Using Data to Overcome the Hurdles of Email Marketing

On its surface, email marketing may look simple. Convince people to sign up for your mailings, and then send them messages persuading them to take action. A then B. But, when you dig deeper, it becomes glaringly obvious this initial impression is misguided. As marketers well know, there are quite a few things that can go wrong in email marketing. And once you address one hitch, there’s usually another right behind, ready to block you from your ultimate goal.

It’s like Olympic hurdling, really. Clearing one hurdle means nothing in the long run: You have to clear them all to cross the finish line of email marketing success.

What kinds of hurdles are we talking about?

• Building and Maintaining a Clean Email List
• Avoiding Spam Traps
• Acquiring More Quality Email Addresses
• Adhering to varying ESP Requirements

And that’s just the beginning. Clearing these hurdles and successfully delivering your email doesn’t guarantee it will be noticed in a crowded inbox. Even if your email is opened, that doesn’t mean recipients will click through. And even if they do click through, that doesn’t mean they’ll convert on your offer.

So how do you maintain a responsive email list and create and send emails that will turn just one of many entries in your contacts’ database into a conversion? Customer data. More customer data means better email marketing. It’s really that simple. The more customer data you have, the better you can:

• Strategize sophisticated audience segments
• Create relevant and engaging personalized content
• Re-engage inactive subscribers
• Manage multi-channel, multi-device communications

But most digital marketers already know email marketing opportunity is driven by data. The issue is getting the customer data they need without inconveniencing subscribers.

Many companies today utilize a frictionless sign-up process where all it takes to opt in to emails is an email address. However, an email address alone tells marketers almost nothing about the person behind it. As a result, marketers’ first email is often generic-a huge missed opportunity at a great first impression. But it’s not like you can bombard potential subscribers with demographic and lifestyle questions before they’ve finished subscribing No one would sign up!

You can solve this problem by keeping your sign-up simple and getting the data you need to wow subscribers through Email Intelligence. Email intelligence gives digital marketers a holistic picture of the people behind email addresses. It provides information about the subscribers, including their names, where they’re located, what they’re interested in and the best way to contact them. Email Intelligence also shows whether an email address is active and deliverable. For addresses that are inactive or appear to be inactive, Email Intelligence provides alternate means of contact. With all this data from Email Intelligence, you can send personalized, targeted emails your customers will open, read and click-all without knocking over a single hurdle.

Ready to learn more about how Email Intelligence can get you the data you need to overcome the hurdles of email marketing? Check out this eBook!