In my decades of watching the evolving landscape of digital marketing, I’ve realized the pivotal role email marketing continues to play in it. Email remains a valuable weapon in the marketer’s toolkit despite the advent of new communication platforms. That’s because of email’s direct reach and personal engagement with people. Recently, we’ve seen a marked resurgence of email marketing as a strategic tool that has adapted to modern challenges and continues to deliver significant ROI when used effectively.

I recently visited with Acxiom’s email marketing expert Carolyn Nye and senior product manager Dina Plath to get their latest tips on succeeding in email marketing and remarketing – and most importantly, maximizing ROI.

We often think of email as old school, but why is email still such an important tool for marketers?

Carolyn: Email has had incredible staying power. The average consumer really can’t exist in today’s world without an active email address. Every company you do business with or every app you sign into requires an email address. People use their email inboxes for communication purposes, which allows marketers to successfully contact them directly. Marketers can reach people in their inbox, where they have their undivided attention unlike display or a social ad – meaning email has been and remains a very effective tool for marketers.

Will a single email or a string of repeated emails allow marketers to achieve their goals?

Carolyn: It all depends on the goal. Many marketers want an individual to take action directly to purchase a product. Sometimes one email can do the job; however, it will more than likely take a few emails before the recipient will take action. We have seen through lots of testing that three email touches tend to be the right frequency and volume to get people to act without causing them to be annoyed about getting too many emails.

How have you seen acquisition email used most successfully?

Carolyn: Acquisition email is a wonderful branding tool and works really well when complementing other media channels like direct mail or display in social. We’ve also seen acquisition email be very effective at driving traffic into store locations or car dealerships.

What are anonymous visitors, and what challenges do they pose for marketers?

Dina: Anonymous visitors are people who go to a website and browse through but never complete an action that would allow the brand to identify them. For example, they might browse through different products, but they never log in, make a purchase, or leave an email address. Depending on the industry and site, up to 98% of site visitors can stay anonymous!

Anonymous visitors make it much harder for the brand to understand who those people are and what drove them to the site. It is much harder to engage them for conversion, even though they were already interested enough to come to the website in the first place.

How do you learn more about anonymous visitors?

Dina: We know brands want to respect people’s privacy, so we maintain the visitors’ anonymity. Using pseudonymous identifiers, Acxiom provides household-level insights such as demographics, purchase intent, or segmentation. This enables marketers to understand the type of people who are interested in their product and better tailor the messaging and experience when reaching out to them.

What is email remarketing, and how does it help marketers?

Dina: Email remarketing uses those same pseudonymous identifiers to find the best way to reach anonymous visitors via email. Because they’ve already interacted with the brand on its website, it’s considered remarketing. 

We’ve found that by running a campaign aimed at anonymous visitors, brands can achieve 10 times greater ROI compared to traditional email prospecting marketing. That is because those people have already shown interest, and they’re already somewhat familiar with the products. They just need that extra touch to convert.

What is email remarketing’s potential to improve ROI, and how have you seen it used best?

Dina: General remarketing is an exciting new resource in an email marketer’s toolbox. By allowing an email to an anonymous site visitor, we are then bringing them back to the site to potentially complete an action they started previously. It’s a lot like an abandoned cart email. Any type of transactional or triggered email has a much higher conversion rate than a typical marketing email. So, in that way, email remarketing is a very powerful tool. Even if the audiences are small, the conversion rates are significantly higher than a general email message because the recipients have already shown an interest by initiating a site visit.

What are some of the industries that are doing email remarketing right?

Dina: Email remarketing tends to work best for industries that have high lifetime value (LTV), such as banking and financial services, travel, auto, or insurance, just to name a few.

What are the two most important things to remember when using email marketing or email remarketing?

Dina: Email remarketing is the most efficient way to reconnect with potential customers who are in your blind spot. How often are brands handed a list of prospects who have already expressed interest in their products and services, and made the first few moves toward converting? Therefore, email remarketing can achieve 10 times the ROI compared to traditional email prospecting.

Carolyn: Any type of triggered email that is sent based on a behavior or action a person takes can have significantly higher conversion rates than a traditional promotional email. Even if the quantity of emails is small the return may be worth the effort. At the end of the day, email is a vehicle to get people to think about your brand and get them back to your website. Even if your email program isn’t perfect, being in market is important, because your competitors are! To learn more about the effectiveness of email marketing in driving conversions and its synergy with remarketing strategies, visit our website.