By now, the merits of email marketing are well-documented. In the United States, around 99 percent of all consumers say that they check their email daily, and that email is their preferred way to receive updates from businesses and brands. Dig deep into demographically specific data and you’ll find a similar story; for instance, around three-quarters of millennials say that email is their #1 most desired way to communicate with businesses.
Of course, simply sending out the occasional email blast is hardly the same thing as having a carefully considered strategy. To reap the benefits of email marketing, it’s important to analyze user data in order to develop a thoughtful, targeted approach.
Why Invest in Data-Driven Email Marketing?
While it requires an initial investment of time and resources to develop a data-driven email marketing approach, the benefits are numerous. Consider just a few examples.
1) You Can Create Personalized Content.
Nothing like personalization encourages readers to engage with your emails—not just opening them but actually reading and clicking through to different links. This can be as simple as including the user’s name in the body of the email, or as sophisticated as custom content created for different segments of your audience. Only careful data analysis can enable this level of personalization.
2) You Can Better Understand Your Audience.
Email communication should be a two-way street, allowing you not only to promote your brand, products, and services, but also to gain insight into your customers’ preferences and values. To that end, email marketing can be an excellent forum for distributing surveys and polls, which can in turn provide further data points you can use to fine-tune future messaging.
3) Email Can Be Used to Generate Sales.
Email isn’t merely a tool for marketing. It can directly boost your sales, too. There are plenty of examples of how data-driven emails can lead to sales opportunities, but we’ll zero in on just one: Follow-up emails, sent to customers who have abandoned a shopping cart, can provide just the push your customers need to seal the deal and finish their transaction.
4) Email Marketing Generates Website Traffic, Too.
There’s nothing new about using marketing emails to send readers to a new blog post or landing page. By doing so, you can not only boost your SEO rankings but also keep your audience fully engaged with your brand via content updates to your business website. The importance of data can’t be overstated here: Sending the right content to the right segment of your audience, based on interests or previous buying habits, can make your traffic-generating efforts much more effective.
5) Data Helps You Get Your Timing Right.
Effective emails are about more than content, and they’re about more than audience segmentation. Timing matters, too. Different consumers tend to check email at different points in the day, and timing your emails with precision can dramatically boost open rates and engagement. When you work with an email partner like enCOMPASS, you get access to data-driven insights that help ensure the best send times for every email and for every recipient.
6) Email Is a Great Way to Provide Direct Value.
Every email you send should offer something of value, whether it’s an exclusive piece of content, a unique promotion, or a discount you’re only offering to your email subscribers. Even something like a “be the first to know” product preview can help your subscribers feel like they’re in a prestigious group, and that they’re getting something worthwhile out of your marketing emails. All of this helps build trust in your brand, and boosts customers loyalty.
7) Using Email Can Help Raise Brand Awareness.
Because data-driven email marketing allows you to send messaging straight to your customers’ inbox, it’s a great tool for keeping your brand top-of-mind. Additionally, you can include social media links in each email, making it easier for your subscribers to spread brand awareness by sharing your content with others.
8) A Data-Driven Approach Enables Advanced Analytics.
Is your email marketing strategy having any effect? Are you moving the needle, or just wasting your time? A data-driven, analytic approach makes it easy to determine how well your efforts are paying off, and to make any adjustments required to optimize your strategy.
Embrace Data-Driven Email Marketing
It’s clear that email is one of the preferred methods for connecting to consumers. And by empowering your email endeavors with sophisticated data, you can ensure even greater results, boosting effectiveness as well as efficiency.
At enCOMPASS Agency, we have the strategic knowledge and the best-in-class technology needed to help our clients thrive via email marketing. We’d love to talk with you further about stepping up your data game. Reach out to the team at enCOMPASS whenever you’re ready to start a conversation.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
