Forrester Research predicts that the spend on creating, promoting, delivering and analyzing email marketing campaigns will reach $2.5 billion by 2016. This is because email is king. Since it remains the preferred channel for business communications, email addresses are a precious commodity. The upsurge of social media has also added to the importance of email as most corporate benefits are communicated via email, even if the initial conversation was generated through a social network. Therefore, the presence of email addresses on your customer database is essential to your business success.
Businesses that have traditionally communicated with customers through other channels typically struggle to accumulate email addresses. This void developed the necessity for data append suppliers. These data append providers can enhance an in-house database of customer names, postal addresses and associated businesses to find current email addresses for those valuable contacts.
The success of this process has proven that the best way to grow your customer database is to append the data. While some providers boast a 50 percent match rate for businesses and a 40 percent rate for individuals, success largely depends on the quality of both databases that are being merged. Choose a data append provider that matches data elements across multiple channels and utilizes corporate databases, rather than just pulling from sources such Yahoo! or Google email addresses.
In addition to appending email addresses there is also significant value in overlaying telephone numbers and firmographic data, including your customer’s industry and company size along with demographic data such as job title and function. This business intelligence will assist you in pinpointing your target audience resulting in more qualified offers and increased return on your marketing efforts.
A customer file rich with data is critical to the success of most businesses. This B2B technique allows you to develop a truly robust database that will enable you to remain engaged with your customers through cost effective channels resulting in improved customer retention and brand loyalty.
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