Moving from a traditional ESP? Bring these data points with you

In the marketing world, whoever has a plethora of quality data, has the gold. Moving your email marketing campaigns from the clunky, traditional ESPs to next-gen providers provides you with a blank canvas. Email and SMS/MMS personalization take center stage in boosting your marketing campaign. However, it’s vital to know which data points to include in your canvas for optimum and effective lead generation.

Let’s look at which data points to add to make your personalized marketing campaign more effective.

Explicit data

Explicit data is data that you can derive directly from your customers from various channels such as opt-in forms or surveys.

Be sure to include the following explicit data:

First and last name

A name is the most basic and most straightforward info you can collect from your customers, yet it has some of the most significant impacts on your marketing campaign. Personalization is all about speaking directly and candidly to your customer, and what better is there than addressing them by name.

According to research, including your customer’s name in the subject line can boost the open rate by 50%.

Addressing your customer by name shows them they aren’t just business prospects, but you take them personally as well.

Personal context

Personal context is any data revolving around a customer’s personal, cultural, temporal, and virtual features. This data can include demographics such as age, gender, location, and economic status.

This data is crucial, especially when segmenting your marketing campaign, as the data helps target your ideal customers.

Favorite and preferred content

The good thing about zero-party data is you get to ask your customers the kind of content they prefer. For instance, the kind of shoes they’d like to receive brand updates on. You get to understand and gain insights into each of your clients’ preferences.

This differs from implicit data in that, with consumer preferences, you are gathering behavioral data, but you are asking your customers for preferred content.

Implicit data

On the other hand, implicit data is data you can deduct from your customers’ behaviors and actions. Your consumers don’t directly supply this data, so you have to carry out some form of analysis.

Some of the implicit data points to consider include:

Customer product preferences

If you want to get ahead of your competition, enhance customer experience and satisfaction.

Our study showed that 81% of consumers are more likely to buy from stores and brands that communicate with them in personal, relevant ways. By employing tools such as surveys, analytics, and more, you can know which products your customers view regularly, which product categories they search often, and which products they prefer, or intend, to purchase.

Knowing your customers’ product preferences is vital in enabling you to personalize and tailor-make your marketing campaigns to suit customer’s needs and preferences and create a fantastic customer experience.

Preferred branding channels

Before anything else, you must have a deep understanding of marketing channels. Additionally, understand your customers have unique preferred marketing channels. If one group favors emails, the other group might favor SMS/MMS, and some may prefer a mix of both.

How will you know which channel to use? It would help if you decided based on the customers’ insights.

While 66% of consumers say email is their preferred communication channel for loyalty programs, SMS/MMS and other mobile app marketing are gaining traction because mobile device usage is steadily increasing. 

In summary

Marketing is forever changing and evolving. Gone are the days when a marketer relied on email campaigns exclusively for lead generation. With the global populace embracing technology, it’s key that all of us do the same. 

Adapt to the changes and embrace multi-channel marketing. Consider and include these data points in your personalization, stay ahead of your competition, and generate more ROI.