In this article, we explore the potential of a HubSpot CDP and provide a step by step guide on how to unify customer data for enhanced insights and personalised marketing strategies.
With customer interactions happening across multiple channels, ranging from websites and social media to mobile apps, businesses need a unified approach to organise, analyse, and leverage this data effectively.
Research shows that approximately 50% of marketing organisations are expected to use a CDP by 2025, highlighting the importance of unified data management tools in shaping modern marketing strategies.
While HubSpot does not yet offer a standalone Customer Data Platform (CDP), it provides several integrated features that serve as effective tools for customer data management, enabling businesses to collect, organise, and analyse customer information from various sources.
This makes it possible to achieve many of the benefits HubSpot CDP offers, while keeping data management and marketing processes within a single ecosystem.
What is a customer data platform?
Before we dive into what a Customer Data Platform (CDP) is, let’s first consider what a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system does.
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is primarily focused on storing and managing information about customers. It captures essential details such as names, email addresses, purchase history, and records of communication.
This functionality helps businesses maintain and nurture their relationships with customers and potential clients. In essence, a CRM is the front office technology that supports marketing, sales, and service operations by organising customer interactions.
In contrast, a Customer Data Platform (CDP) goes beyond this narrow scope. It aggregates not only customer data but also a broader spectrum of information from various sources, such as websites, social media, broader business applications, and more.
A CDP consolidates this data into a single customer profile, providing a holistic view of all interactions and behaviours across multiple channels. This unified approach allows businesses to understand their customers better and tailor their marketing efforts more effectively.
While a CRM focuses on the data relevant to customer relationship management, a CDP acts as an integrative platform that pulls in additional external data to enrich customer profiles.
This includes:
- Supply chain data: A CDP can track product inventory, shipments, suppliers, and logistics. By doing so, businesses can link supply chain activities to customer demand and purchasing behaviours, allowing for more accurate forecasting and resource allocation.
- Commerce data: E-commerce platforms and point-of-sale systems can feed data into a CDP, enabling businesses to monitor sales trends, purchase history, and shopping cart behaviours. This integration provides insights into the full customer journey, from product discovery to purchase.
- Financial data: CDPs can incorporate financial information, including billing details, payment history, and credit information. This helps businesses gain insights into revenue generation, customer lifetime value, and overall profitability.
- Marketing data: Beyond traditional CRM metrics, a CDP collects insights from various marketing channels, such as email campaigns, social media interactions, and website activity, to create a comprehensive view of how customers engage with the brand.
- Product usage data: For SaaS companies or businesses with digital products, CDPs can track user engagement - what features are utilised, frequency of use, and areas where users may encounter issues.
- Behavioural data: A CDP can also pull in data on customer behaviour from mobile applications, IoT devices, and other sources, further enriching the understanding of customer preferences and actions.
In summary, while a CRM is essential for managing customer relationships, a CDP provides a more expansive view, enabling businesses to leverage data from multiple sources for enhanced insights and personalised marketing strategies. This unified approach ultimately fosters deeper customer relationships and drives business growth.
Can HubSpot be used as a CDP?
While HubSpot does not have a dedicated Customer Data Platform (CDP), its existing tools allow businesses to replicate many of the core functionalities of a CDP.
Let’s examine how HubSpot can be used as a CDP.
HubSpot’s CRM: collect and organise data
HubSpot's CRM is designed to help businesses collect and organise customer data from various touch points, such as website interactions, email campaigns, and sales conversations. Automated data entry and tracking allow businesses to build detailed customer profiles without manual effort.
For instance, a cloud-based software provider can use HubSpot’s CRM to track leads from various sources, such as webinars or product demos. When a prospective client signs up for a webinar, their details are logged, and any subsequent interactions with the product (e.g., viewing specific feature pages) are recorded in the CRM.
This gives the sales team valuable insight into what features interest the prospect, enabling more personalised follow-ups.
HubSpot Marketing Hub: audience segmentation
HubSpot’s Marketing Hub plays a crucial role in segmenting customer data for targeted marketing efforts.
With tools for managing customer lists, creating personalised email campaigns, and tracking engagement, businesses can tailor their marketing strategies based on behaviour.
For example, a digital service company can segment users based on their activity on the platform. For instance, users who frequently book consultations could be grouped and targeted with promotional offers for subscription services, while those who have signed up but not yet booked a session can receive educational content about how the service works.
This allows the company to nurture leads and improve engagement with tailored messaging.
HubSpot Sales Hub: unified customer insights
The Sales Hub allows businesses to track customer interactions, such as phone calls, emails, and meetings. It also stores insights about customer behaviour, like past purchases or product preferences, giving sales teams the ability to personalise their pitches.
For instance, a software company that sells customer support software can use HubSpot to monitor customer engagement during free trials. If a trial user frequently engages with certain features, such as automated chatbots, the sales team can offer tailored plans that highlight advanced chatbot capabilities.
This personalisation boosts the likelihood of converting leads into paying customers.
Does HubSpot offer data management tools?
HubSpot offers a range of data management tools for importing, exporting, cleaning and syncing data from various sources. These features ensure that customer profiles remain accurate and up-to-date.
For instance, an online furniture retailer can sync purchase history from their e-commerce platform into HubSpot, ensuring that all customer interactions are captured. For example, when a customer buys a new sofa, this information is logged and can trigger follow-up emails suggesting matching décor items.
This approach helps retailers create a more personalised and improved post-purchase experience.
Reporting and analytics in HubSpot
One of HubSpot’s most powerful features is its ability to provide advanced reporting and analytics on customer behaviour. These tools allow businesses to track the performance of marketing campaigns, analyse customer engagement, and gain insights into sales and service interactions.
Businesses can review detailed reports on how customers interact with their website or email campaigns, enabling data-driven decision-making.
For instance, A cloud infrastructure provider that offers scalable server solutions uses HubSpot’s advanced reporting and analytics tools to track customer engagement across multiple channels. The company launches marketing campaigns promoting its cloud solutions to various industries, such as fintech, e-commerce, and healthcare. Using HubSpot’s tools, the team can analyse how different segments respond to email marketing, blog content, and social media ads.
The marketing team is reviewing reports that show e-commerce customers are more interested in educational content to optimise website performance, while healthcare companies are more interested in webinars on compliance and data security. Using these insights, the team adjusts its campaigns to better target each segment with tailored messages.
In addition, the sales team can track how leads move through the funnel by analysing interactions with emails, white paper downloads or product demos.
This way, they can determine which segments are closer to converting and make personalised sales calls accordingly. The ability to track these metrics allows the company to make data-driven decisions and optimise both marketing and sales efforts.
Creating a CDP-like experience with HubSpot
By utilising HubSpot’s CRM, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and data management tools, businesses can create a CDP-like experience without needing to implement a standalone platform.
This unified view of customer data enhances marketing personalisation, improves customer insights, and streamlines operations across departments. The integration of these tools allows businesses to track customer behaviour from initial engagement through to purchase and ongoing support, enabling a personalised customer journey.
Benefits of using HubSpot for customer data management
HubSpot offers a range of benefits for companies that want to manage their customer data efficiently. The integrated tools allow companies to collect, analyse and process customer information from a central platform, enabling personalised interactions and optimised processes.
Let’s look at the benefits in more detail.
1. Improved customer insights
With HubSpot’s suite of tools, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their customers by tracking interactions across multiple touchpoints. From website visits to sales conversations and email engagement, HubSpot brings all this data together in a unified customer profile.
This gives businesses a clearer picture of customer behaviour, preferences, and pain points, allowing for more informed decision-making and better-targeted marketing efforts.
For instance, analysing customer interaction data can help businesses identify potential leads earlier in the sales funnel or understand which marketing campaigns are resonating with specific segments of their audience.
2. Enhanced marketing personalisation
HubSpot’s integrated tools allow businesses to tailor marketing campaigns based on real-time customer data. Whether it's sending out personalised email campaigns through the Marketing Hub or launching targeted social media ads, businesses can leverage customer insights to create more relevant and engaging content.
For example, by tracking customer behaviour, such as the pages they visit or products they’ve viewed, you can trigger personalised follow-ups or promotions. According to a study by Forbes, 81% of customers prefer companies that offer a personalised experience, and 70% say a personalised experience in which the employee knows who they are.
HubSpot helps businesses tap into this trend by providing the tools needed to deliver tailored, data-driven marketing strategies.
3. Streamlined operations across departments
One of HubSpot’s biggest strengths is its ability to streamline operations across different departments, sales, marketing, and customer service, all working from the same set of data. This leads to smoother collaboration, fewer data silos, and more cohesive customer experiences.
For example, when sales teams have access to marketing campaign data or customer service history, they can personalise their sales approach based on each customer’s unique journey. Similarly, marketing teams can adjust their strategies based on sales interactions or service feedback. This holistic view reduces operational inefficiencies and ensures that everyone is aligned in serving the customer.
4. Strengthened Data Governance
HubSpot’s tools help businesses maintain data quality and integrity by automating data cleansing, deduplication, and enrichment. With HubSpot acting as a central source of truth, companies can prevent fragmented or inconsistent data across departments, ensuring more accurate customer insights.
For example, automated workflows can identify and merge duplicate contact records, standardise data formats, and flag incomplete fields, improving the overall reliability of reports and dashboards. This ensures that all teams work with clean, up-to-date data, enhancing decision-making and customer interactions.
Maximise HubSpot's data potential with Breeze Intelligence
While HubSpot offers a wide array of features to manage and analyse customer data, businesses often require additional tools and systems to enrich this data further.
One such tool that enhances HubSpot's data enablement is Breeze Intelligence.
Breeze Intelligence: streamlining data integration
HubSpot’s Breeze Intelligence is designed to integrate third-party data into HubSpot’s CRM. It enables businesses to capture external data sources, such as supply chain data, financial transactions, and external marketing systems, and feed this information into HubSpot.
By doing so, businesses can enrich their existing customer profiles with deeper insights from a wider variety of data sources. This allows for a more accurate and detailed understanding of customer behaviours, preferences, and needs.
The importance of a unified customer view
The ability to integrate third-party applications into HubSpot and to enrich the data in the CRM supports the creation of a unified and complete customer view.
This unified approach is essential for businesses aiming to make data-driven decisions that align with customer needs and preferences. With a complete view of the customer journey, from online behaviour to purchasing patterns and service interactions, businesses can provide more relevant, timely, and personalised experiences.
Moreover, HubSpot’s integrations with analytics tools, social media platforms, and customer support software mean that businesses can track and respond to customer interactions in real-time.
This leads to more effective decision-making, allowing teams to adjust their strategies dynamically based on real-time data, whether it’s shifting a marketing campaign or refining a sales pitch.
How to achieve a unified customer data strategy with HubSpot
Creating a unified customer data strategy is essential for businesses aiming to leverage data to drive personalisation, improve customer experiences, and increase operational efficiency. HubSpot’s integrated suite provides the foundation for such a strategy, but it requires a structured approach to ensure success.
Here’s a step-by-step guide for businesses looking to use HubSpot to unify their customer data:
1. Assess your current data strategy
Start by evaluating your existing data collection and management processes. Identify where your customer data currently resides—whether it’s in your CRM, marketing tools, sales systems, or even external platforms like e-commerce sites or financial software. Determine whether your data is siloed across departments, which can limit insights and operational efficiency.
Understanding your current data landscape helps to highlight gaps in your data strategy and areas where HubSpot can centralise and streamline data collection. For instance, your marketing and sales teams may be using different tools that don’t communicate with each other, causing inefficiencies and missed opportunities.
2. Set goals for customer data usage
Define clear objectives for how you want to use your customer data. Are you looking to personalise marketing campaigns, improve sales targeting, or streamline customer service operations? Setting specific, measurable goals will guide your implementation process and ensure that your HubSpot setup is aligned with your business objectives.
For example, if your goal is to enhance personalisation in your marketing efforts, you’ll want to focus on integrating your website, email, and social media data into HubSpot’s Marketing Hub to track customer interactions and behaviours across channels.
3. Engage with a HubSpot Partner for guidance
Implementing a unified data strategy can be complex, especially when integrating various data sources. Working with a HubSpot Partner can provide valuable expertise, ensuring that your data is properly configured, synchronised, and leveraged for maximum impact. HubSpot Partners are trained to help businesses optimise their use of HubSpot’s tools and integrate third-party applications effectively.
These experts can guide you through the process of data migration, system integration, and workflow automation, ensuring a smooth transition to a more centralised customer data management approach.
4. Leverage HubSpot’s data management features
Once your goals are set and integrations are in place, use HubSpot’s robust data management tools to organise and unify your customer data.
This includes:
- Automated data entry to reduce manual work and minimise errors.
Segmentation tools to group customers based on their behaviours, preferences, and interactions. - Syncing data from various platforms, such as e-commerce, social media, or customer service systems, to maintain up-to-date and accurate customer profiles.
- Data cleaning and governance tools to merge duplicates, fill missing fields, and standardise formats, ensuring data accuracy and consistency across the platform.
By creating detailed and unified customer profiles, your marketing, sales, and service teams can access the same information, leading to more personalised and cohesive customer experiences.
5. Implement training and change management
Introducing new data management processes often requires a cultural shift within the business. It’s crucial to ensure that your teams are fully trained on how to use HubSpot’s tools effectively. Providing ongoing training and support will help employees understand how to input and access data correctly, improving overall data quality.
Additionally, adopting a change management approach will help to ease the transition and encourage buy-in across departments. Highlight the benefits of a unified customer data strategy, such as increased efficiency, better decision-making, and more personalised customer interactions, to foster a positive attitude towards the new system.
Elevate your data strategy with HubSpot CDP solutions
In conclusion, while HubSpot does not offer a standalone HubSpot CDP, its suite of tools allows businesses to create a unified view of customer data.
Working with an experienced HubSpot partner ensures that you can fully optimise HubSpot's CDP capabilities, effectively managing your customer data and driving business success. If you're ready to enhance your data strategy with HubSpot, our team can help.
Contact us today to learn more about our HubSpot data strategy services and take the next step towards enhanced data management and insights.
