Securing customer loyalty with email and data

Securing customer loyalty with email and data

Guy Hanson, VP of Customer Engagement at Validity, speaks to Intelligent CXO about the importance of email channels and effective data management. He also tells us about how marketers must combine these elements to create a strong business approach.

As the pandemic finally dissipates, the next major challenge for securing customer loyalty will be helping consumers survive the biggest drop in living standards since the second world war. It has never been more important for brands to build warm and lasting relationships with customers which prevent them from jumping ship to a competitor which is perceived as lower cost or better value. This can be achieved with effective email and data management processes, which help organisations engage their customers by using tactics like relevant content, empathy, and social positioning.

According to the Customer Engagement 2020 report by the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), 77% of consumers agreed that brands should show compassion during the pandemic, and 66% wanted brands to communicate how they were helping customers. This is clearly visible in the current climate as many consumers need more financial help than ever before. Undoubtedly, the impact of COVID-19 has made a lot of brands re-evaluate how they market to new and existing customers. With consumer behaviours rapidly evolving, loyalty may well be the most important factor for brands to address in 2022 and beyond.

Effective data is the answer

Maintaining high-quality data health remains a challenge for brands. According to The State of CRM Data Health report, many users have found that poor quality CRM data has resulted in significant customer losses which is something brands simply cannot afford in the current economic climate. In fact, 44% of respondents estimate their company loses more than 10% in annual revenue due to poor quality data and 75% admit staff often or sometimes fabricate data to tell the story they want decision makers to hear.

There are a few key areas to address when it comes to improving this. When it comes to best practices, the first step is for brands to ensure those in a leadership position are aware of the significant impact data has on the whole organisation. If there is more education and commitment around this, it becomes far easier to secure the necessary investments and resources for organisational change. Once this has been established, brands will benefit from having someone in charge of all data with broad oversight of their critical data, as it will put them in a better position to manage future growth. The velocity and volume of data will continue to increase in the coming years. 

Despite Digital Transformation initiatives, many organisations continue to rely on manual processes. According to the research, this is by far the most prevalent method reported. Unsurprisingly, manual cleaning methods are not sustainable in today’s sales and marketing climate due to the growing number of data points generated on a daily basis. The volume and velocity of incoming data is simply too much for humans to process effectively.

Businesses must ensure they adhere to regulations designed to protect consumer privacy, by gaining customers’ explicit permission to share and use data generated by digital interactions, especially with the imminent demise of third-party cookies. One way this can be achieved is with ethical data management, whereby a customer intentionally shares their personal information with a brand through preference centre data, purchase intentions or personal context. By utilising the data explicitly shared by consumers, companies gain much greater insight into the demographic and interests of their target market because the data is far more accurate. Essentially, it is paramount for brands to clearly communicate with customers so that they fully understand what their personal information is being used for and why.

Email is here to stay

Once a brand has access to the relevant customer data, it needs to select a reliable and accurate channel to communicate this information. According to the State of Email 2022 report, it is expected that global email volume will continue to increase in the coming years. The research found that global email volume over Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend was 70% above the 2021 average and 5% higher than the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend in 2020.

This shows the channel has become significantly more popular, particularly throughout the pandemic. As a result, there is added pressure on deliverability and more competition in subscribers’ inboxes, so it is critical to maintain a top sender reputation and observe established best practices.

When most email service providers (ESPs) talk about email deliverability, they only refer to the percentage of emails sent which do not generate bounces. However, this is not an accurate way of recording whether a consumer is interested in what has been sent. Instead, they should measure deliverability by inbox placement rate (IPR), which is the percentage of sent emails that successfully reach recipients’ inboxes, where they can be seen and clicked.

All major mailbox providers (MBPs) measure and use sender reputation information to determine when to accept emails and where to place them, be it in the inbox, spam or junk folders. Therefore, senders should ensure they are measuring their reputation on a daily basis by proactively addressing any issues before they sabotage performance. Once a brand has cemented a positive reputation, thus ensuring that their emails make it through to the inbox, the next challenge is to stand out from the crowd. To do this, they can make use of Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) to display the brand-controlled logo in the consumer’s inbox. BIMI is important as consumers will be more loyal to a brand if they recognise the company’s logo in the first place.

Other focus areas 

To truly build loyalty, brands need to understand how diverse their target market is. Marketers should recognise that customers will not necessarily act, feel or have the same interests as they do. It may sound simple but being upfront with consumers by checking what their preferences are and where their priorities lie can make the world of difference. It is all about tailoring the content to fit the needs and interests of those receiving it, which is why ethical positioning has become so important. Preference pages are great for this, as they explicitly ask the customers what they want to know about the organisation.

An important aspect which can be overlooked is whether brands are meeting the Equalities Act. According to research from the World Health Organisation, more than two billion people around the world suffer from vision impairment and further findings from Gov UK suggest more than six million people in the UK alone have dyslexia. For American senders, they must ensure that they are meeting the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design (ADA standards). These legislations – and others around the world – showcase the increasing focus on accessibility. Emails must be crafted with this in mind in both the short and long-term. To ensure this is a priority, brands should appoint someone who specialises in email accessibility, or partner with creative developers, to ensure every email template passes requirements. Essentially, consumers will not be loyal to businesses if they are unable to read or recognise the messages.

From a marketing perspective, building a long-lasting relationship with customers has never been more important. Therefore, it is expected that many will continue to combine an empathetic email channel strategy with an ethical data approach in the coming years.

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