Although email marketing officially originated in the early 1980s, it feels like it has been here for ages! Sending promotional and commercial emails to build brand credibility, improve brand visibility, and boost sales has become a norm.

Did you know that there are roughly 2.6 billion email users worldwide and over 4.3 billion email accounts?

However, with the onset of the technological revolution of the 21st century, the volume of online data has magnified tremendously. This has made email marketing like shooting arrows into the dark for brands. Based on a study done by Statista, as of September 2019, almost 60% of the world’s email addresses are stale. The same study further states that 22.5% of your B2B email list goes stale every year, which impacts the marketing budget and jeopardizes the brand reputation of the sender, 

However, all these are effectively erased out owing to Data Management Platforms. 

This article will discuss in detail about database management platforms and the benefits they bestow on email marketing. 

The table of content is as follows- 

• What are database marketing and a database marketing platform? 

• Changing email marketing scenarios

• Benefits of using a database management platform
• Endnotes

What is Database Marketing? 

Database marketing is the practice of leveraging high-quality, intent-based, and actionable data to strategically design more personalized, relevant, and useful sales campaigns with the end goal of prospecting more customers and improving brand visibility.  

What is a Database Management Platform? 

In simple words, a database management platform can be defined as a database service provider. It collects, verifies, segments, and forwards real-time company and contact information to a third-party for consumption. DMP is the backbone of data-driven marketing and allows businesses to target specific customers. As the modern-day marketer faces challenges in reaching out to the high-value accounts- both current and potential, database marketing more critical than ever. 

Most of the proficient B2B database management platforms such as DataCaptive, ReachStream, DiscoverOrg, CampaignLake, etc. offer a campaign-ready reliable, relevant, and responsive database that helps brands procure high returns and meet their marketing goals.  

The changing face of Email Marketing 

Despite the rise of social media and other digital marketing forums, email marketing still is the most effective way to nurture leads and boost customer loyalty. This is primarily because of privacy and ownership. Accounts on any social media platform can be suspended or deleted at any time. But an email address lives forever unless canceled by the owner.  

#FACT

People spend 5.4 hours/day checking email, and Monday and Wednesday record 35% more email opening rates than other days.

Challenges in Email Marketing 

Email marketing has evolved a lot over the years. The bland promotional emails have given way to highly interactive and responsive ones with videos, games, quizzes, clickbait actions, etc. It seems that companies are running a cut-throat competition amongst themselves to send the catchiest promotional emails and attract the maximum number of customers. 

However, it is not short of challenges. The most common ones faced by the modern-day marketer are- 

• Increasing open and engagement rate 

The top 3 uses of email marketing are newsletters (66%), promotional content (54%), and welcome series emails (42%). (Source- Pardot) 

• Earning new subscribers and retaining old ones 

51% of B2B marketers say a lack of an effective strategy is their most significant barrier to email list success. (Source- Delivra) 

• Managing marketing costs 

Email marketing drives $44 for every $1 spent. (Source- Campaign Monitor) 

• Improving the quality of the database 

70% of B2B marketers say increasing their email list quality is their top objective. (Source- Delivra) 

• Lowering spam count and increasing domain authority

While trends indicate that the global spam rate is decreasing each year, Statista stated that spam messages accounted for 54.68 percent of email traffic. China is the largest generator, with 20.43 % of the global spam volume. 

• Increasing brand awareness 

Email marketing increases brand awareness by 82%, followed by social media at 78%. (Source- Campaign Monitor) 

Hence, to magnify the sales bucket and get the highest ROI, marketers need to target high potential customers who are willing to convert. A database management platform helps you connect with a comprehensive database that supports Omni-channel marketing enhancing customer engagement, improving brand reach, and streamlines the sales pipeline for better returns in the long run. 

Fun Fact- The first email was sent by computer engineer Ray Tomlinson in 1971. The email was a text message to himself, saying, “Hello, have a good day!”

What makes DPAs and Database Management so crucial? 

Real-time data, intent data, actionable insights, 360 customer views, personalized marketing strategies, multichannel campaigns- these are some buzzwords critical to database marketing.  

Database marketing collects customer data like names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, transaction histories, customer support tickets, which is later used by businesses to create a personalized experience for each customer and attract more potential customers. DPAs understand buyer psychology, apply real-time insights for product development, design personalized campaigns, and develop an interpersonal relationship with the prospects for a better business module. 

Benefits of using a database management platform for email marketing- 

A database management platform like Campaign Lake provides real-time insights of prospects from an array of industries spread globally to strengthen the business network and expedite sales. 

A Database Management Platform impacts your business in the following ways: 

• Boosts customer retention with intent data 

Actionable and Real-time buyer intent data improves customer satisfaction and retention rates by implementing personalized marketing strategies. 

• Increase operational efficiency 

Improve the marketing efficiency of your brand by the optimum utilization of resource and time to target leads who are unlikely to respond  

• Identify new customer base 

Locate new customers globally and from a specific segment and engage them in a meaningful way to boost sales.  

• Upgrade customer service 

Offer better customer service by providing a 360° view of your customers’ profile to your support staff for seamless interaction with your brand. 

• Build brand credibility and increase customer loyalty 

Build loyalty programs to provide the right incentives for repeat purchasers, thus building brand credibility and customer loyalty. 

• Segmented information

Create detailed customer segments based on demography, buyer-psychology, firmographics, geography, or even personal interests. 

• ABM campaigns 

Design personalize marketing campaigns, promote your brand’s USPs, cultivate fruitful client relationships, and acquire a larger investment return. 

Major points to take away

• Email marketing is the process of targeting customers for acquisition and retention through personalized commercial emails in the motive to boost sales. 
• It is one of the most proficient and responsive to digital marketing and continues to expand every year. 
• However, owing to colossal data creation volume, email marketing without proper database management tend to lose marketing resources without any gain. 
• Database management is a practice where customer data is collected, verified, and segments into various categories by expert data miners and data scientists to utilize for maximum profits. 
• Database management platforms like Campaign Lake have helped 50+ companies globally reach their target audience across 170+ countries and 50+ industry sectors. 
• Database management is mandatory to gain maximum benefit from your email marketing campaigns as they help you locate and target leads that can convert. 

Authors Bio: 

Mousumi Dev Choudhury is a content writer at CampaignLake by profession, and aspires to transform the world of online content, one piece at a time. A digital media enthusiast, she is a believer in the power of content in forming compelling brand stories.