How to use big data to transform your email marketing

Data is the foundation of every email marketing campaign. We’re not talking about random figures or mystifying spreadsheets, but rather good quality data! Good data comprises contact details for genuine people who are interested in what your company has to offer.

Now, how do you use this data to transform your email marketing?

The success of each email marketing campaign is determined by the number of conversions, for example, has a recipient clicked through to your website to purchase a product/service or have they contacted your company by phone or email.

In order to achieve the highest amount of conversions, you need to be providing relevant content! Simply blasting recipients with self-promoting emails will only lead to them hitting ‘delete’. But, if you have the right subject line, calls to action and your content is tailor made to your recipient’s needs and interests then your campaign stands a higher chance of receiving conversions which, in turn will increase your email marketing ROI.

High-quality data lists is much more than a large amount of contact details. They can be segregated into every possible variable including age, location, interest and much more. By segmenting your data into smaller, more targeted lists you are able to provide emails that are much more relevant to your audience. For example, you would only send out offers to recipients who have bought your product/service in the past, who have looked at a particular product/service on your website or who have expressed an interest in your product/service. By doing this there will be no more emailing in the dark!

Keep it clean and up to date

It is important that you maintain your high-quality data by cleansing it regularly in order to keep it fresh and up to date. Deleting unsubscribed users and deleted accounts from your lists is key. You will find that many marketing tools such as Mail Chimp and Constant Contact will keep your data clean and accurate for you.

You should also remember that, from a legal point of view, you should only be targeting people who have consented to receiving third party content. As such, when purchasing data it is vital that it comes with full opt-in permissions to ensure your emails will be safe from the ‘spam’ category.

In summary, to ensure that your data is optimally used in your email marketing campaigns, you need to segment the data correctly, write relevant content, continually cleanse your data lists and ensure that you only market to those individuals who have provided their consent.