When to use a CDP versus data warehouse

Also - the best channel to generate quality leads in 2025

In this edition:

1. When to Use a CDP Versus a Data Warehouse

2. Podcast Episode - Going From Startup to Enterprise Marketing Operations

3. POLL: The Best Channel To Generate Quality Leads in 2025

4. Exclusive For Paid Subscribers: Why It’s Difficult To Find A New Operations Job Today And What to Do About It

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When to Use a CDP Versus a Data Warehouse

Here’s a simple explanation of customer data platforms (CDPs) versus data warehouses.

Okay, imagine a school with a big filing cabinet where all teachers store everything from their classes. That’s a data warehouse - very important!

But what if you want to send a note to a specific group of students based on their club? That's very tough.

What if you had a smart app that stored data about what clubs students are in, along with their email address and phone number? That would be much easier. That is a CDP.

CDPs make it easy to combine and standardize customer data and to activate it (message people). Data warehouses store data from all sources and use cases, some of which are irrelevant to customers or the customer experience.

Can you do it with just a data warehouse? Yes, but it takes some work. You could use data engineering to get most of the CDP's capabilities. The better route is to use Reverse ETL platforms like High-Touch, Census, and GrowthLoop to access customer data within the data warehouse more easily and send it to activation platforms (like email, push, SMS, etc.) for messaging.

Here’s the TL;DR:
▶️ CDP = ready-made for customer data
• Unified profiles
• Real-time activation
• Built for marketers
• But… less flexible and more expensive

💾 Data Warehouse = powerful, flexible, scalable, requires tech skill
• Can store anything
• Built for analysis
• Requires SQL + data engineering
• But… not built for real-time marketing use
In reality, the best companies use both.
👉 Warehouse = system of record
👉 CDP = system of action

Hope this clears it up. Save and share with your team.

Do you find this helpful? How else would you explain the difference between
CDPs and data warehouses?

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Going From Startup To Enterprise Marketing Operations

Moving from startup marketing ops to enterprise ops is a complete mindset shift.

We just interviewed Elena Hassan from Visa on the Humans of Martech podcast, and her career path perfectly illustrates what it takes to make that jump successfully.

At startups, speed is everything. You wear five hats. You spin up campaigns in hours. Approval is a Slack message and a thumbs-up emoji.

But the rules change in a global enterprise - especially in a regulated industry like finance.

Suddenly:

• Legal and compliance weigh in on creative.

• Tech stack decisions go through InfoSec and procurement.

• Campaigns take months, not days.

It's not about being slow. It’s about managing risk at scale.

Elena shared how she had to shift her mindset from “how do I move fast and generate MQLs” to “how do we protect the brand and build trust at scale.”

To thrive in this environment, you have to make key shifts:

• “How fast can we launch?” → “What risk are we mitigating?”

• “Why can’t I use my favorite tool?” → “What protects the customer best?”

• “Just get the leads” → “Does the brand inspire confidence?”

What no one tells you is that enterprise marketing ops comes with massive upsides:
✔️ Exposure to deep domain experts
✔️ Access to real budgets and brand plays
✔️ A front-row seat to how governance and operations actually scale

Yes, the systems are heavier. But the learning curve is steep—in a good way.

If you're making the jump from startup to enterprise ops, Elena’s advice is clear: stop fighting the process, and start understanding what it’s protecting.

The skills that get you in the door aren’t always the skills that keep you in the room.

🎧 Listen to the full episode on Humans of Martech to hear Elena’s full story.

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POLL: Aside from referrals, which channel generates the best quality leads?

Top Commentary from Social

I've always struggled with Webinar as a channel. If someone registers for the webinar because they saw a LinkedIn ad, wouldn't the channel be paid social, instead of a webinar? I get events as a source of people, but webinars, I never understood it Juliana Zuluaga

A single opportunity closed from a webinar makes the whole setup pay off. Even when the true cost of them is in to 10K - Juan Pablo Garcia

Paid social hands down. Unless you sell a commodity, search is a black hole. Email is nearly dead. - Dee Acosta