By Mark Traverso, President & CEO, Lighthouse-Ameribase
Over the past month, we've delved into the myriad benefits of email data, from its pivotal role in identity resolution to its potential as an added revenue stream for agencies and vendors. Now, we turn our attention to uncovering email's advantages for brands.
With competition for consumer attention intense, marketers are constantly exploring innovative strategies to effectively reach and engage their target audience. Among the plethora of marketing channels available, email remains a steadfast choice, offering unparalleled reach, personalization, and effectiveness. To fully harness the potential of email marketing, brands must ensure access to high-quality email marketing data and choose the right partner to activate it efficiently.
There's Gold in Them Thar Inboxes
Email activation presents a compelling opportunity for brands looking to enhance their marketing campaigns and drive higher returns on investment (ROI). At a recent marketing conference, there was some surprising pushback from certain agencies when I suggested integrating email activation with other digital channels like display and CTV. Many responded that while their clients engage in email marketing, it's something they prefer not to touch at this time.
If brands are engaging in any form of digital marketing, whether it's email activation, retargeting, or prospecting, it's imperative they incorporate email activation into their strategy. In fact, email activation should be a non-negotiable inclusion in all digital campaign budgets. For over two decades, marketers have championed the concepts of multichannel and integrated marketing. When crafting digital budgets, brands should start from ground zero and build upwards, ensuring email activation is at the forefront. The addition of email not only enhances the efficacy of any digital campaign but also grants brands better control over frequency and reach. Moreover, email activation has the potential to reach segments of the audience that may be inaccessible through other channels, further amplifying the campaign's impact.
With minimal overhead costs and the ability to reach a large audience at scale, brands can achieve impressive results without breaking the bank. Figures differ by source but most studies agree that email marketing can achieve an ROI of $36 to $44 per $1 spent.
What’s more, by leveraging comprehensive email data, marketers can segment their audience based on demographics, behavior, and interests, enabling them to tailor their messages for maximum impact. This level of precision targeting not only increases engagement but also boosts conversion rates and fosters stronger customer relationships. The DMA agrees, with a report showing that 77% of email ROI comes from segmented, targeted and triggered campaigns.
Other signals may fall away but email is here to stay
For brands who are looking to future-proof their marketing efforts, investing in email could well be the safest bet. In an era of increasing privacy concerns and regulatory scrutiny, signal obfuscation has become a prevalent challenge for marketers. With restrictions on the use of cookies, MAIDs, and potentially soon IP addresses, brands are facing limitations in tracking and targeting their audience across digital channels.
Email, on the other hand, remains a resilient and reliable source of customer data, unaffected by these privacy constraints. By focusing on email activation, brands can bypass the hurdles of signal obfuscation and maintain direct communication with their audience, ensuring the longevity and effectiveness of their marketing efforts in an ever-evolving landscape.
Unearthing the Perfect Email Partner
Of course, realizing the full benefits of email marketing hinges on partnering with the right email provider. And there are several critical factors that brands must consider and some key questions they should be asking of their future email provider.
Firstly, brands should prioritize partnering with a provider that boasts a solid reputation and extensive experience within the industry. It is essential to choose a provider with a proven track record of delivering high-quality email data and driving successful marketing campaigns for clients. Lighthouse-Ameribase is a 30 year young data provider and we’ve helped numerous brands with their email activation efforts. We've enabled previous clients to achieve a 130% increase in conversions and an 11.55% average click-through rate.
Email deliverability is a crucial aspect that brands must consider. It is imperative to select a data provider that prioritizes deliverability and maintains high sender reputation scores. This ensures that emails are successfully delivered to recipients' inboxes, minimizing the risk of ending up in spam folders. At Lighthouse-Ameribase, our email data typically sees a 97% deliverability rate. While other providers can take several days for large deployments, we have high capacity and bandwidth and currently push 75,000,000 emails a month for one of our clients.
An all-in-one solution offered by the email data provider simplifies the process and ensures seamless integration. Opting for a provider that offers email data acquisition, segmentation, activation, and analytics all within a single platform streamlines operations and enhances efficiency.
At Lighthouse-Ameribase, we go a step further by offering our own Email Service Provider (ESP) designed specifically for acquisition email. Our ESP is focused on acquiring new customers, giving you the ability to email contacts who are not currently opted into your CRM system, perfect for optimizing your lead generation efforts. With our comprehensive ESP, all of a brand's email requirements are seamlessly addressed in one place, offering marketers unmatched convenience and peace of mind.
Email activation is a powerful tool for brands seeking to maximize ROI and drive meaningful engagement with their audience. By partnering with a reputable email data provider and considering critical factors such as reputation, deliverability, and deployment options, brands can unlock the full potential of email marketing and achieve sustainable growth in today's competitive landscape.
