An email address is required for pretty much everything online – shopping, banking, social media, apps, rewards programs, work, etc. As a result, U.S. consumers have an average of two email addresses: a primary email address that is regularly checked for important notices, and a secondary email address that they will check on occasion.
With an email address required for so many online activities and 99% of email users checking their email daily, email marketing has continued to rule as a high-performing channel.
But, what if your database is missing some of your customers’ emails?
What if your customers get new email addresses and stop checking the emails they had previously provided you with?
Data goes bad quickly and without your customers’ current email addresses, you won’t be able to reach them with important updates and exclusive offers. This is when email appending services can help.
What is Email Appending?
Email appending adds missing email addresses to existing customer databases by cross-referencing with external sources. For an email append to be successful, you must have other customer information to start with, such as name, phone number, postal address, email address, etc.
The existing information in your customer database is then compared against a master file, which matches the information to your customers’ associated emails, essentially filling in the missing emails and updating the old ones.
The Email Append Process
Using a name and postal address, you can locate and append a matching email address to a consumer who has given permission to receive marketing messages. This can be done at the individual level where first name/last name/address are matched or at the household level where last name/address are matched to locate someone in the household. A permission message will be deployed to all matches and only deliverable, non-opted-out emails will be added to the client’s original file, along with the match level indicator.
Why is Email Appending Important?
You may be wondering whether you really need email appending. While you may leverage other channels besides email to engage with customers, having a strong email database improves your communication in several ways. That’s because email addresses can be used as a match point for display advertising, social media, and CTV programs.
Here are some other scenarios where using email appending is beneficial for your organization:
- You have active customers who have not shared an email address
- You plan to launch a big announcement/special offer soon
- You have dormant customers who have not shared an email address or have shared an email address but have stopped engaging with your emails
- Your customer service department relies on email as a primary method of communication
- You need to increase sign-ups for your rewards program
- You’re planning to run omnichannel marketing campaigns
- Customer retention is suffering and needs to be improved quickly
How Often Do You Need to Do an Email Append?
Best practices suggest performing an email append monthly, quarterly, or biannually depending on your organization’s needs. It’s also recommended that you append during your slow season, one month prior to your peak season.
Benefits of Email Appending
Improve Email Marketing Performance
An email append gives you access to all the emails associated with a particular customer. After an email append, you’ll be able to reach that customer successfully with personalized email campaigns and move them down your marketing funnel. Additionally, gaining access to customers’ emails opens opportunities to reach them beyond the inbox with omnichannel marketing programs.
Increase Revenue
Email marketing has an incredible ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. By having your customers’ emails appended, you’ll have a way to reach them successfully and encourage them to engage with your email marketing programs. In fact, you can expect to see an average increase of 30% in your ROI when you use email appending.
Increase Customer Retention and Win Back Dormant Customers
An email append ensures your customer database contains valid email addresses. By having clean, valid email data, your customer retention efforts will avoid deliverability roadblocks and successfully reach your customers. You’ll also be able to reach dormant customers with appealing offers that get them back into your marketing funnel.
How Much Does an Email Appending Service Cost?
The price of email appending services depends on the size of your database and other project details. Learn how email appending helps you reach your target audience more effectively and drive engagement.
If you found this information helpful, check out our article: A Guide to Email Append Best Practices
