Forrester Research
predicts that the spend on creating, promoting, delivering and analyzing emailmarketing 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.
