PPC and Email: A Match Made in Data Heaven

Over the past few years, we’ve noticed an emerging trend in the marketing world: email marketing professionals no longer are focusing solely on email. As marketing teams break out of their silos, today’s email specialists are expected to take on a whole host of endeavors simultaneously, including social media, data analysis and paid marketing. For companies, this means more well-rounded strategies. But, as a marketer, it’s not uncommon to feel pulled in a million directions. How can you connect the dots across multiple channels to produce successful, highly targeted campaigns?

The answer is data. (But you already knew that’s what I was going to say, didn’t you?)

The truth is that using one channel to guide the other can make your life much easier-and your strategies more effective. Today, we’re going to talk about three ways you can use PPC to improve your email strategy, and vise versa.

1. Use PPC to Build Email Lists

In the past, we’ve discussed a few ways you can safely and effectively grow your email list. Paid search offers yet another opportunity for you to increase your subscriber base and fill your sales funnel with highly qualified leads.

Imagine you manage the marketing for an automobile dealership, and you’ve launched a paid search campaign designed to target local buyers. A potential customer in your geographic area has been researching the make of vehicle you sell, and is served a retargeting message from your dealership. So long as the landing page includes a great offer and a clear conversion path, she’ll likely enter her email address. And even if she doesn’t request a test drive immediately, the fact that she provided her email address after clicking through from an ad indicates interest.

2. Test Subject Lines with PPC Ads

You likely already A/B test your subject lines before emailing your entire list, but PPC can help you take testing copy to the next level. Before you try a new CTA, subject line or offer in an email message, try it out in a PPC ad and monitor the performance. Alternatively, track the subject lines that earn the greatest engagement and use the same ideas to build out your paid search ads. This additional layer of testing allows you to better optimize the language you use in both advertising as well as email marketing.

3. Use the Power of Hashed Emails

One of the greatest things about having a well-groomed, well-segmented email list is that it can help you spend your PPC budget wisely. Without this solid foundation, paid search can feel a lot like guesswork.

AdWords, Twitter and Facebook offer marketers the ability to upload email lists and customize ad messages for each segment. Instead of guessing at demographics and interests, you can use the data already at your fingertips to better guide your strategy. Retarget current prospects, or utilize lookalike modeling to broaden your audience.

As a marketer, your job description is ever-changing. You’re always taking on additional channels, growing your skill set and finding new ways to reach better qualified leads. By using data from your email campaigns to fuel PPC endeavors (and vice versa), you can grow your subscriber base, optimize your messaging and better target your audience for a more engaging, multi-channel approach.

From email marketing to PPC, it all starts with the right data. Learn more about your contacts and fuel your strategy with a free trial of InstantData.