The Future of Email Marketing: Intent Data’s Role in Success

From conventional text-based messages in the 1970s to data-driven, personalised campaigns today, Email Marketing has evolved. With the help of automation, segmentation, Intent Data and AI, content, timing, and targeting are now optimised, resulting in more interesting and relevant communication with subscribers. 

Thanks to its unparalleled reach, affordability, and personalisation capabilities, email marketing is still vital in today’s digital age. It promotes brand loyalty, encourages direct engagement with a global audience, and accelerates conversions. Businesses can supply customised content, fostering consumer connections and producing a high return on investment when compared to other marketing channels, thanks to enhanced analytics, segmentation, and automation. 

Due to the oversaturation of the digital space, email inboxes are overflowing with messages, making it difficult for marketers to stand out. Shorter attention spans call for interactions that are brief but appealing, and changing customer behaviour demands more personalised, relevant material. For email marketers to retain engagement and efficacy, balancing these aspects while adhering to privacy laws presents ongoing challenges.

The information obtained from an individual’s online behaviour that reflects their interests and potential purchasing intents is referred to as intent data. Intent data is essential for modern marketing strategies as it offers insightful information about customer preferences and enables marketers to deliver more targeted and relevant content. Businesses may modify their messaging and products, improving the effectiveness of campaigns and generating higher conversion rates, by analysing search inquiries, website visits, and interactions. 

Here is a quick summary of the topics discussed in this article: 

1. Understanding Intent Data 
2. Benefits of Utilizing Intent Data in Email Marketing 
3. Integration of Intent Data into Email Marketing Strategies 
4. Case Studies 
5. Challenges and Future Outlook 
6. Best Practices and Takeaways 

Understanding Intent Data 

The digital footprints generated by a user’s online behaviours, such as searches, website visits, and content interactions, are all included in Intent Data.

Because it helps marketers understand what topics users are researching and their possible purchase intent, it plays a significant part in determining user intentions and interests. Marketing professionals may improve engagement and more successfully guide customers through the buyer’s journey by analysing this data and using it to customise their messaging, content, and offers. 

Explicit and Implicit Intent Data 

The information that consumers directly provide, clearly stating their preferences and intents, is referred to as Explicit Intent Data. This can involve doing things like responding to surveys, filling out forms, or clearly expressing their interests. Since it is explicitly communicated by the user, Explicit Intent Data is transparent and unambiguous. 

On the other hand, Implicit Intent Data is obtained covertly from user activities and behaviours, frequently without the user openly expressing their objectives. Tracking website visitors, content engagement, keywords, and social media interactions are some examples of this. Marketers can deduce the user’s interests and intents by looking at these actions, even if they haven’t been stated directly. 

Exploring the Sources of Intent Data 

Intent data comes from a variety of sources, which helps marketers better comprehend consumer behaviour and preferences.

First-party intent data: It is derived from your own platforms, such as websites, emails, and apps. It also includes user behaviours that occur within your ecosystem, such as website visits, form fills, and shopping cart abandonments. Personalised interactions are made possible by the direct insights provided by this data into the engagement and interests of your audience. 

Second-party intent data: It is spread amongst organisations with related clientele. In order to better understand customer behaviour outside of your direct encounters, it entails gaining access to another company’s data, frequently through partnerships. 

Third-party intent data: It is obtained from outside, unrelated sources. This includes more extensive online behaviours like content consumption, social media engagement, and data sharing. It offers a broader perspective on market trends and untapped markets for your brand. 

Integrating data from multiple sources gives marketers a comprehensive understanding of user intents, enabling them to create more effective advertisements that appeal to certain target demographics.

Always keep in mind that the purpose of segmenting based on intent data is to deliver content that is in line with each recipient’s requirements and preferences, ultimately leading to more engagement and a higher probability of conversions. 

Case Studies 

According to Omnisend, it is estimated that for every dollar that is spent on Email Marketing, you can get a return of up to $40!

Intent data is valuable for businesses looking to enhance their email marketing strategies. 

Here are some case studies of companies that used intent data in their email marketing to great effect: 

1. MailiGen 

MailiGen had trouble raising its email open rates. Its average open rate was similar to industry averages for e-commerce, publishing, and media, which ranged from 10 – 20%. However, Mailigen sought better results. 

With the help of email segmentation, MailiGen targeted subscribers who had not opened or read their emails and resent them emails with a much more optimized and attractive subject line. This resulted in a slight increase in their open rates – about 20.4%. 

Mailigen aimed to raise that rate if possible. So they structured their email list using their latest feature- behavioural segmentation. 

They further identified individuals who didn’t reply to the initial email and changed the subject line to be more appealing to them. The email was resent to people who had previously dismissed it with the same information. 

8.6% of the individuals who didn’t open the first email reacted. Through the use of this easy method, the same email newsletter produced an overall open rate of over 29%. 

2. Wok to Walk 

Wok to Walk, which is a health food business, sent newsletters to their prospects which encouraged the recipients to call and enquire them regarding their businesses. It produced an open rate of just over 18%. 

Just like Mailigen, they observed the recipients who had left their emails unopened. 

To solve this issue, another email was sent targeting the prospects who had dismissed their previous email. The re-sent email included a different subject line and the contact number of the business to make it easier to contact the business. 

This re-sent email got more than 7% higher engagement.

Challenges and Future Outlook 

Integrating intent data into email marketing can increase campaign efficacy and provide insightful information, but there are potential challenges as well. 

Data accuracy is one such problem. Inconsistent intent data quality can result in incorrect interpretations and misguided targeting. 

Additionally, privacy issues arise when gathering and utilising customer data, mandating cautious adherence to data protection laws. To avoid losing recipients, it’s essential to strike the correct balance between personalisation and privacy. For smaller firms, integrating intent data can be resource-intensive as it requires advanced technology and knowledge. 

Moreover, relying only on intent data could overlook complex client preferences, necessitating a comprehensive strategy that blends intent insights with other behavioural and demographic data. Finally, the relevance of intent data is time-sensitive due to changing consumer preferences and developing trends, demanding continuous revisions and improvements to remain useful. 

In order to maintain email marketing’s efficacy in the midst of changing digital environments, intent data is essential. 

Intent data ensures hyper-personalization by disclosing present preferences as consumer behaviours change. It allows for quick campaign changes, resulting in timely, relevant messages. It enables adaptive targeting and customer-focused content creation by monitoring emerging patterns. 

Intent data facilitates seamless customer journeys by enhancing the timing of touchpoints. Proactive planning is aided by its predictive analytics. Additionally, it encourages cross-channel integration, bringing experiences together. 

Intent data enables marketers to stay relevant in a quickly evolving digital landscape, improving email engagement, conversions, and overall campaign performance. 

Key Practices and Takeaways 

There are some key practices that you should know when leveraging Intent Data: 1. Source accurate data 

2. Segment strategically for personalization 
3. Draft relevant content 
4. Comply with privacy regulations

Following these key practices enhances the effectiveness of email campaigns by delivering timely, tailored content that aligns with users’ interests. 

Ensure to embrace a data-driven approach to yield optimal results. Integrating successful case studies, highlighting the competitive edge it provides, etc., only boosts its effectiveness. 

The future of Email Marketing is being reshaped by the revolutionary power of Intent Data. It introduces personalised, pertinent content by assessing the recipient’s preferences and actions. Engagement and conversion rates are maximised by this dynamic strategy. In a rapidly evolving digital environment, intent data supports campaign agility, adjusts to new trends, and creates seamless customer experiences. The outcome is an email marketing paradigm that draws interest, encourages engagement, and advances businesses.

Author’s Bio: 

My Name is Vandana Joshi. A B2B Content Writer with a zeal for learning and ever-growing curiosity. I aspire to write blogs that are concise, easy to read and uncomplicated. I look forward to learning and growing further and gaining all-round experience.