Email Append: Why Hashed Emails Are Essential to Identity Matching

It’s natural to be curious about the online behavior of customers and prospects. What social networks do they use most often? Which sources do they turn to for news?

Thanks to new technology, the answers to these questions are no longer out of reach. Marketers have the resources they need to gather data about how these individuals behave, which then evolves into knowledge. (And as we all know, knowledge is power.) This information serves as a platform for better understanding your audience and creating email marketing campaigns that align with your findings.

When it comes to better understanding your customers’ identities, hashed emails are one of the most powerful tools at your disposal. Here’s a closer look at how they work and how to make them work for you.

Hashed Emails Help With Identity Matching

Think of the connection between hashed emails and identity matching like this: hashed emails are the key that unlocks the door and identity matching are the steps taken once inside.

Hashed emails feature a built-in code that is similar to a cookie on your browser. Through this code, hashed emails can collect subscriber emails and then encrypt the data into a hexadecimal string.

This provides the perfect balance of shared information and privacy. Marketers can trace the actions of subscribers when they are logged into the associated email account, but the identity of the individuals is kept secure. While these emails may sound similar in nature to cookies, they offer the added benefit of working across multiple devices, and they also cannot be blocked.

Hashed emails are essential to identity matching, which refers to the tracking of behavior across various mediums so you can deliver messages that are relevant to the audience.

Turning Data Into Knowledge

After you analyze this tracked data, the next move is to use the information to guide future retargeting efforts. For instance, you can find out which prospects are already aware of your brand and direct your advertising campaigns accordingly. You can also see which customers have already purchased specific products and exclude them from advertising campaigns that target those specific products. The result is a more effective marketing tactic and a better experience for the consumer.

Hashed emails can give you a broader view of your customers. If a company has a large list of customer postal addresses, for example, it could communicate with its customers on social media by appending a hashed email to a postal address. This allows the company to further connect with the customer and understand how the customer is interacting with the brand in other mediums.

You can also turn to hashed emails as a resource for the content you write. When you are more in tune with the websites and networks customers prefer, you can better align your own marketing efforts with their style and tone. This improves the chances that your content will entice readers and inspire action on their end.

While the benefits of hashed emails may be clear to marketers, some businesses may only have access to direct mail lists or social media pages. Good news: There are ways to match this information to hashed email addresses. Once you acquire these addresses, you can use them to fuel multi-channel marketing efforts and increase overall engagement.

See what customers you could be connecting with today. Get a free email append match test.