Many people, when they hear about email marketing, they think ‘ah old news’. But let me introduce you to the modern world of marketing automation.
Email marketing is a simple mechanism to send messages, and data is still the absolute bedrock to get this mechanism to succeed. It is not like the old days that you could purchase static lists and collect users’ data through a third party and do mass email marketing.
Today, people are more aware of their data and those who try to own the data. The challenge started when different regulations like GDPR were introduced to the world to protect users’ privacy.
With all this said, email marketing is still one the most effective tools for marketers to connect with consumers. There are still ways for you to nail email marketing.
The attention to customers’ data has grown, and so has the volume of data. This has made it so much more complicated for marketers to do segmentation and target the right consumers.
How much longer can you go with creating email lists manually, running campaigns, and finding the next best action for the future? Even though you managed to stay on top of your data and you feel overwhelmed and stuck from time to time. How confident are you with your data being accurate and trustworthy at this point?
Marketers are spending too much time creating lists of users’ data and moving them manually into spreadsheets. Exporting data from one place to another in order to build email campaigns and identify the last time a customer interacted through a CRM system not knowing whether or not the data is still valid.
This doesn’t seem like something that you can rely on for a long time. You need a more accurate tool to help you personalize your data and create highly engaging campaigns based on data that are more precise.
Email Marketing after iOS 15
Besides all pros that iOS15 is offering, we cannot ignore the fact that the new update will affect email marketers’ ability to serve subscribers. Are you asking how? Then keep reading.
Here are some of the main effects:
- With the new mail privacy protection, it won’t be possible to accurately track open rates.
- User’s IP addresses can be hidden while browsing the web.
- Under “hide my email”, users can hide their real email addresses and create automatic fakes.
Let’s say, not all but around 50% of your customers are using an Apple device and the new update, meaning you won’t be able to track their data as you did in the past.
What will happen to the open rate?
Before there was a tiny invisible image in emails that would load after the email was opened. That was how a sender would find out when a user opened an email.
Now, with the mail privacy protection, that tiny image, and all scripts will already be loaded when an email is received and not opened. Which might give a wrong idea to the sender whether the email was opened. That is why the open rate will not be as accurate as before.
But no-no! No need to panic. There’s still hope.
What can you rely on?
After this update what you can rely on is the click-through rate instead of the open rate. Wait, what? Yes. if it’s not the open rate anymore, then whoever opens and clicks on those emails would help you target that segment. This is a more precise way to measure engagements.
Is it gonna be a smaller sample of your subscribers? Yes, but will show what is working and for whom.
These are what you can use from email engagement:
- Clickthrough rates
- The ones who visit your website
- The size of your email list
- Signups for events, webinars, etc.
- Survey data
- Purchases and orders
- Subscriber lifetime value
- Shares on social media
Why CDP Email Marketing Is More Beneficial
A Customer Data Platform (CDP) integrates an ever-growing number of data and then combines it to create a Single Customer View. No extra workload and time-wasting tasks are assigned to your team, yet you’ll have updated and highly trusted data all in one platform which can be communicated through all channels.
As a marketer you need to make sure that you are targeting the right audience, for example, you can not send student promotion to a retired person, that is why your engagement would be below.
The problem with other marketing software is that they are not designed to process the increasing flow of customer data, that’s why they have to manipulate it manually at some point and load it back to the list.
Let’s see how CDP does this differently.
Single Customer View
A CDP pulls data from different channels across the organization whether it is online or offline. This means all your customers’ behavior can be tracked through mobile apps, websites, loyalty cards, and emails. A CDP keeps all this data in one place and creates a Single Customer View for you to monitor each action taken by your customers.
This allows you to create a more transparent picture of your customers’ needs and preferences. Which can further be used in email marketing to build more personalized experiences.
All in one place
Keeping all of your data in one platform helps you to save time. Also, it makes it possible to have easy access to all your customers’ data without having to monitor different channels in the organization.
And I saved the best for last. You might have heard it a lot but I’m not sure if you’ve heard it enough.
This is what you need if you intend to run a more personalized campaign. It allows you to address a person by name and include them in those campaigns that they appreciate being part of.
When you are aware of your customers’ needs and wants, then you’re able to send them the emails they want to receive. And not to bombard them with many unwanted emails that would have them unsubscribe.
Meaningful personalization happens when you combine email addresses with a CDP. Successful email marketing is based on transparent and trustworthy data. The data allows you to target your customers effectively. This is the way that you can build a strong relationship with your customers and show them that they matter.
Book a free demo today and explore how the CDP can help you