Understanding and engaging with prospects and customers in a maximally relevant, personalized way across digital and human channels is an essential activity for all enterprises. However, most enterprises are only beginning to move from one-to-all or one-to-many customer engagement – using a wide variety of point solutions – to an enterprise-wide, thoughtful approach to customer data and personalization.

Mabe this is why I am beginning to see Customer Data Platforms appearing on a regular basis.

Gartner published “A Marketer's Guide to What Is – and Isn't – a Customer Data Platform” and “How Marketers Can Create a Business Case for a Customer Data Platform” earlier this year. Other industry groups focus on the space too. For example, the Customer Data Platform Institute, founded in late 2016, publishes educational materials, news, best practice guides and benchmarks related to CDPs too.

Even with the increased awareness and momentum, there’s still some confusion about this category. I invited Karl Wirth, CEO and Co-founder of Evergage onto the show to find out more.

We discuss what is and what isn't a Customer Data Platform and what a business should be looking to achieve with a CDP.