Categories   >   Customer Data Platforms
Last Reviewed: November 7th, 2024

Best Customer Data Platforms Of 2024

What are Customer Data Platforms?

Customer Data Platforms (CDP) exist to unify fragmented customer data, providing a consolidated customer view. Instead of grappling with disjoined customer information, a CDP offers businesses a single version of truth. This consolidated insight enables personalized marketing, improved customer experiences and better business decision-making. Advanced CDP functionalities include predictive analytics, data mapping and real-time data provision. Additionally, fueled by advancements in machine learning, CDPs are introducing capabilities like AI-based customer segmentation. Primarily marketing teams in industries ranging from retail to hospitality gain massive benefits from CDP technology. While valuable, CDPs are not exempt from limitations. Concerns arise around data privacy, the required technical skill for handling, and complex integration processes. Nevertheless, the benefits of a CDP — rich, holistic customer understanding that drives personalized interactions and fosters customer loyalty — far outweigh the limitations for businesses seeking to elevate their customer engagement strategy.

What Are The Key Benefits of Customer Data Platforms?

  • Unified Customer Data View
  • Aids Personalized Marketing
  • Enhanced Customer Experience
  • Efficient Decision Making
  • Predictive Analytics Capability
  • Real-time Data Provision
  • Data Mapping Functionality
  • Helps Achieve Compliance
  • Improves Customer Segmentation
  • Boosts Customer Retention
Read more

Overall

Based on the latest available data collected by SelectHub for 595 solutions, we determined the following solutions are the best Customer Data Platforms overall:

HubSpot
HubSpot
Start Price
$800
Monthly
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Why We Picked HubSpot

With basic CRM alongside marketing, sales, service and content management, Hubspot offers a lot of functionalities, which users cite as a primary benefit. Its slick interface ensures an intuitive experience and extensive automation simplifies tasks, although some complicated functions make it time-consuming to learn. Users also appreciate how prompt customer support is, and that there’s a free version that’s ideal for small and mid-sized businesses.
However, certain email elements present issues and the paid versions are expensive for what they offer. Overall, businesses that are in need of a robust and scalable product suite, especially those with a focus on inbound marketing, might find this to be a good fit.

Pros & Cons

  • Ease of Use: Every user referencing navigation reports the platform is user-friendly.
  • Customer Support: The support team is reliable and offers quick responses to any need, according to 91% of reviewers referencing this aspect.
  • Automation: Automating email campaigns, lead scoring and workflows, managing sales funnel and social engagement, and creating email templates is easy, according to 95% of reviewers who talk about automation.
  • Feature-Rich: The range of features offered, such as creating landing pages, forms and email campaigns, is a benefit to 85% of users mentioning functionalities.
  • Marketing: Every user who refers to marketing feels it’s easy to market products.
  • Interface: A slick interface makes it easy to navigate, in the experience of 80% of reviewers referencing the UI.
  • Price: Premium products are expensive for the amount of functionality, especially for small and mid-sized companies, according to 86% of reviewers mentioning cost.
  • Training: In 85% of reviews referencing training, users say it’s difficult for average users to perform complicated tasks such as tracking leads and making different mailing lists, causing a learning curve.
  • Email Functionality: All reviews about this issue note that customizing the mobile version of an email affects the desktop version, inserting custom HTML such as a for promo timer isn’t possible and more.

Key Features

  • Pipeline Management:
    •  Reduces data entry through auto-populated data and grants control over pipelines to match how users work. 
    •  User-friendly edit tools alongside a drag-and-drop interface simplify the entire management process. 
    •  Quick access to key metrics is available with a sales dashboard. 
  • Lead Management: Perform CRM activities without the hassle of reconciling different data sets and gain full visibility into contacts by accessing data-rich profiles in one location. Capabilities include lead segmentation, contact activity history and tasks. 
  • Messaging: Facilitates better internal and external communication, promotes strong customer experiences, supports lead generation and enables more timely follow up. Offers Facebook Messenger, a customizable live chat widget, shared email and a chatbot builder. 
  • Conversations Inbox:
    •  Provides context, alignment and transparency for marketing, sales and service teams through a team-wide inbox. 
    •  Aids cross-functional collaboration via a central hub for communicating with prospects, leads and customers. Routing rules deliver emails to the most relevant team or member. 
    •  Offers a seamless experience to customers no matter what stage they’re in. 
  • Contact Activity: Gain deeper insights by leveraging analytics that show website interactions. Track form submissions, page visits and more. 
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign
Start Price
$9
Monthly
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Why We Picked ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign provides cloud-based marketing services to businesses of any size. It’s easy to use and offers a wide range of features, along with robust automation and campaigning capabilities. The system integrates with all major platforms. Most users also find the customer support team as well as the training materials to be helpful.
However, it takes time to learn the intricate features thoroughly. Reviews also state the system suffers from glitches and the interface could be more user-friendly. Businesses that need a system that caters to CRM as well as marketing needs, and that have the ability to leverage its complex functionality effectively, should consider this as a solid choice.

Pros & Cons

  • User-Friendly: Everyone referencing this aspect states the software is easy to use.
  • Automation: It helps run customer and lead campaigns, triggered automatically based on set specifications, note 98% of reviewers referring to this feature.
  • Customer Support: The support team is easy to reach and very responsive, according to 93% of reviewers talking about this aspect.
  • Functionalities: Every user mentioning features states the system offers robust capabilities including client onboarding, lead funnels, newsletters, contact tracking and more.
  • Email Campaigns: In the view of 85% of reviews about this feature, it’s easy to send weekly emails, replicate earlier emails and develop templates for other uses.
  • Integration: Connecting with Zapier and other platforms makes it easy to transfer leads, according to 88% of reviewers referencing integration.
  • Help Resource: Everyone mentioning training reports there are helpful tutorials and webinars.
  • Learning Curve: According to 77% of reviewers talking about training, it’s tough and time consuming to learn the platform.
  • Glitches: Every user mentioning this aspect notes it can be glitchy at times and quite slow to load during peak business hours.
  • Interface: The interface is slow and not very intuitive, according to 62% of reviewers referencing this aspect.

Key Features

  • Dynamic Content: Keep content fresh and personalized by automatically changing email content depending on where a lead is in the buyer’s journey. 
  • Email Marketing: A robust and fully-featured suite offers broadcasting, triggered and targeted emails, funnels, and robust integrations with popular social media and e-commerce platforms. Also offers: 
    • Drag-and-Drop Builder: Create and automate campaigns with ease. 
    • Scheduled Emails: Enables scheduling emails for specific dates and times. 
    • Email Autoresponders: Enables sending welcome emails, starting a welcome series or delivering lead magnets automatically. 
  • Segmentation: Target specific groups within the contacts list to be more personal in emails and engage people with the right information. 
  • CRM: Notify the sales team, update deals, create tasks and nurture leads automatically. Scores leads, passes off highly-qualified targets to sales and integrates with popular email providers. 
  • Advanced Reporting: Offers custom reporting features, including custom KPIs, sales reporting, tag counting and robust segmentation. Gives insights into email performance. Split testing can also be used to get email opens, clicks and buys. 
  • Fast Training: Schedule one-on-one appointments with the company’s customer service team to help teams get up to speed with training. A series of robust webinars and user docs are available. 
  • Migration Services: Receive assistance migrating from another marketing automation product. Services include contact list and tag import, form recreation, workflow recreation, and email template recreation. 
  • Powerful Integrations: Integrates with PayPal, Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Facebook, Google Analytics and more than 250 other apps including payment processors, membership websites and e-commerce stores. 
  • Audience Segmentation: Allows personalized messages by adding tags to segments. Tags can be based on purchase history, geographic location, time since last purchased, personal interests and more. 
  • Geo-Tracking: Automatically capture a contact’s location for geo-targeted email marketing campaigns. 
  • Site Tracking: Pulls data in from other websites to assist in tracking the customer’s activity. 
  • Social Sharing: Gives insights into performance on social platforms and enables greater audience engagement. 
  • Split Testing: Try different email subject lines, body copy and more to increase and optimize campaign conversion rates. Add up to five variations for a single campaign. 
  • SMS Marketing: Automate SMS marketing to send notifications and campaigns such as appointment reminders, flash sale notifications and more. 
  • Conversation Features: Provides: 
    •  Live chat to facilitate capturing leads and creating contacts from the website. Includes customizable auto reply, custom branding, contact creation and triggered automations. 
    •  A unified inbox to connect conversations with customers. 
  • Predictive Sending: Automate emails using machine learning algorithms. It ranks the hours in a day based on a contact’s open time and uses these recommendations to schedule an optimal send time. 
  • Contact and Lead Scoring: Sends notifications when leads are getting hot, with automatically triggered email notifications and task assignments based on lead score changes. Helps follow up with deals that are most likely to close. 
  • Win Probabilities: Calculates the conversion chance for a specific lead, giving foresight into lead behavior. 
Thunderbird
Thunderbird
Start Price
$0
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Key Features

  • Alerts/Notifications
  • Archiving & Retention
  • Contact Management
  • Email Management
  • Inbox Management
  • Search/Filter
  • Signature Management
Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft
Start Price
$159
Monthly
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Why We Picked Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft by Keap is a comprehensive CRM platform that helps SMBs automate processes, connect with prospects and customers, and increase ROI. As many reviews noted, the price is on the high end for a small business, and it has some features that work best for enterprises. It also has a learning curve and limitations with storage and custom fields. However, it provides robust email marketing and campaign management tools, and its wide range of automations can save users a lot of time. There are mixed reviews about customer service, as some find it satisfactory while others believe it’s inadequate. Overall, the product can be a good choice for companies with a large enough budget.

Pros & Cons

  • Process Automation: Every user who mentions this feature notes the system has vast automation scope including automating customer acquisition and marketing processes.
  • Campaign Builder: It offers a robust, flexible and feature-rich campaign builder with excellent controls, as observed by 85% of reviewers who reference campaign management.
  • Email Marketing: According to almost 90% of reviewers who mention email marketing, Infusionsoft by Keap has a responsive, user-friendly interface that aids segmentation, sends mass emails and offers templates.
  • Contact Management: 85% of users who reference managing client databases feel it’s possible to manage databases efficiently with the ability to create, organize and configure contact lists.
  • Learning Curve: The system is confusing to learn, requires a lot of training and has some features that are hard to find, as noted by more than 80% of customers who refer to training.
  • Price: The cost of the software is on the higher side, according to 90% of reviewers who mention pricing.
  • Custom Fields: It’s difficult to search fields and the platform doesn’t support more than 100 fields, according to every user who mentions custom fields and tools.
  • Document Storage: It doesn’t store documents or client information internally or in the cloud, as indicated by each customer who mentions storage.

Key Features

  • Customer Relationship Management: Infusionsoft’s CRM platform acts as the central hub for sales and marketing efforts. From it, you can segment lists, automate lead data entry, sync client emails from your other accounts to the correct contact record and identify the best opportunities with lead scoring tools. 
  • Marketing Automation: Build efficient processes using a variety of marketing automation settings. Campaign sequences are easy to create using the drag-and-drop interface, and you can set up workflows by defining triggers based on user actions. A/B testing is also supported. 
  • Sales Pipeline: The software allows sales reps and managers to nurture leads through the pipeline. The Infusionsoft by Keap app facilitates the creation and management of custom quotes, which customers can accept with a single click. 
  • Online Sales: Using this feature, you can generate unique landing pages. The interface is drag-and-drop, and templates make the process quick and easy. Add elements like text and images, as well as define which products to include. The system is also equipped to process online payments and will send automatic follow-ups to customers based on the sequence you choose. 
  • Integrations: Infusionsoft plugs into a host of third-party apps that extend your capability. E-Commerce integrations include Magento, WooCommerce and Shopify. You can also connect the platform to Zendesk, QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier, Vimeo, WordPress and a host of other tools. 
  • Payment Collection: Simplify the process of collecting payments on time. The system allows you to set up automated reminders and shows which customers have paid and which have outstanding balances. The connected platform removes the need to juggle multiple tools. Infusionsoft offers a flat rate for every transaction. 
  • Analytics: Take the pulse of your business with the analytics dashboard. It tracks a number of KPIs such as email conversions, quarterly sales and number of contacts. This provides insight into every aspect of your marketing and sales efforts, along with informing decisions. 

Pricing

License/Subscription Cost
  • Recurring subscription-based model: per user, per month, plus maintenance, implementation and backup support
  • All plans are billed monthly according to the annual contract
  • All plans come with a mandatory one-time setup fee called Kickstart package for new customers
  • Costs vary depending on the plan selected, based on the level of consulting and implementation help businesses require
Maintenance Cost
  • Included in the subscription cost
Installation/Implementation Cost
  • Included in the subscription cost
Customization Cost
  • Varies depending on the functional requirements added in the product module, such as sales force automation, marketing automation and eCommerce capabilities. This is based on the organization’s business requirements
Data Migration Cost/Change Management/Upfront Switching Cost
  • Cost varies depending on the amount and type of data to be migrated from the legacy system, availability of migration tools, data profiling, data cleansing and audit trail of the migration process
Training Cost
  • Cost is over and above the subscription cost and varies depending on the type of plan chosen
  • Provides an initial training program for first-time users. Users need to enroll and pay for the training course
  • Provides embedded links, including walkthrough features and video tutorials, after initial training is completed
Recurring/Renewal Costs
  • Cost is included in the subscription fee, based on the number of users, additional add-ons and the plan purchased
Eloqua
Eloqua
Start Price
$48
Monthly
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
Mac Windows Linux Chromebook Android
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Why We Picked Eloqua

With a vigorous set of features and tools, Eloqua assists many marketing automation activities. The ease of use and convenient navigation of the product proves to be a strong benefit among users. Users also appreciate the seamless integration opportunities it allows with third-party APIs, which helps strengthen campaigns.
However, user feedback suggests that it’s on the expensive end, especially considering delayed updates and an out-of-date visual interface. Users also report that unresponsive customer support is a drawback. Overall, it’s most useful for larger companies that want strong functionality and integrations, and that have resources to handle some glitchy behavior and system complexities.

Pros & Cons

  • Functionality: The product offers robust personalization, segmentation and automation, according to 86% of user feedback on features.
  • User-Friendly: Almost 80% of users who mention user interface and navigation note that the product is easy to use.
  • Integration: More than 85% of user feedback about integrations suggests that connecting with third-party APIs enhances the software’s usability.
  • Cost: It’s not cost-effective for the functionality offered, according to 86% of user feedback about this aspect.
  • Support: Over 75% of users referencing support report that customer service isn’t up to the mark and often responds based on issue severity.
  • Updates: Infrequent feature updates and an outdated interface are a cause for concern, according to all the users who mention this aspect.

Key Features

  • Online and Offline Data Aggregation: Access a multitude of different data sources while enabling the ability to parse, process and enrich multiple data silos. Also feeds into the system’s customer targeting features. 
  • Campaign Management: Create robust campaigns and view campaign information and customer journeys in an easy-to-understand visual interface without any technical resources. 
  • Interest-based Messaging: Utilize customer data to deliver personalized messaging campaigns. Pause or adjust campaigns on the fly for a delightful customer experience. 
  • Intuitive Digital Whiteboard: Envision campaign goals and processes with an easy-to-use digital whiteboard. 
  • Partner Ecosystem: Integrate seamlessly with hundreds of partners and their products with minimal technical work and knowledge. 
  • Native CRM Integrations: Enrich data pools and segmentation with CRM integrations that are easy to set up. 
  • Customizable Dashboards and Interactive reports: Customize dashboards to suit business needs and access interactive reports for stronger insights into marketing strategies. 
  • Lead Management: Improve sales readiness with an automated lead scoring system, which scales automatically and offers updates for various campaigns and business lines in real time. 
  • Asset Management: Create dynamic content like responsive emails, landing pages and interactive forms to engage customers. Reuse brand-compliant content for campaign assets. Also, access historical email open data to assess a campaign for insights. 
  • Segmentation:  Assemble data from multiple sources to segment and connect to the right audience based on geography, interests and more for data-driven targeting. 

Pricing

License/Subscription Cost
  • Subscription-based pricing model: price charged per month, in addition to extra fees for premium training and support services
  • Offers three-tier pricing models: Basic, Standard and Enterprise
  • Cost varies based on the number of contacts, number of marketing users and number of sales users
  • A signed contract for an annual subscription is required
Maintenance Cost
  • Included in the subscription cost
  • Provides regular upgrades and software updates, plus 24/7 ongoing support services via online, documentation, whitepapers and webinars
Installation/Implementation Cost
  • Cloud-based/SaaS: Included in the subscription cost
  • Cost is over and above the subscription cost
  • Offers Oracle Marketing Cloud Onboarding services
  • Provides Oracle Marketing Cloud Implementation Services
  • Cost varies based on the scope of implementation, business requirements and pricing tier
Customization Cost
  • Cost varies depending on the type of functional requirements added on, based on business requirements such as Oracle Eloqua Insight Analyzer, Custom Security Administration, Oracle Cloud Priority
  • Service, Multi-Lead Scoring & Advanced Routing, Event Management Module, Advanced Data Cleansing and Digital Advertising
Data Migration Cost/Change Management/Upfront Switching Cost
  • Cost varies depending on the amount and type of data to be migrated from the legacy system, availability of migration tools, complexity of data and gaps between the existing system and the new system
Training Cost
  • Cost is over and above the subscription fee
  • Cost varies depending on the type of training program chosen
Recurring/Renewal Costs
  • Cost is equivalent to the recurring subscription fee, plus customization costs and training costs
Marketo
Marketo
Start Price
$895
Monthly
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
Mac Windows Linux Chromebook Android
Request Pricing Request Demo

Why We Picked Marketo

As a part of the Adobe Experience Cloud, Marketo Engage supports both demand and account-based marketing strategies that work in sync with marketing and sales. It offers a range of features that help businesses operations. Notable features that users call out include custom reports, automation tools and lead management. It’s highly customizable and can integrate with a wide range of business systems. Users also appreciate the robust customer service.
Some limitations include an inconvenient mobile app, outdated user interface for campaign dashboards and cumbersome functionality. Overall, businesses looking to automate their sales and marketing efforts will find the system has a lot to offer.

Pros & Cons

  • Lead Management: The ability to route and categorize leads based on requirements is helpful for staying on top of customers inputs, in the view of 60% of users talking about lead management.
  • Customizable: All reviews on this aspect agree that the system is highly customizable and offers email templates that can be created as per requirements.
  • Automation: Marketing and sales automation make it easy to use and eliminate manual entry, according to 83% of users who reviewed this feature.
  • Reporting: Provides custom reports that fit the user requirement and are insightful, say 75% of users referencing reporting.
  • Integrations: Integrations for websites, event platforms, survey platforms, mobile apps and more, along with two-way integration with CRM systems, aid functionality, according to 75% of users mentioning integrations.
  • Customer Support: The training is great and customer support is responsive, according to 66% of reviews on this topic.
  • Not User-Friendly: The functionality is cumbersome and pages take time to load, in the experience of 60% of users who reviewed the usability.
  • Dashboard: Campaign dashboards are outdated and the design needs an upgrade, according to 75% of users specifying this feature.

Key Features

  • Search Engine Optimization: Compares keyword rankings of competitors, provides recommendations for new keywords for higher ranking web pages, and discovers inbound link opportunities based on targeted keywords and competitors’ links. 
  • CRM Integration: Offers native integrations for Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications to provide a bi-directional data sync that auto-updates every five minutes. Also facilitates custom-configured integrations for various CRM platforms such as NetSuite, Oracle, SAP Sales Cloud and SugarCRM. 
  • Lead Scoring: Rank customers by assigning positive and negative scores based on demographics or their likelihood to exhibit certain behaviors, such as making a new purchase, being open to cross-sell offers and more. 
  • Email Marketing: Supports both batch and real-time triggered emails. Helps: 
    • Create personalized campaigns for mobile, web, ads and more using a visual editor and responsive templates.
    • Personalize content based on inferred information from website visitors, such as company, country, zip code and city, helping segment and localize content.
    • Use browsing behavior to identify product interest for target accounts.
  • Mobile Marketing: 
    • Helps connect with customers on the go, track inputs from different marketing channels and respond via mobile apps.
    • Sends push notifications and in-app messages, and incorporates beacon and geo-fencing technology to send location-relevant messages to customers.
    • Visual dashboards measure overall performance by opens, installs and session duration across multiple apps.
  • Social Media Marketing: Facilitates running social polls, sweepstakes and referral campaigns with built-in social share buttons and shareable videos. Integrates social metrics into marketing reports to help measure the impact of social activity on conversions and revenue. 
  • Digital Ad Campaigns: Connects with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and other advertising platforms, and targets customers with relevant ad campaigns. 
  • Analytics and Reporting: Automatically connect data from different sources into a unified platform. Enables: 
    • Mapping and measuring a customer journey at every stage through shareable, prebuilt dashboards and ad-hoc reporting tools.
    • Designing custom models with the help of AI.
    • Leveraging a suite of attribution models.
SharpSpring
SharpSpring
Start Price
$449
Monthly
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
Mac Windows Linux Chromebook Android
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Why We Picked SharpSpring

SharpSpring combines CRM and marketing automation functionalities to provide robust, user-friendly features and performance. Users particularly appreciate its lead tracking and regular software updates that improve and add features. Comprehensive customer support is another prominent benefit. Some product limitations include a lack of display functionality in the form and landing page builders and a mobile app that isn’t user-friendly and lacks responsiveness. Custom stylesheets are also time-consuming to work with. Despite some drawbacks, it can be a solid option for businesses looking for a budget-friendly and intuitive sales and marketing solution.

Pros & Cons

  • User-Friendly: The platform is easy to use, and the kanban boards, the marketing automation and drip campaigns are easy to adapt to, in the experience of 69% of users referring to this aspect.
  • Robust Lead Tracking: Over 60% of reviews about this feature appreciate the end-to-end tracking functionality for marketing and sales data, with the ability to generate, track, filter and score leads.
  • Customer Service: All reviews on support say it’s professional and highly responsive.
  • Updates: The system constantly keeps updating with new features and offers updated dashboards for use, a benefit according to 75% of users mentioning updates.
  • Mobile App: Every user referencing the mobile app suggests it’s inoperable, not relevant and lacks basic functionalities.
  • Limited Design Flexibility: The landing page builder lacks the ability to add custom code, restricting users' ability to fully customize their pages and potentially hindering brand consistency or advanced functionality.
  • Email Deliverability Issues: Some users report challenges with emails landing in spam folders, which can impact campaign performance and lead to missed opportunities. It's important to note that email deliverability can be influenced by various factors, so it's recommended to investigate and address potential causes to improve deliverability rates.
  • Reporting Limitations: Users mention that the reporting features could be more robust, particularly in terms of attribution and providing deeper insights into campaign performance. This might make it difficult to accurately measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts and identify areas for improvement.

Key Features

  • Email Builder: Offers drag-and-drop email editor and HTML customization. Dynamic features and smart tags automate the process of customizing email messages. Designs can also be saved as templates for later use. 
  • Email Campaign Testing: Native integration with Litmus facilitates testing and previewing emails on dozens of applications, email providers and devices. 
  • Behavioral-Based Email Tracking: Gives complete information on visitor activity, including page visits, form fills, webinar sign-ups and white paper downloads from email campaigns. 
  • Web Form Builder: Provides: 
    • A drag-and-drop tool with auto-completion capabilities to design and customize web forms and CTA buttons.
    • The option to view and test forms before making them live.
    • CSS to customize forms.
    • Data sharing with other applications and databases by adding a Postback URL to sync information automatically.
  • Customer Segmentation: Offers lists that automatically update as contacts meet the list’s criteria such as location, visited pricing pages, product interest and more. Map a field in web forms to preset buyer personas, setting up questions accordingly. Responses aid list segmentation, allowing follow up with personalized information. 
  • Workflow Builder: Supports automation tasks and leverages branching logic, task combination and action groups to devise a path buyers should take. Responses use custom triggers and filters to personalize lead journeys. 
  • Lead Scoring: Scores leads based on engagement. Custom metrics allow increasing or decreasing scores, including page visits, filled out forms, content downloads and specific demographic characteristics. Assigning a decay rate on leads automatically decreases scores over time. 
  • Real-Time Alerts: Automated workflows can trigger notifications via email and SMS whenever a sale is made, a high-quality lead is created or a prospect moves along their buyer’s journey. 
  • Pipeline View: Create and customize custom deal stages to track the progress of an opportunity. Provides a drag-and-drop interface to move opportunities across deal stages to get an overview of each prospect’s progress through the sales cycle. 
  • VisitorID: Tracks anonymous visitor IP addresses with reverse IP lookup to identify companies that visit the business’ website. Records page visits, recognizes visitors’ views on an important page, determines where they came from and identifies which search terms led them to the website. 
  • Customer Timeline: Offers a timeline view of individual buyers’ journeys to track significant events associated with each contact. 
  • Landing Page Builder: Provides a WYSIWYG interface with HTML for customization. Pages can automatically adapt based on visitor preferences and behaviors. Supports optimizing for mobile and creating a series of linked pages to design a funnel for visitors and prospects. 
  • Content Calendar: Offers an interactive application with daily, weekly or monthly list views of all the planned content such as social activity, scheduled emails and blog posts. Share social media content immediately or at a later date. 
  • Site Tracking: Embeds a custom tracking code snippet in landing pages, websites, microsites or blogs to track every visit. Add media center links to track visits to external resources. 
  • Blog Builder: Provides a WYSIWYG blog and website editor that’s customizable with HTML views. Includes dynamic content that can automatically adapt to resonate with different audiences based on who they are, what interests them and how they behave on the blog and website. Also has an embeddable social sharing widget. 
  • Google Ads Integration: Tracks the ROI of paid search engine marketing campaigns and derives keyword data. 
  • Campaign Analytics Tracking: Automatically tracks website visitors conversions from the moment they first visit till the final sale. Detailed campaign analytics track campaign ROI goals and work offline without the need to set up conversion funnels. 
  • Social Listening: Find and filter social conversations on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn by hashtag, keyword and more. Spots customer queries, captures interactions to identify prospects that are ready to buy and offers affiliate programs to promote current customers to help close the next deal. 
  • Custom Reports: Customizable across campaigns, email, social media and CRM to include business-specific metrics. Measures and predicts present and future performance, turning data into insights. 
  • Open API: Developers have access to a platform-agnostic, open API that supports programming languages such as Java, Ruby, Perl, PHP, Python and more for building custom integrations with third-party software. 
  • Third-Party Integration: An app marketplace provides access to prebuilt extensions and integrations across categories such as CRM, accounting, analytics, forms and more, extending capabilities. 
eTrigue
eTrigue
Start Price
$600
Monthly
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
Mac Windows Linux Chromebook Android
Request Pricing Request Demo

Key Features

  • Campaign Management: Quickly build out automated email marketing campaigns, simple or multistep campaigns and more using a drag-and-drop builder. Launch, report and test campaigns and check results with in-line campaign statistics. 
  • Prospect Management: Categorize and identify which prospects to include, and build target personas, segments and account-based lists. Dynamic lists are automatically updated as new prospects are added. 
  • Reports: Measure, analyze and report on the effectiveness of campaigns. Track results to make necessary changes, get an overview of progress in detailed dashboards and schedule automatic reports via email. 
  • Landing Pages: Create, edit and publish pages quickly using a WYSIWYG editor. Schedule live sessions, expiry and redirection. Access pages without IT support. 
  • Form Builder: Build forms easily using a drag-and-drop interface, drop forms on landing pages using the WYSIWYG editor and customize them as needed. 
  • Email Builder: Create mobile-friendly, automated email campaigns quickly and effectively with a drag-and-drop tool. Offers professional templates, built-in image editing and an image library. 
  • Sophisticated Customer Tracking: Customer tracking can be extended from inbound to outbound efforts, allowing marketers to tweak campaign models based on recovered data. 
  • Real-time Lead Alerts: Allows timely follow-up and includes campaign stats and the times at which leads accessed certain content. 

Pricing

License/Subscription Cost
  • Subscription-based pricing model: per user, per month
  • Cost varies based on the prospect database size
Maintenance Cost
  • Cost is included in the subscription fee
  • Provides ongoing support via best practices documents, standard phone/email support, a dedicated customer success manager, webinars and eBooks
  • Charges $3,000/year (optional) for a dedicated IP address
  • ETrigue offers a Partner Plus Program starting at $1,000/month, which includes:
  • Full-feature package per instance
  • Partner Plus support
  • Includes all the features and functionalities of eTrigue DemandCenter
Installation/Implementation Cost
  • Included in the subscription fee
  • Provides Quick Start and Onboarding services, included in the subscription fee
  • Provides implementation from the beginning through the first email campaign with 5 days training, all included in the subscription fee
Customization Cost
  • Cost varies depending on the new functional requirements and modules added on, based on business requirements
Data Migration/Change Management/Upfront Switching Cost
  • Cost varies depending on the current software, amount of data to be migrated, availability of migration tools, complexity of data and gaps between the existing system and the new system, amount of
    data cleansing, data consolidation and data validation required
Training Cost
  • Provides online training for users, included in the subscription fee
Recurring/Renewal Costs
  • Cost is equivalent to the recurring subscription fee and the customization cost
Oracle CX Marketing
Oracle CX Marketing
Start Price
$0
Freemium, Per User
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Why We Picked Oracle CX Marketing

User reviews of Oracle CX Marketing paint a contrasting picture. Many praise its comprehensive feature set, particularly its advanced journey mapping and integration capabilities with other Oracle products. Users appreciate its ability to handle large databases and complex campaigns, highlighting its scalability and performance as major strengths. For example, one reviewer noted, "The ability to map out the entire customer journey and deliver personalized experiences across multiple channels has been a game-changer for our business." However, some highlight its steep learning curve and high cost as major drawbacks, suggesting it may be overkill for small businesses or those with simpler marketing needs. Additionally, some users criticize its limited reporting capabilities and slow customer support, finding them less user-friendly compared to similar products like HubSpot and Marketo. One user commented, "The platform can be quite complex to navigate, and the initial learning curve was significant. We also felt the reporting tools could be more customizable and user-friendly." Despite these shortcomings, many users believe Oracle CX Marketing outperforms its competitors in terms of its comprehensive feature set, scalability, and ability to handle complex campaigns. However, its high cost and steep learning curve make it a better fit for large businesses with the resources and expertise to leverage its full potential. Ultimately, the decision boils down to individual needs and priorities, with users needing to weigh the strengths and weaknesses against their specific requirements and budget.

Pros & Cons

  • Comprehensive Feature Set: Offers a wide range of tools for campaign management, lead generation, automation, content management, and social media marketing.
  • Advanced Journey Mapping: Enables personalized customer experiences across multiple touchpoints.
  • Scalability and Performance: Handles large customer databases and complex marketing campaigns efficiently.
  • Integrations with Oracle Products: Provides seamless integration with other Oracle solutions for a unified business ecosystem.
  • Strong Lead Generation Tools: Helps identify and nurture high-potential leads effectively.
  • High Cost: Can be expensive compared to other marketing automation platforms, especially for small businesses.
  • Steep Learning Curve: The platform can be complex to learn and use, requiring significant training and resources.
  • Limited Reporting Capabilities: While reporting features are available, they may not be as comprehensive or user-friendly as those offered by other platforms.
  • Overkill for Small Businesses: The extensive features and complexity may be unnecessary for small businesses with simpler marketing needs.
  • Slow Customer Support: Some users have reported experiencing slow or unresponsive customer support.

Key Features

  • Eloqua: Offers B2B tools to plan and implement automated marketing campaigns that can adapt in real time based on buyer activity. Generate, prioritize and segment leads using lead scoring and data from different sources. Also includes real-time data flow controls, account-based marketing and asset management. 
  • Responsys: Manages B2C campaigns to build experiences and personalize interactions across different channels by aggregating consumer data signals. Leverages email marketing, A/B and multivariate testing, cross-channel marketing, analytics, and segmentation. 
  • Maxymiser: Create optimized customer journeys across websites and mobile apps through testing, personalization, recommendations and insights. Provides a decision engine and action tracking for developers. Also enables testing on non-browser devices and for new pricing algorithms. 
  • Infinity: Collect and manage data in real time to track, measure and optimize performance and visitor behavior. Includes analytics for data reporting, streams for data collection, an action center for data activation and a data connector for data management. 
  • CX Audience: Combines behavioral and profile data from different sources, including online, offline and third-party. This allows creating segments and targets as well as analyzing audiences based on past campaigns. 
  • CrowdTwist: Manage personalized customer loyalty and reward programs using omnichannel engagement and loyalty solutions. Design programs using widget-based, automated tools. Key capabilities include collection of customer engagement data, self-service reporting tools and automatic data export. 
  • CX Content: Manage content, documents and digital assets, and streamline content creation and distribution with internal as well as external collaboration and workflow management. Also provides content recommendations, an asset repository, smart tagging and integrations with tools like Dropbox, Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud. 
  • CX Unity: Optimizes business processes by accessing online, offline and third-party customer data sources. Integrates with DMP and ID Graph solutions to bring together marketing and advertising data. Also includes native machine learning functionality, profile enrichment and behavior-based segmentation. 
  • Bluekai Data Management Platform: Offers key target audiences using specific buyer interests and actionable information to create personalized online, offline and mobile marketing campaigns. 
  • DataFox: Drives personalized marketing campaigns and sales programs by leveraging company data and real-time signals. Stay up to date regarding customers’ needs with continually updated, AI-sourced data that’s automatically permeated throughout workflows. 
Sendinblue
Sendinblue
Start Price
$25
Monthly
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Why We Picked Sendinblue

Sendinblue provides a cloud-based suite of communication tools available through a simple interface, ensuring ease of use. It offers a wide range of marketing automation tools and helps manage contacts efficiently, as many users note. The support team is prompt and thoroughly helpful. Users also find the free plan to be beneficial, as it offers good features with up to 300 emails per day. However, the system suffers from certain functional limitations and the design tool needs improvement. Overall, it’s an efficient, user-friendly option for businesses of any size looking to support all aspects of email marketing.

Pros & Cons

  • Ease of Use: More than 90% of reviewers referencing this feature mention it’s easy and simple to use the platform.
  • Email Marketing Tool: It’s easy to create, customize and deliver emails using a complete range of email automation tools, note more than 90% of reviewers who talk about this feature.
  • Support: The customer service team is helpful and responds in a timely manner, according to 82% of users mentioning it.
  • Interface: In the view of 91% of users referencing the interface, it’s efficient and pleasant to use.
  • Contact Management: It’s easy to import and categorize contacts, and communicating with customers is also straightforward, in the experience of 75% of reviewers mentioning contact management.
  • Limitations: Every user talking about this aspect mentions limitations such as difficulty adding a new folder and finding bounce email issues.
  • Design Tool: As every user observes, the design tool is basic and doesn’t offer many functions.

Key Features

  • Email Templates: Simplifies GDPR compliance with email templates built to follow regulations. Enables user-friendly editing via drag-and-drop functionality. 
  • Email Personalization: Helps increase email open rates. Dynamic personalization helps use subscriber-provided information from newsletters to achieve a more relevant experience. Personalization attributes include last name, first name, gender preferences, date of birth and more. 
  • Retargeting: Create a retargeting audience for ads by retargeting visitors based on specific page visits or actions (visiting a checkout page, abandoning a cart). Upload different styles of ad creatives, define budgets and monitor performance on key metrics. 
  • Sign-Up Forms: A drag-and-drop tool makes it easy to build sign-up forms and helps collect information from different fields. Additionally, give contacts a chance to opt in to receive different types of emails according to GDPR regulations. 
  • Real-Time Statistics: Access a global overview of email performance. Enables tracking events, deliveries, opens, clicks and bounces in real time, providing live monitoring of any campaign. 
  • Landing Pages: Create custom landing pages without any coding skills using the drag-and-drop landing page builder. Add the URL of landing pages in emails, advertisements, social posts and more. 
  • API: Developers have access to the entire range of the platform’s capabilities. APIs are available in several coding languages including PHP, Python, Node.js, Ruby and C Sharp. 
  • Integrations: Extend the platform’s functionality and keep using familiar apps. Supports integrations for CRM, e-commerce, forms, CMS, analytics and more, including Magento, PayPal, WordPress and Google Analytics. 
  • Chat: Developers can install a chat window on the company website so users can talk to customers and leads in real time. 

COMPARE THE BEST Customer Data Platforms

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SelectHub’s Analyst Rating is based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Customer Data Platforms, user reviews, and our own crowd-sourced data from our free software selection platform. Scores are periodically updated via ongoing selection projects and user activity within our platform.
Start Price
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HubSpot
$800
Monthly
Yes
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Mac Windows Linux Chromebook Android
HubSpot
ActiveCampaign
$9
Monthly
Yes
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Mac Windows Linux Chromebook Android
ActiveCampaign
Thunderbird
$0
No
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Thunderbird
Infusionsoft
$159
Monthly
Yes
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Infusionsoft
Eloqua
$48
Monthly
Yes
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Eloqua
Marketo
$895
Monthly
Yes
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Marketo
SharpSpring
$449
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No
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SharpSpring
eTrigue
$600
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Yes
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eTrigue
Oracle CX Marketing
$0
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Yes
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Oracle CX Marketing
Sendinblue
$25
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All Customer Data Platforms (595 found)

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HubSpot

by HubSpot
HubSpot
HubSpot provides a cloud-based platform built around inbound methodology and designed to help businesses be more customer-centric. It offers a free CRM package along with marketing, sales, service and CMS hubs, which can be deployed individually or together for full flexibility and scalability. Timeline segmentation provides users with an overview of their prospect’s journey from the attraction stage to closing. Additional capabilities include funnel automation, lead targeting, analytics and reporting, email templates and more. It caters to small businesses but has paid versions robust enough to support the needs of larger organizations.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$500 - $1,000
Company Size
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ActiveCampaign

by ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign provides cloud-based marketing services, with robust capabilities ranging from automation and reporting to lead scoring and contact segmentation. It’s ideal for businesses of any size, as it offers a flexible, device-agnostic deployment model. It also functions as a marketing-oriented CRM with different integrations and exporting options to assist sales. It provides machine learning that can be used on data including phone calls, emails and sales. Machine learning enables predicting win probability and using predictive sending. Customers can also take advantage of a consultant directory with certified consultants from different countries.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: excellent
Cost Breakdown
$10 or less
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Thunderbird

by Mozilla
Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a reputable software platform that ranks 21 among all Marketing Automation Software according to our research analysts and 52 crowd-sourced reviews from 1 source. Starting from $0, Thunderbird is priced at no cost when starting and is most fitting for small-to-mid-sized companies with less than 1000 employees. Thunderbird can be deployed on-premise and is accessible from a few platforms including Windows and Linux devices. Similar alternatives to Thunderbird include SeoSamba, ActiveTrail and Emailgistics.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$10 or less
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Infusionsoft

by Infusionsoft, Inc.
Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft was rebranded as Keap in 2019. Learn more about Keap.It's a comprehensive software platform designed to help small businesses save time and grow revenue. Rated as a top sales product for SMBs in 2019, this vendor brings automation and organization to sales and marketing activities. The available toolkit allows small businesses to gain extensive control over their efforts to help form personal, lasting connections with their customers. This product is suitable for individual business owners or small teams looking to scale and handle an increasing task load. The implementation includes a required kickstart package (available in three different price tiers) that helps users get set up with the program and positions them for success.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$100 - $500
Company Size
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Eloqua

by Oracle America
Eloqua
Eloqua, a sophisticated software by Oracle America, specializes in Marketing Automation, catering primarily to medium to large-sized businesses seeking to streamline their marketing processes. It stands out for its ability to automate complex marketing campaigns, manage email marketing, and provide detailed analytics, making it a powerful tool for businesses aiming to enhance their marketing efficiency and effectiveness. Eloqua's benefits include improved lead management, enhanced customer engagement, and a significant return on investment through targeted marketing strategies. Its popular features, such as campaign management, lead scoring, and advanced segmentation, allow for personalized marketing efforts. When compared to similar products, users often highlight Eloqua's comprehensive feature set and robust analytics capabilities, though they also note its higher learning curve. Pricing for Eloqua varies based on the scale of operations and specific needs, typically following a subscription model that may adjust with usage levels, making it a flexible yet significant investment for businesses focused on scaling their marketing efforts.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: good
Cost Breakdown
$10 - $100
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
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Marketo

by Adobe
Marketo
Marketo Engage offers a cloud-based marketing platform for companies to manage and monitor customer relationships. Its integrated modules include marketing automation, social marketing, email marketing, lead nurturing, budget management, analytics, sales insight and website personalization.It’s designed to serve both B2B and B2C environments. There’s also an active marketers’ community named the Marketo Marketing Nation in which marketers around the globe share their knowledge, ideas and best practices.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$500 - $1,000
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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SharpSpring

by SharpSpring
SharpSpring
SharpSpring is a cloud-based sales and marketing platform that facilitates building automation rules to send customers with dynamic content or targeted emails based on their interests. It also provides adequate support for marketing agencies.Features include behavior-based email, campaign tracking, dynamic landing pages, a blog builder, anonymous visitor ID, a form builder, reporting and analytics, social media management, and integrations. Lead scoring helps track a lead’s page visits, demographics and engagement to enhance nurturing efforts.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$100 - $500
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
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eTrigue

by eTrigue
eTrigue
eTrigue provides automated campaign capabilities aimed at all size companies in the B2B space. Its DemandCenter offering enables DIY marketing for inbound and outbound efforts. It also offers turnkey partner marketing via its Partner Lead Accelerator solution. Features include sophisticated campaign building, email marketing, analytics, landing page construction and more.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$500 - $1,000
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Oracle CX Marketing

by Oracle America
Oracle CX Marketing
Oracle CX Marketing (formerly called Oracle Marketing Cloud) is a cloud-based marketing automation platform designed to help businesses manage and personalize customer experiences across multiple touchpoints. It offers tools for campaign management, lead generation, marketing automation, content management, and social media marketing. The platform is ideal for mid-sized and large companies with complex marketing needs and extensive customer databases. Some of the key benefits of Oracle CX Marketing include improved marketing campaign performance, increased lead generation, and enhanced customer engagement. Popular features include email marketing, social media marketing, lead scoring, and customer journey mapping. User experiences suggest the platform is comprehensive and scalable, but can be complex to learn and use. Pricing for Oracle CX Marketing varies based on the specific features and modules required. However, it is generally considered to be on the higher end of the market compared to similar solutions. Pros Scalable for large businesses Comprehensive features Advanced journey mapping Strong lead generation tools Integrates with Oracle products Cons Costly compared to competitors Steep learning curve Limited reporting capabilities May be overkill for small businesses Slow customer support
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: good
Cost Breakdown
$10 or less
Company Size
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Sendinblue

by SendinBlue
Sendinblue
Sendinblue is a cloud-based suite of communication capabilities, including email marketing, transactional emails, text messages, CRM, sign-up forms and more. It includes features such as segmentation, retargeting, real-time statistics and website chat, and is suitable for companies of any size. Heat maps enable visualizing the engagement path of readers in a newsletter-type email by tracking clicks and aggregating them.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: excellent
Cost Breakdown
$10 - $100
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Bitrix24

by Bitrix
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 facilitates the execution of the customer journey. It supplies organizations with tools for marketing, sales and customer service activities such as lead generation, marketing automation, campaign management and call center support.It comes with a free edition for companies with less advanced needs or a smaller budget. Deployment is available in the cloud and on-premise. It’s suitable for smaller businesses as well as enterprises with up to 50,000 employees.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$10 - $100
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
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Platform
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Ontraport

by Ontraport
Ontraport
Ontraport provides a cloud-based set of solutions that help small businesses handle marketing and sales processes. The all-in-one design allows users to seamlessly switch between tasks and access information from a central location.Users can leverage the capabilities to store and track contacts, send multichannel messages, automate sales processes, create landing pages, analyze metrics, engage in e-commerce activities and more.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$10 - $100
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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GreenRope

by Synchronous Technologies
GreenRope
GreenRope is an all-in-one CRM aiming to unify sales, marketing, and operations under one platform. It caters to businesses seeking streamlined workflows and improved team collaboration. GreenRope boasts features like lead generation, email marketing automation, social media management, and customer service tools. Users praise its user-friendly interface, comprehensive reporting capabilities, and 24/7 customer support. Compared to similar options, GreenRope is lauded for its affordability, offering unlimited users and emails at a flat monthly fee. However, some users mention occasional limitations in customization and integrations compared to more established CRMs. Overall, GreenRope shines for businesses seeking a cost-effective, user-friendly solution to manage customer relationships across departments. Pros User-friendly interface Unlimited users, emails Comprehensive reporting Affordable flat fee 24/7 customer support Cons Limited customization Fewer integrations Occasional feature glitches
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$10 - $100
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Salesforce Marketing Cloud

by Salesforce.com
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a comprehensive software platform designed to empower businesses in managing their marketing campaigns across various channels. It caters to businesses seeking to enhance their marketing efficiency and effectiveness, enabling them to expand their reach, monitor campaign performance, and evaluate return on investment. The platform offers a range of benefits, including streamlined email campaign creation and tracking, effective social media marketing management, and insightful website analytics. Key features encompass tools for multi-channel marketing management, customer communication, and data collection and analysis. User experiences suggest that Salesforce Marketing Cloud excels in providing robust marketing automation capabilities, facilitating personalized customer journeys and targeted messaging. Pricing for Salesforce Marketing Cloud is based on a per-user model, with a starting price of $125 per user per month. While it may be perceived as a premium option compared to some alternatives, its extensive features and scalability make it a compelling choice for businesses with substantial marketing needs.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: good
Cost Breakdown
$1,000 or more
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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SALESmanago

by SALESmanago
SALESmanago
SALESmanago is a complete AI-powered solution that delivers configurable, personalized experiences across a range of native and integrated marketing execution channels. It accomplishes this by combining advanced analytics and AI automation. Users can deliver enhanced customer experiences and improve metrics and KPIs. Capabilities include web push, website personalization, social proof, live chat, predictive analytics, advertising, a data management platform, A/B/X testing and optimization, loyalty programs and more.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$100 - $500
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Social Blade

by Social Blade
Social Blade
Social Blade is a premier solution that ranks 22 among all Marketing Automation Software according to our research analysts and 14 crowd-sourced reviews from 2 sources. Starting from $3.99, Social Blade is priced economically, offers a free trial on occasion and is most applicable for companies large and small. Social Blade can be deployed in the cloud. Similar alternatives to Social Blade include Servetel, Onstipe and InMoat.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$10 or less
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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iContact

by OutMarket
iContact
iContact is an email automation and marketing tool geared towards small and medium-sized businesses running Windows, MacOS and Linux. It offers several standard features, with a distinct focus on email features and easy-to-use technology. These include templates, a drag-and-drop editor, automation, A/B testing, list segmentation and campaigns. It also comes bundled with a handful of additional features to support marketing and sales activities, such as reporting, landing pages, sign-up forms and a free email lookbook.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$10 or less
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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LeadSquared

by LeadSquared Inc.
LeadSquared
LeadSquared helps businesses increase closures, nurture prospect relationships and manage pipelines easily by offering marketing automation. Capabilities include intelligent lead prioritization, process automation for marketing and sales activities, thorough analytics, enhanced engagement, reduced lead leakage and more. It also integrates with multiple business tools and has its own developer platform, where users can build custom business logic.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$10 - $100
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Constant Contact

by Constant Contact, Inc.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a comprehensive software solution designed for managing marketing automation tasks, making it particularly suitable for small to medium-sized businesses looking to enhance their email marketing efforts. This platform offers a range of important benefits, including the ability to easily create professional-looking emails, track campaign performance, and segment audiences for targeted messaging. Among its popular features are customizable email templates, robust analytics, and integration capabilities with other tools, which collectively help businesses improve their engagement rates and ROI on marketing campaigns. When compared to similar products, users often highlight Constant Contact's user-friendly interface and responsive customer support as key differentiators. Pricing for Constant Contact varies based on the features and scale of use, typically following a monthly subscription model that allows businesses to choose a plan that best fits their needs and budget. This flexibility in pricing, combined with its comprehensive feature set, makes Constant Contact a competitive option in the realm of marketing automation tools.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$10 or less
Company Size
Small Medium Large
Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Mailchimp

by Mailchimp
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a web-based marketing platform that specializes in email marketing, sending, monitoring and personalizing communications. Given its pricing point, it’s great for small or medium businesses who want a fully-featured marketing implementation. Standout features include an intuitive website builder with a drag-and-drop interface, an integrated database, as well as robust landing page builders for web and social media traffic. It also facilitates the creation of digital ads as well as physical postcards to reach customers via postal services.
User Sentiment User satisfaction level icon: great
Cost Breakdown
$10 - $100
Company Size
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Buyer's Guide

Customer Data Platforms Are All About Building Unified Customer Data Profiles

By Christina George, Technical Content Writer at SelectHub

Customer Data Platforms BG Intro

Imagine you’re a modern-day Indiana Jones, armed with encrypted maps and clues, on the hunt for priceless treasure. But your map and clues are all encrypted. Running a campaign without unified customer profiles can feel just as mystifying as taking shots in the dark, even though you know the target's general location. That's where customer data platforms come to the rescue.

Customer data platforms aid your marketing automation by consolidating data from multiple sources and putting all the puzzle pieces together. In this buyer’s guide, we'll dig deep into their benefits, features, trends, selection criteria, and software that’s the cream of the crop.

Executive Summary

  • Customer data platforms help businesses collect and compile customer information into a centrally accessible, unified customer profile.
  • Key features include identity resolution, segmentation, profile creation and management, real-time data collection and processing, reporting and analysis and data compliance.
  • Remember to clearly define your business objectives and ask about integrations with current solutions and data volumes to find the customer data platform that best suits your needs.
What This Guide Covers:

What Is a Customer Data Platform?

A customer data platform is a system that unifies and shares customer profiles with other systems. It aggregates data from various software like CRM and business intelligence, offering a single source of truth for marketing, sales, and customer support.

Say you want to run a campaign targeting the health-conscious millennial. Customer data platforms combine behavioral, demographic and transactional data from online and offline sources. Its insights result in a more targeted, customized campaign experience with high-value customers.

Related Categories

CRM vs. CDP

CRMs and CDPs both collect and manage customer data, but like quarterbacks and linebackers they’re not exactly interchangeable. Understanding the difference between CRM and CDP will help you choose the right solution for your business and its growth. Here are some of the key differences between CRM and CDP:

How CRM Helps a Business:

  • Manages front-office management tasks.
  • Filters and presents sales pipeline analytics and forecasts.
  • Offers win/loss analysis for building business strategies.
  • Provides prospects for customer acquisition.
  • Takes care of post-sales customer service.
  • Empowers easy purchasing through quote-to-cash (QTC) and end-to-end business processes.
  • Leverages marketing automation capabilities for easy campaign tracking and performance review.

How CDP Helps a Business:

  • Facilitates automation of functionalities such as integrations, validations and cleaning specifically for data management purposes.
  • Identifies, classifies and segregates customer behavior through both online and offline channels.
  • Provides persistent customer profiles and management for ease of operations.
  • Offers customer journeys and lifecycle management through key analytics.
  • Extends customer behavior analytics for improving segmentation for business such as pricing, marketing campaigns, customer retention and more.
  • Provides purchase history and other behavioral information for various business categories.
  • Empowers users with predictive analysis for identifying and acting on customer behavior. These analytics cover factors such as segmentation-based buying capacity, buying intent, buyer interests and more.
  • Enables exporting of customer lists for campaign building, execution and business intelligence.

Primary Benefits

Drowning in dirty data and juggling multiple tools? CDPs can be your saving grace. The benefits of customer data platforms may be the spoonful of sugar you need to simplify the work.

Customer Data Platform Benefits

Improve Cross-Collaboration

Marketing is collaborative. Unified customer data empowers teams across marketing, sales, and creative departments, streamlining multi-channel strategies. A single information source lets sales reps, marketing and creative teams view data across channels, simplify multi- and cross-channel marketing strategies and prevent data silos.

Boost Customer Insights

Third-party data can be outdated and faulty. For example, seeing an ad for a product you just bought is annoying. First-party data is changing the game, offering deeper, real-time customer behavior insights and building goodwill and brand loyalty more effectively. AI analysis into patterns provides more accurate recommendations, too.

Segment Customers More Accurately

Do you ever receive targeted ads that make you question why you’d be interested in that product? Perhaps you don’t know how to drive, but you’re seeing ads for car accessories. It’s probably due to poor customer segmentation. Use filters based on purchase history, interaction, demographics, and behavior to segment customers effectively.

Maintain Compliance

Facebook recently had to pony up $735 million on privacy-related lawsuits. Meet industry regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or HIPAA and reduce the risk of data leaks with user-based controls and audits.

Implementation Goals

Goal 1

Collect First-Party Data

Following the breadcrumb trail potential customers leave behind from third-party sites is time-intensive and sometimes inaccurate. Collect first-party information directly from your website, social media platforms, surveys, apps, and email campaigns to better understand your audience.

Goal 2

Protect Data and Privacy

All data within a customer data platform is GDPR compliant and must be collected consensually. Users can ask to have their data deleted if they change their mind to protect their privacy.

Goal 3

Increase Personalization

It’s easier buying a present for a close friend versus an acquaintance, right? The more you know, the better the chances you’ll find something they’ll enjoy. A complete customer profile with minimal blind spots helps you create personalized, effective campaigns.

Goal 4

Provide Data Insights Across Systems

Creating data silos is a huge no-no. A centralized database with exportable insights makes sharing information across systems easy and keeps departments on the same page.

Basic Features & Functionality

Identity Resolution

Map customer interactions across channels and devices and collate that information into a single customer profile. Use this profile to offer targeted, personalized messaging in real time.
Integrations

CDPs are helpful for multiple departments. Pre-built integrations make it easy to transfer and export data. Integrate with your marketing, sales and manufacturing software to access centralized data efficiently.
Data Collection and Processing

Human behavior is as tenuous as the stock market. Collate data from online and offline channels throughout the customer journey. Process real-time data to offer relevant experiences and more accurate recommendations.
Personalized Segmentation

Want to group customers using demographics or past purchasing patterns? Segment your audience into groups to target customers who fit the criteria set for your campaign.
Customer Profile Creation and Management

Create customer profiles with characteristics like location, contact details and content preferences from cross-channel data collection.
Analytics and Reporting

Data without analysis is like a sandwich without bread. Generate reports and create dashboards for KPIs like behavior patterns, campaign effectiveness and customer lifetime value.
Security and Compliance

Keep customer data safe with industry-compliant regulations, audits and security settings.

Advanced Features & Functionality

AI and Machine Learning Recommendations

Use AI and machine learning insights to predict low and high-value customers, provide product and service recommendations, and create personalized messaging for customers.
Lead-To-Account Matching

No CRM or lead management software? No problem. Match new leads to accounts and set up account hierarchies.
Cross-Channel Automation

Minimize time-intensive data imports and exports and software switching. Automate cross-channel marketing and personalize campaigns using the centralized customer database.
Profile Enrichment

Don’t rely solely on first-party data. Get a complete picture of your customer’s profile by enriching data from second and third-party sources.

Current & Upcoming Trends

Social media's rise and increasingly permanent digital footprints translate to a larger role for customer data platforms. Want to stay on the cutting edge? Here are some key trends to keep in mind.

Customer Data Platform Trends

Usage Beyond Marketing

Customer data platforms are expanding beyond the realm of the traditional spheres of marketing and sales. Integrate your customer data platform to your current tech stack so your data, service and support IT and operations teams can access a variety of data points. Additional data volume processing, analytics capacity, and customizable models will increase scope.

Increased Personalization

Personalization can drive positive outcomes. Users will want to create and customize their systems. Instead of staple features, vendors will provide more build options with custom integrations, AI usage and industry-specific workflows and processes.

Serverless Tech and Data Warehouses

Data warehouses may transform into the foundation for your customer data platform with tools built on top for maximum optimization. More affordable warehousing has increased accessibility, making the case for serverless data warehousing your CDP.

Software Comparison Strategy

Unless you’re Nostradamus, it’s impossible to see exactly how successful your new software will be before you buy. However, there are a few pointers to remember that will increase your chances of success.

Compatibility: It takes a variety of data sources from different departments to make the magic. Check tech stack compatibility and integration capabilities to import and export data efficiently. Look for an eco-system-neutral platform with APIs and ask about both in-built and out-of-the-box integrations.

Usability: The best systems aren’t a coder’s nightmare. You may need to customize some features to optimize your user experience, but that shouldn’t involve a complex rebuild and multiple updates.

Data Volume: Each company will have different data processing requirements. Depending on your product and expected traffic, you may need to store higher data volume. Double-check whether it will affect the time it takes to process and update data across the platform.

Compliance: You’re putting a large amount of data, and ergo trust, in your vendor’s hands. Ask about GDPR compliance and whether the system meets the California Consumer Privacy Act guidelines. If your industry requires additional measures like HIPAA compliance or FDA regulations, check specifically for those requirements to avoid liability.

Cost & Pricing Considerations

Unlike the song, the best things in life aren’t free. The cost of a customer data platform depends on the number of users, data volume and business size. Vendors usually offer a subscription model where you pay per user, per month or a one-time license fee. Licensing works better for mid-to-large corporations as it provides more flexibility and customization and is less cost-effective.

Users may need to pay for additional compliance measures, multiple site usage and advanced features.

The Best Customer Data Platforms

The search for the best customer data platforms can feel like trying to identify a perfectly sweet watermelon solely by look and feel. We’ve asked our analysts to do the research. Read on for our top picks!

Customer Data Platform Product Table

Tealium AudienceStream CDP

Tealium AudienceStream is a unified customer data solution designed to improve the customer experience with real-time data collection across multiple channels. It helps with patented visitor stitching technology to construct customer profiles with ML-powered insights to define high or low-value customers with key engagement insights and milestones to target suitable audiences. Users can set up custom rules for all profiles, understand customer identities and take appropriate actions.

Key features include identity resolution, data enrichment, cross-channel audience management, and Data Hub (CDH) integration.

Tealium AudienceStream CDP

Tealium AudienceStream Dashboard. Source

Segment

Segment is a cloud-based tool used by B2B service providers to unify customer touch-points across platforms and channels to allow companies to understand the customer journey. Users can connect and activate first-party data across more than 300 marketing, analytics and data warehousing tools. It also offers SDKs for Javascript, iOS, Android and over 20 server-side languages.

Segment

Segment Data Insights. Source

Exponea

Exponea is a cloud-based solution that provides email marketing, lifecycle intelligence, automation, product recommendations, predictive intelligence, personalization and full channel automation. It builds a customer view for every individual customer by connecting, tracking and unifying data from both online and offline sources. Additionally, it offers integrations for big data platforms such as Hadoop and BigQuery.

Exponea

Exponea’s User-Based Permission. Source

Treasure Data

Treasure Data is a hybrid, enterprise-grade platform that combines different types of data across different channels to compile a single, actionable view of customers. It manages various functionalities, ranging from data collection, pipeline management and profile unification to segmentation, predictive analytics and multi-channel activation. It also offers infrastructure, support and data management capabilities that enable teams to collect, unify, analyze and activate customer data.

Treasure Data

Treasure Data Identity Resolution. Source

 

 

Questions To Ask Yourself

The art of picking the right software lies in clearly understanding your requirements. Ask yourself the following questions to guide your software selection journey:

  • What is our budget?
  • What business goals do we want to achieve with our customer data?
  • What goals are a priority?
  • Do we require a scalable solution?
  • How many employees will use the software?
  • Will we need to compile data from multiple sources?
  • What is the average volume of data we need to process?
  • Do we need software that complies with industry-specific regulations?
  • What tools do we already use? Do we need software that integrates with our current systems?

Customer Data Platform Key Questions

 

 

 

Questions To Ask Vendors

Once you understand your needs, shortlisting vendors is the next step. Like an online dating profile, matching what they offer with your requirements is vital. Get the answers to the following questions before you make a deal:

About the Software

  • What integrations does the product offer?
  • What is the primary data structure this product accepts?
  • How fast does the solution process and update data?
  • What data security does the software offer?
  • How customizable is the solution?
  • What level of automation and AI use does the solution provide?

About the Vendor

  • How many years of expertise do you have in the industry?
  • What customer support and training do you offer?
  • What does a successful deployment typically look like?
  • Do you have experience working with businesses in my industry?
  • Do you help with data migration?

Next Steps

Customer data platforms can breathe life into your marketing campaigns. Like receiving the legend to a map, it gives you the tools to optimize your marketing efforts. But, adding another marketing solution to your roster can be daunting. Want a little help to sweeten the deal? Use our free comparison report to shortlist the best products using your needs as a benchmark. Happy shopping!

About The Contributors

The following expert team members are responsible for creating, reviewing, and fact checking the accuracy of this content.

Shweta
By Shweta Joshi
Technical Content Writer
Shweta Joshi is a Market Analyst at SelectHub. She writes content for Warehouse Management, Distribution and CRM. In her free time, she pursues her myriad interests in reading, writing, sketching, traveling, learning about new languages, cultures and cuisines, and occasionally playing the uke completely out of tune.
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Joan
Technical Research By Joan Akash
Senior Analyst
Joan Akash, a Senior Research Analyst at SelectHub, holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management with a specialization in Marketing. Her expertise as a researcher and reviewer spans diverse software categories, including Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, Live Chat, and Help Desk. Beyond her professional pursuits, Joan is spiritually driven, with a passion for teaching children and a penchant for reading biblical blogs and crafting poetry.
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Manan
Technical Review By Manan Roy
Principal Analyst
Manan is a native of Tezpur, Assam (India), who currently lives in Kolkata, West Bengal (India). At SelectHub, he works on categories like CRM, HR, PPM, BI, and EHR. He has a Bachelor of Technology in CSE from The Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology, a Master of Technology from The Institute of Engineering and Management IT, and an MBA in Finance from St. Xavier's College. He's published two research papers, one in a conference and the other in a journal, during his Master of Technology.
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Hunter
Edited By Hunter Lowe
Content Editor
Hunter Lowe is a Content Editor, Writer and Market Analyst at SelectHub. His team covers categories that range from ERP and business intelligence to transportation and supply chain management. Hunter is an avid reader and Dungeons and Dragons addict who studied English and Creative Writing through college. In his free time, you'll likely find him devising new dungeons for his players to explore, checking out the latest video games, writing his next horror story or running around with his daughter.
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Joe
Edited By Joe Evans
Content Editor
Joe Evans is an Editor and Senior Market Analyst at SelectHub. A seasoned professional wordsmith, he has a bachelor's degree in journalism and electronic media and a decade of professional expertise in crafting top-tier digital content for niche online brands. He leads his small yet formidable team in producing helpful, compelling content in vital categories like HR, payroll, talent management, performance management, marketing automation home health, MES. When not editing and writing, he enjoys sports, quality time with family and dogs, and remains constantly in pursuit of something new and interesting to read or listen to.
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