online and offline data separately will only ever see part of the picture. Only by linking the two worlds can the individual pieces be put together to form an overall picture. In many companies, however, customer data is spread across various departments: The business intelligence (BI) or customer analytics department evaluates classic master data and uses the data and information to develop new products or services and for classic marketing measures; digital marketing is familiar with customer behaviour on digital channels and eCommerce platforms; the social media team interacts with customers on social networks and knows their usage behaviour on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and co.; and the user experience (UX) team endeavours to provide customers with the best possible online experience on their own websites. Each of these teams usually works with different tools and collects different data on anonymous or known customers. Data is collected in silos and often remains trapped there - technical and organisational hurdles are significant. An exchange that not only has to work across channels, but also across departments, poses major challenges for many companies. Nevertheless, investing in a connected world of data is worthwhile, as it not only offers a complete 360° view of your own customers, but the cross-channel data can also provide new insights into customer behaviour.

The solution - a customer data platform

The industry has now recognised the problem and offers a so-called Customer Data Platform (CDP) as a solution. Unlike traditional analysis tools such as Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics, a CDP not only monitors one channel (data silo), but also analyses the customer across all their touchpoints with the company, whether on the website, social media channels, via the newsletter or - ideally - via the purchase in the shop in connection with a customer number, email address or similar. A CDP remembers the visitor's behaviour across all channels and devices and can make the resulting information available to other systems in real time.

As a certified partner, zweipunkt works in this area with the market leader Tealium CDH, which has established the term CDP in the world of digital analytics. Tealium offers a transparent and flexible CDP solution, particularly with regard to increasing data protection requirements. The Customer Data Hub ensures that information about your customers' activities is not only stored in third-party systems such as the Google Marketing Platform, the Adobe Marketing Cloud or the Salesforce Cloud, but is also available as 1st party data in your data hub at all times. A 1st party data pool is becoming increasingly important with the disappearance of 3rd party cookies.

Here is a practical example:

  • On day 1, a user visits our site via his laptop, where he finds out about French red wines from the Bordeaux wine-growing region in the price category between CHF 29 and CHF 50. He adds a few wines to his shopping basket, but cancels the online purchase.
  • On day 5, the same customer finds our newsletter in his e-mail inbox. He clicks on the wines in action. Now we know that it is the same visitor as 4 days ago. As he accessed our site via the newsletter this time, we now know from the email address provided (hans.notexisting@nodomain.commuster@gmail.notexisting@nodomain.comcom) that it is Mr Muster. We can also assume from his click that Mr Muster responds well to promotional offers.
  • On day 7, Mr Muster finally goes to the shop and buys a selection of fine Bordeaux wines. The sales assistant asks Mr Muster whether the purchase can be assigned to his customer account and whether he can send him the receipt including tasting notes by email. The purchase (offline) is now linked to Mr Muster's customer account (online).
  • In the evening of the same day, Mr Muster logs into the wine portal at home with his tablet to read a tasting note. Now we can also assign the browsing history of the tablet to this customer.

What use is this data to us?

As of this moment, we have combined data from various online channels (silos) with offline customer information. via the online channel, we have learnt that sending the newsletter has led to a successful sale. And thanks to the link with the offline data, the customer's online profile no longer consists solely of the attributes "red wine/Bordeaux/price cat. 29-50/promotions-affine", but can also draw on purchasing behaviour from the traditional shop. This information can be processed in real time and used for marketing automation (personalisation of the website, newsletter, mailing by post) or retargeting and upselling via marketing platforms such as GMP and SalesCloud. In addition, the linking creates a broad database on the basis of which patterns can be found and models derived using data science methods in order to further develop products and services and tailor them even better to customer needs.

Data also helps to provide every customer with a personalised customer experience. This has long been standard in traditional business - depending on the industry, it is even expected. A regular customer in their local village shop expects to be addressed by name, to exchange a few words about work and family and for the shop assistant to point out new products that match the customer's taste. The customer feels recognised and valued as a person and leaves the shop with a positive feeling. It is precisely this kind of shopping experience with a positive outcome for both the customer and the company that is also sought online. Thanks to the data from online and offline channels, they make online contact a consistently positive and personalised experience for the customer.

Enet on the pond

In the USA and the UK, the use of a CDP is already much more widespread than in the DACH region. Anyone taking this route in Switzerland is therefore at least one step ahead of the competition. However, caution is also advised: The introduction of a new technology is always associated with costs. If you decide to purchase a CDP, you should choose your provider carefully to avoid switching from one black box to the next and possibly even slipping into a relationship of dependency. A good CDP should be agnostic and work with as many analytics, marketing, cloud, customer relationship management and business intelligence providers as possible. It is also essential to ensure that you retain sovereignty over your customer data: Don't give away this valuable resource to just any technology provider! Tealium's Customer Data Platform, for example, is one of the tools that fulfil these high standards.

First party data

The acquisition of a CDP has another major advantage: it is the first step towards a 1st party data strategy. Currently, many online marketing activities are based on 3rd party cookies. However, their heyday is coming to an end: various internet browsers, including Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge, have already started to massively restrict the use of 3rd party cookies. Google Chrome will follow suit at the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023. By then at the latest, 3rd party cookies should definitely be replaced. Future-proof strategies, on the other hand, are based on 1st party data as managed in a CDP. Those who rely on a CDP are also prepared for this unrest in the online marketing world. Find out more about the end of the cookie era and 1st party data strategies in this blog post.

To conclude

So don't be surprised if your car salesman enquires about your well-being in the future and casually points out a special offer that is precisely tailored to your needs. Or if your insurance advisor then contacts you and asks whether you need car insurance. These companies have taken the step of successfully combining the online world with traditional business and generating added value from the information in order to better fulfil their customers' needs.

We will be happy to assist you in creating a data strategy.