Incorrect data, especially an invalid or incorrect email address for a customer, has huge potential for lost revenue. For many organizations, email is the hub of the marketing strategy. An email address is the key data point that connects a customer’s activities across multiple channels and devices.
Without an accurate email address, your chances of linking your customers’ cross-channel behaviors are vastly slimmer, leaving you in the dark about both their behaviors and their preferences. That’s why it’s so important that organizations collect the right email address as early as possible in the customer lifecycle.
Here are three things to consider and three things to avoid when planning your email address acquisition and data quality programs. Because in marketing, what you don’t do is just as important as what you do.
Email address accuracy – three things to consider
- If you have a brick-and-mortar store, collect email data at point of sale. This is one of the most common forms of email data collection. According to Experian Data Quality’s 2016 Data Management Benchmark Report, human error is the leading cause of inaccurate data. To minimize this risk, use an email validation solution and make sure you get the right data from the beginning.
- Determine the ROI of email validation technology. Depending on how large an organization is, implanting email validation technology in every store could be a huge undertaking. Therefore, it’s important to determine the return on investment (ROI) of this sort of technology at the beginning of the process.
Try this quick exercise: Take a random sample of the data you’re collecting at point-of-sale today without validation systems in place. See how many email addresses you could potentially save at the beginning. Let’s say you determine that 10 percent of the email addresses you collect at the point of sale are incorrect — whether from “fat fingers,” “dummy domains” or the like. Multiply that by the lifetime value of an email address for your organization.
That simple equation will tell you exactly how much revenue you could be losing in the long run. If your organization is willing and able to implement email validation and data quality technology on the front end, it will pay off in dividends on the back end.
- Maintain the quality of your data. During regular intervals (depending on your sales cycle), make sure to ask your customers if you still have the right information. Provide opportunities for customers to update their current information and add more if necessary. You can do this through a request to update a preference center or directly through emails. This allows you the opportunity to continue providing them increasingly relevant content.
Email address accuracy – three things to avoid
- Asking for data you’re not going to use. Think creatively about what you are trying to achieve and ask for information that will allow you to create the experiences that are right for your customers. As long as you use their data in a way that they find beneficial — more relevant content or better offers, for example — customers are usually willing to provide more details. Then you can deliver the personalized, relevant messages they want to receive.
- Asking for data you can get elsewhere. Third-party data providers, like Experian Marketing Services, can add specific data to your database in order to enhance your understanding of your customers.
You can also use website browsing behavior to drive email communications. Customers want you to personalize their communications without having to give you additional or repeat information. For example, did a customer like a product on your site? Send them an alert if that product goes on sale. Did a customer leave something in their cart? Send a quick reminder so they can easily check out later.
- Not analyzing the data you’ve collected. Analyzing the data you have allows you to take your overall marketing programs to the next level. It is important to understand what types of messages are relevant to your customers and how often they want to receive them. Use past data to discover common behaviors and opportunities. Are you able to tell, for example, how often a customer might go inactive or the reasons why? Can you determine the types of mailings that keep customers updated and active within your brand? Small changes can make your email marketing campaigns even more successful.
Take another look at the lost revenue you calculated. In reality, that number could be even higher when you consider that your analytics are derived from your data. Accurate data means actionable insights. The ability to engage customers in a more meaningful way is priceless.
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