7 Tactics for Using Email Appends to Increase Customer Value

Chief Marketer recently spoke with Dan M. Babb, senior director at Infogroup's Targeting Solutions about tips to maximize the value of email appending activities.

1. Reverse appends offer more than just physical addresses. Append firms can link a certain percentage of existing customers' email addresses to physical addresses. But they can also marry a variety of demographic and lifestyle data to email addresses, allowing marketers to either customize email content or send highly targeted—and potentially smaller and less expensive—physical mail pieces.

For instance, if a retailer records a purchase of a pair of sneakers, a recommendation engine might make follow-up offers for additional styles or colors. But if a lifestyle append reveals a customer with an affinity for biking or tennis, the retailer could offer a wider swath of equipment relevant to that individual.

2. Not all finance-related appends are equal. Marketers need to know and appreciate the difference between income and wealth appends. One indicates the amount of money coming into a household, and the other indicates total financial strength.

"Think about seniors," says Babb. "They might not have a large income, but they could have a high net worth. A nonprofit's donor file tends to have older individuals. If [the nonprofit] uses only one variable, it could end up asking for a $10 donation, when it should be inviting the recipient to a fancy event."

3. Business-to-business appends can enhance relationships with entire target organizations. "B2B marketers [often] have relationships at the organizational level, not just with one contact at a business," says Babb. "The majority of our clients give us a record and say [this is] the contact name at this company name and mailing address we want." But, he notes, if a marketer has dealt with individuals across the entire organization, an appender can offer email addresses for all contacts.

Obtaining this contact information allows a marketer to communicate with different individuals at a company with job function-specific messages. A CFO will have different concerns than a floor manager, and both of those will have different needs than a maintenance supervisor.

There are other differentiators appends can reveal. From an email address, a business data supplier can offer physical addresses, and whether that physical address is that of a headquarters, a subsidiary or a franchise. It can reveal the number of employees, or trucks in a fleet— all of which can open up a variety of pitch opportunities to a marketer.

4. Recency counts. Email appending has become more of a regularly budgeted expense, as opposed to a one-off one. An increasing number of marketers update their files, or at least add email addresses to new customers, on a quarterly basis, says Babb. Doing so allows them to reach newly acquired customers in a timely fashion.

That said, email appends for older customer information can be effective if the buying cycle for items offered is long. This is doubly true in the B2B arena, where purchase cycles and product life tend to be higher than, for instance, non-consumer purchases outside the automotive or durables categories.

5. Know appends' limitations. "We never tell our clients that when they buy email addresses the addresses will perform at the same level as a true opt-in email address," Babb says. When someone provides an email address directly to a company, that is the preferred email address to market to. But acquiring that email address [indirectly] through a well-structured, well-thought-out process still delivers a substantial ROI."

6. Be ready to take advantage of social media appends, when they're viable.Marketers have their work cut out for them, when it comes to taking advantage of social media. Many, according to Babb, are not taking the most basic step of asking for email addresses on their Facebook, or other social media platform, presences. "That's a no-brainer," he says.

But there is other information being amassed through social channels which isn't quite ready to be appended to email records. Facebook "likes," for instance, are difficult to translate into email addresses. And they may not be reliable – a "like" may not indicate participation in an activity, or propensity to ever make a purchase. Similarly, clout and influence scores aren't ready – yet – to be appended to records.

7. If your service provider offers to make the initial contact to appended email addresses, let it. Some append services will send the initial welcome email message out to targets. This allows the service provider to monitor opt outs and other do-not-contact activities. After the first communication, the service provider will turn over a file of addresses for those customers who have not objected to being contacted.

Using this strategy can mitigate any potential reputation damage opt-outs might cause for a marketer. It also, depending on the service provider, increases the likelihood of the initial messages being compliant with the most up-to-date regulatory concerns.

"If someone is going to complain, it will be from one of the first few messages," Babb says.

Babb admits that there is a self-preservation element for service providers in requiring that they make the initial contact – doing so prevents data providers from inadvertently releasing names to marketers that might abuse them.

"We had one experience where the client gave us prospects," Babb says, meaning that individuals with no previous interaction with the client were being solicited. The service provider was tipped off to this when the initial mailing generated an unusually high number of complaints, or spam designations.

"Our approach [to the client] was 'you signed a contract that said you have an existing relationship, and you lied to us.' We cancelled the order, stopped the mailing and didn't give them the data."