Implementing a customer data platform (CDP) takes careful planning. Getting your entire business onboard with using it is a critical component of that plan. After all, adoption drives success.
In the 2024 CDP World sessionCreating IIRIS: Informa's proprietary first-party data platform
IIRIS has evolved as the central CDP for Informa, delivering a consent-driven and enriched B2B data ecosystem. With this platform, Informa businesses can engage better, create new products, and improve overall marketing effectiveness.
Mary Wallace, Senior Director, Marketing Technology IIRIS, and Thomas Devos, Martech Strategy Manager, explained the strategies they put in place to overcome challenges and drive adoption across the company.
The building blocks of successful adoption
It's one thing to acknowledge the challenges they faced.
It's another to find ways to reduce or eliminate them and drive true adoption of the CDP. Wallace and Devos walked through eight keys to Informa's success that you can also implement to drive the success of a CDP in your organization.
1) Onboard new businesses strategically
The IIRIS team onboarded businesses one at a time. This allowed them to focus on the needs and business drivers of each one and understand what marketers and the business needed. By working this way, the team could take learning to the next business.
One thing they did was start a
2) Involve the business from the start
Moving into Treasure Data CDP is more than moving to a data platform. It's about doing things better and solving problems. The IIRIS team partnered with each business to define needs, issues, and goals upfront. While they built out the platform, they brought the businesses along with them. For example, they held daily scrum calls, during which questions were asked and answered, and had the businesses test the data to ensure its accuracy.
When a business was activated on the platform, they switched roles, and the business became the owner of the platform, with the IIRIS team supporting them.
3) Provide easy access to documentation
It's not enough to provide documentation on how to use the platform. Devos said you need to market the product proactively. So, they created a website that provided everything needed to understand and use IIRIS, including
4) Implement a structured training program
5) Create a communications strategy built around transparency
How do you get the business to trust you? The IIRIS team did two things. First, they took a top-down approach, conducting quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with senior leadership. These reviews focused on strategy and learning what the business wanted to do (e.g., more personalization,
6) Connect through community
QBRs are great, but the IIRIS team also wants to stay in touch with platform users on a daily basis, so they created three forums (or communities).
- Marketing Forum: For senior leadership, this forum covers strategic aspects such as industry trends and long-term vision.
- Power Hours: This is a more tactical forum where they showcase work and use cases that are easy to implement.
- Show and Tell: This forum showcases new innovative ideas and projects.
7) Provide tools to demystify data
Devos said that CDPs are great, but with great tools comes complexity.
They wanted to provide tools to help businesses understand the business logic and the product. Some tools the team built included a product taxonomy, segmentation model, and standard and business-specific values.
8) Staff a dedicated team
Informa has an IIRIS team that supports business from discovery through onboarding and go live through to business as usual. There are Handing you the keys to CDP adoption
