Introduction to Sharing Customer Data

After processing a query in MXO, you can access customer data for the resulting Audience from the Dynamic Audiences page. An audience comprises a set of data about both identified (recognized) and unidentified (anonymous) customers. That data comprises either:

  • all attributes captured for each customer, or
  • all attributes and event data captured for each customer.

To get the customer data out of MXO you need to share that data.

Why share customer data?

Sharing customer data allows you to analyze and act on that data, outside of MXO.

As a data analyst you may want to use that data to create reports and visualizations in your external BI tools or run statistical analysis on datasets.

As a data engineer you may want to enrich the data currently available in your data warehouse with the most up-to-date data MXO holds for your customers.

As a marketer you may want to use that data to inform further action, such as following up existing customer activity with an email or phone call.

How do I want to use shared data?

When thinking about how to use customer data, think in terms of "What am I trying achieve?" What is the job I need to do? What do I want to get from this data?

Essentially, you're thinking in terms of activating customers in an audience or analyzing customer data for an audience and there are three main options. You may want to:

  • activate all or a cohort of customers,
  • analyze customer data for a specific cohort, or
  • analyze data for all customers.

TB - JTBD Overview

What data do I want to share?

As well as thinking about what you want to use shared customer data for, think about the type of customer data you want to share. Consider the following:

  • Do you want data relating to all your customers or just a particular cohort?
  • Do you want to know everything about those customers or are you only interested in customer activity relating to actual journey events?

Answering these questions will help you decide on the type of query you need to write and the format in which you to share or download the resulting customer data.

What formats are available for sharing customer data?

One of the most important questions to consider when deciding on the format in which you want to share or download customer data is "Where is that data going to be used?" The format you use is dependent on the format required by the final endpoint.

You can share customer data in the following formats:

  • CSV
  • JSON
  • Data Export v8

If you are sharing customer data in Data Export v8 format, you can also download the resulting zip file locally.

What's the process for creating and sharing customer data?

Sharing an audience is three-stage process:

  1. Configure a destination for the customer data.
  2. Write and process your engagement query. The type of query you create is dependent on the type of customer data you want to retrieve.
  3. Share the customer data.