Advanced email marketing is powered by your ever-growing knowledge of subscriber data. Every campaign you send generates engagement metrics/data that allows you to make more informed decisions about future campaigns. However, because of privacy concerns, it can be trickier obtaining valuable demographic insights that can also help enlighten you more about your best customers/prospects.
Depending on the service or function, your email subscribers might be willing to provide you valuable information about who they are, including income, demographic data, and contact information. Often when you offer goods and services, your subscribers will also trust you with this valuable information.
Unfortunately, your main challenge is subscriber distrust. With internet security a contentious subject and companies being susceptible to security breaches and scandals, email marketers should tread carefully when it comes to asking subscribers for their data.
One way to gain the trust of your subscribers early on is to have them complete a sign-up form. By asking customers to provide their data in a transparent, sociable way, you are asking them for useful segmentation data that you otherwise would not know through available tracking data.
Email marketers also can kill two birds with one stone by utilizing surveys to gather subscriber data and solicit opinions about their company. Surveys are a powerful way to gain great insight into the interests and behaviors of your audience, as well as their perspective about your company as a whole.
If your company has the means to implement monetary benefits for your audience, offering promotional deals on products and inviting your subscribers to compete for prizes is a friendly, engaging way to gather additional data. Contests are both fun and appealing to many consumers, so they will be more likely to share their email address and other information for a shot at a prize. When users authenticate entries into contests and promotional deals, they are also allowing you to expand your subscription lists, increase brand awareness, boost social media engagement, and drive customers to your other platforms.
In summary, it’s possible to collect a lot of useful data about your subscribers without being creepy. Try various means of engagement that allow your subscribers to remain in control about what data they are handing over, and mutual trust will be developed in no time.
Let ResponseGenius help take your email marketing to the next level – hello@responsegenius.com
