‘Mark this email as spam?’ It’s a familiar phrase branded across the top of many emails, with both email servers and consumers on a mission to keep inboxes streamlined and spam free. This war on spam has resulted in more structured inboxes. Email servers like Gmail automatically pick out suspicious-looking emails and label them as spam. Then, there is the split between a personal inbox and a promotional one.
For brands and marketers, this has created even more impetus on delivering compelling content that consumers are genuinely interested in receiving. If emails are too generalised, they’re more likely to be regarded as ‘spam’. But if they have personalised content tailored to a customer’s interests, they are far more likely to be opened, leading to higher open and conversion rates compared to a scattergun approach. And if brands also know how often to communicate with customers, they can go a long way to building true customer intimacy.
However, with so many customer touchpoints, what’s the best way this can be achieved? A customer data platform (CDP) can create a unified hub of customer insights and help deliver ‘spam free’ email content.
So, how can a CDP streamline email marketing?
No more admin
Let’s start with admin. For marketers, time is a valuable resource, and administrative tasks can often bog down their productivity.
A CDP serves as a unified hub of customer insights, consolidating data from various sources like CRM, web analytics, social media, and more. Automated data integration processes and centralised data enable marketers to access a comprehensive view of each customer’s interactions, preferences, and behaviours, all in real-time.
Additionally, a CDP allows for high-level personalisation and automation of email marketing campaigns, further eliminating the burden of manual tasks. It effectively segments audiences based on real-time data, and triggers personalised emails based on specific customer behaviours or milestones. This not only ensures that each email resonates with the consumer, enhancing engagement and conversion rates, but also significantly reduces the time and effort required for list segmentation and campaign management.
The result? A seamless, streamlined email marketing process that optimises efficiency and frees up time for marketers to focus on strategic planning, creative content development, and driving innovation.
No more spam
Email spam has been the bane of email marketing, diluting its effectiveness and alienating customers. In this day and age, customers of course have to opt in to email communication. This means personalised content, campaigns and product offers are not a desire, but an expectation. And it’s not just what is in the content, but also how it is sent.
What’s the main reason that people unsubscribe from a company’s email list? According to DMA’s 2023 Consumer Email Tracker, written up by Marketing Week, it’s getting too many emails, with well over half of people (57%) citing this as the chief reason for hitting the unsubscribe button.
By harnessing the power of zero and first-party data, CDPs empower marketers to craft highly relevant, hyper-personalised email content. Unlike third-party data, which often lacks accuracy and relevance, zero and first-party data originate from direct interactions with customers, ensuring that each email resonates with the individual recipient.
With CDPs, marketers can segment their audience with pinpoint precision, tailoring messages based on customer preferences, purchase history, browsing behaviour, and more. This reduces a significant amount of spam-like emails, boosts engagement rates, and improves the overall customer experience.
No more writer’s block
Crafting compelling email copy consistently can be a daunting task for even the most talented marketers. To overcome writer’s block and unlock new possibilities, the integration of generative AI with email marketing has emerged as a promising solution.
Generative AI technology, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, can produce human-like text based on given prompts and patterns from vast datasets. Incorporating this powerful tool or others like an AI Studio which provides a seamless interface to generate various types of emails and topics,into their daily lives will allow marketers to access a virtually unlimited source of creative ideas and inspirational content. Whether it’s generating attention-grabbing subject lines, personalised product recommendations, or dynamic storytelling, generative AI takes email marketing to a whole new level of innovation and effectiveness.
The bottom line
As the marketing landscape continues to evolve, the role of email marketing remains indispensable. CDPs have become a transformative force, empowering marketers to streamline processes, create spam-free communications, and explore the uncharted territory of generative AI-powered content. By embracing CDPs and utilising the potential of AI-driven technology, marketers can elevate their email marketing strategies, forge stronger connections with customers, and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive digital world.
The future of email marketing is here, and those who embrace these cutting-edge solutions will undoubtedly thrive in the ever-changing marketing community.
