CUSTOMER

PROFILE
MANAGEMENT

HOW-TO GUIDE
 Customer Profile Management
HOW-TO GUIDE

Executive Summary
Marketing success has universally rested on a single principle: “Know Thy Customer.” The
increasing need for personalization, localization and customization of marketing campaigns
depends on it. However, without a unified and current Customer Profile, critical B2B campaigns
like demand generation, lead management, scoring and nurturing are woefully inadequate.

To succeed in the multifaceted communication environment presented by the web, mobile and
social media, modern marketers need to embrace a new paradigm for creating and managing
Customer Profiles. This new paradigm is known as Customer Profile Management.

This How-To Guide is designed to provide marketers with the information and resources they
need to effectively manage their users’/customers’ online experiences based on leading-edge
customer profile management and registration systems and strategies.

Profile Management Opportunity and Challenge

Customer profiles are central to effective digital marketing. The rise of Big Data, social sharing and
social selling tools offers the opportunity to collect increasingly more detailed information about
prospects and customers. That opportunity also presents some key challenges and questions.

Among them:
1. What data should be collected?
2. When and how should it be collected?
3. How should it be stored, managed and accessed?
4. Once collected, how should it be used for more effective marketing?
5. Most importantly, how can it be used to enhance the customer’s experience and engagement?

The answers to these questions form the basis of an effective Customer Profile Management strategy.

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Best Practices for Profile Management
The leap from collecting basic profile data for marketing purposes to developing a Customer
Profile Management strategy that enhances engagement can be a big one depending on the
maturity of your organization.

The first step is a mind shift from thinking “customer data” to focusing on Customer Profile Manage-
ment. Customer Profile Management is based on strategies for acquiring new users and under-
standing their interests, activities and behaviors intimately so you can create unique, personal-
ized experiences to engage with them.

Two considerations are critical to effective Customer Profile Management – initial registration
and on-going authentication.

Customer Profile Management begins with the prospect’s first visit to your site. That
initial registration is a critical entry point in the customer experience. How quickly
does your site engage the first time visitor? The goal is to engage them deeply
enough that they want to register with you to learn/get more. So you want to make the
registration process as easy as possible.
It’s no surprise that the more complex the registration process is, the fewer sign-ups
you will receive. That means your organization needs to have a well-designed registra-
tion system that captures the information you need while providing a convenient, easy
experience for the user. It should also take into account privacy concerns by balancing
the marketer’s need to know with the user’s desire for privacy.

The second step is on-going authentication. The system must identify the returning
user quickly and conveniently. On PCs that is typically accomplished via “cookies”.
However, as users increasing log-on from phones and tablets, new techniques for
on-going authentication are needed.
Your site’s registration system must handle both initial registration and ongoing
authentication with ease. Use the following criteria to evaluate or build your online
registration system. The registration system should:

Be seamlessly integrated with your site. This includes the branded look and feel of
the registration page, forms and user profiles.

Provide universal access. Your online registration option should be readable and
easily fillable from any device. It should ensure that the registration process is the same
experience on a PC, tablet or Smartphone.

Provide “instant gratification” for the user. The user should receive what they regis-
tered for immediately after completing their registration within no more than a minute
or two and, preferably, with only one or two clicks.

3 CUSTOMER PROFILE MANAGEMENT HOW-TO GUIDE

 Ensure data integrity. Elements, such as password management and reset capabilities,
email verification, in-line field validation, CAPTCHA bot prevention, etc., must be incor-
porated into your registration system.
Enable customization. The back-end data management component of your registra-
tion system should be flexible enough to allow your team to customize the user regis-
tration experience in order to support your brand, marketing goals, sales requirements
and/or customer service needs.

Best Practices for Online Registration

We recommend two best practices for online registration – make it as easy as possible and give
users control over their profile data.

Make It as Easy as Possible

As stated earlier, the easier and faster the registration process, the more effective your
Customer Profile Management strategy.
Today, options, such as Social Log-in, Single Sign-on and Account Mapping offer the best, and
most secure, registration experiences. Here we discuss these options in more detail:

Social Log-in – is the process of allowing users to log-in to their account using one (or more)
of their social profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Yahoo!, etc.). This allows the user
to register with one click and, in many cases, grants the application access to the user’s social
data, activity and log-in. This process gives the marketer access to detailed information about
the user’s interests, activities and preferences.

Single Sign-on – is the process of allowing users to access different parts of a site or connected
sites with a single identity, rather than forcing them to sign-in at multiple access points. Single
Sign-on enables users to navigate the web more freely. It allows the organization, brand and
its partner sites to offer a unique, personalized experience for each user on the very first visit.
To maximize the value of Single Sign-on, make sure your Single Sign-on application supports
both Social Log-in and traditional user name/password sign-on options.

Account Mapping – allows users to log-on their account with any of their preferred social iden-
tities, not just the first one they chose. The user gets increased flexibility; and the marketing
organization gets the permission to collect and integrate customer profile information from
multiple social sites. This gives the marketer a broader and deeper customer view for the more
personalized engagement that today’s users expect.

4 CUSTOMER PROFILE MANAGEMENT HOW-TO GUIDE

These registration options provide the following benefits:

Speed – Social Log-in provides access with just two clicks.

Convenience and Flexibility – Social Log-in is the most convenient way to complete both initial regis-
tration and on-going authentication. Account mapping lets users login with multiple IDs, which gives
them added flexibility and convenience.
Ease of Use – Single Sign-on provides easier authentication across a range of devices.
Security – Social Log-in is more secure because you are using the data security supported by the
company behind the social log-in ID (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). 

All three registration options provide the added benefit of being considered authenticated data.
Since the information in social profiles is shared real-time with family, friends and colleagues, it
tends to be accurate and current. This is user-authenticated data verified by their social activity,
which gives the marketing organization a stream of current, accurate data that they may not other-
wise have access to.

Give the users control of their online profile. Users will be less concerned about giving your
organization access to their social profiles if they know they have control over it. Enable users
to choose public/private options for each personal detail/field on their profile and make it
easy for them to change it.

Use Case Scenarios

Customer Profile Management is most valuable for B2C and for B2B companies that support large
networks or user populations. These include:

Real Estate brokers

Medical suppliers to doctors, dentists and veterinarians
Employment agencies
Consumers looking for access to exclusive content
Consumers looking for access to coupons or special promotions

As noted, effective Customer Profile Management involves data collection, storage, access and
use by the marketing organization to enhance user experience and engagement.

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Data Collection Considerations
Through Social Log-in, marketers now have access to rich, experiential data beyond the
standard demographic data traditionally collected. This data can include activities, hobbies,
interests, relationships, professional networks and connections, job history and financial back-
ground. This type of data was difficult, if not impossible, to capture previously without asking
users to fill out lengthy and intrusive profile forms.

The value of this data is that it is collected with the expressed permission of the user and
provided as they give the organization access to their profiles. When a user is offered the ability
to map their account as well as Single Sign-on, the organization can collect information from
multiple profiles that can be synthesized and cross-referenced for multiple marketing purposes.

Progressive Profiling
Progressive profiling is a data collection method in which the organization requests additional
information from users at specific trigger points in their activity with the website. Progressive
profiling can be designed to collect additional information each time a user logs in, or be based on
their previous activity/interest. It can also be tied to specific information requests for downloads,
discounts or other incentives to increase conversion rates.

Progressive Profiling offers the advantage of building trust and deepening the customer engage-
ment at the rate that each customer feels is most comfortable for them. It gives the marketer the
ability to build a composite user profile from multiple data points and sources.

Access Considerations
Access considerations must recognize that users in both B2B and B2C settings are logging on
to their accounts via phone and tablet. This can be frustrating as PCs remember their log-in but
the “smart” devices do not. A registration system that includes a Social Log-in feature for mobile
devices eliminates the frustration and provides convenience. Increasingly, for business users,
log-on IDs can include options beyond social IDs, such as the users’ salesforce.com ID.

Marketing Campaign Considerations

Access to social data gives the marketing organization the ability to improve the personalization
and customization of all of their digital marketing campaigns. Among the benefits offered are:

More effective customer/market segmentation Real-time offer triggers

Increased conversion rates Deeper brand connection
More personalized offers Higher share of wallet
Channel partner upsell/cross sell opportunities Retargeting optimization

6 CUSTOMER PROFILE MANAGEMENT HOW-TO GUIDE

Beyond Marketing
The data collected via your online registration system should not be silo’ed in marketing.
Your processes and the Customer Profile Management system you choose should enable
easy access and sharing of data across all departments including sales, operations and
product development.

Platform Selection Criteria

As noted, effective Customer Profile Management involves data collection, storage, access and
use by the marketing organization to enhance user experience and engagement.

1. Platform supports all types and levels of registration including user name/password, Social
Log-in, Social Sign-on and Account Mapping.
2. Platform comes pre-loaded with templates for registration screens, registration forms and
user profiles.
3. Platform allows easy customization for branding all templates, forms and registration pages.
4. Platform offers Registration as a Service (RaaS), complete cloudbased functionality.
5. Platform is optimized for mobile device registration, using responsive design and SDKs for
screens, forms and user profile pages.
6. Platform offers advanced data collection options such as Progressive Profiling; Auto-refresh,
which updates the user profile at every login, and automatic updates to terms of service.
7. Platform offers APIs for data integration with internal database systems such as CRM, MA,
email and ecommerce systems.
8. Platform offers a comprehensive and customizable workflow process for the collection,
storage, access and use of all customer profile data.
9. Platform ensures data integrity and accuracy in the collection of profile information with built-in
rules for data and email validation.
10. Platform includes reporting and analytics functionality that enables the marketing organiz-
ation to measure value and optimized usage through features like social login and sharing
trends and behavioral analytics.

Bottom Line
Marketing success has universally rested on a single principle: “Know Thy Customer.” Advances
in Customer Profile Management through technologies like Social Log-in and Single Sign-On
have made it possible for marketers to know their customer better than ever — with the
customers’ willing permission. If your organization has not evaluated Customer Profile Manage-
ment solutions before, now is the time to give them a serious review.

7 CUSTOMER PROFILE MANAGEMENT HOW-TO GUIDE

 Action Plan
STEP 1 - Evaluate

1 Evaluate Perform an Evaluation

2 Assess Perform an evaluation of your

current Customer Profile
methodologies and processes
to see how they stack up to
the evolving needs of users
3 Use who want to access your site.

4 Choose

8 CUSTOMER PROFILE MANAGEMENT HOW-TO GUIDE

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