Tips for Driving More Revenue With Customer Data

By Jim Davidson

Most retailers would agree that the more customer data you have, the better. While this can be true for larger analytical efforts, it's important you focus on collecting the right data and use it sensibly to execute effective email, mobile and social marketing campaigns. The following are some vital tactics for data collection and usage that will help you acquire more subscribers, increase engagement and drive revenue.

Not only should email addresses be collected in all channels, but your approach should cater to the user experience within that specific channel. To ensure that you're optimizing data collection on your website, social networking pages and mobile-optimized website, follow these guidelines:

Collecting Data for Your Website
Site visitors are likely to provide more information to ensure a better shopping experience. Use a single-field form at the top of all pages to capture email addresses. After the form is submitted, provide additional fields for personalization, segmentation and dynamic content.

Collecting Data for Your Social Networks
New visitors to your social networking pages may be less engaged than site visitors, but in addition to "Liking" or "following" your brand they may want to subscribe to your email program. Include an email registration form on your social networking pages that caters to this type of visitor. Focus only on the data that's a necessity in order to avoid form abandonment. Consider a welcome email series dedicated to educating these new subscribers about the benefits of completing their profile.

Collecting Data for Mobile
The explosion of smartphone adoption has grabbed the attention of marketers. What was once seen as an expensive, resource-draining channel has become more accessible. Here are two ways to collect email addresses via mobile devices:

SMS. To properly set expectations and to comply with mobile messaging laws that require double opt-in, you need to clearly state that texting results in registration. You also need to have the user confirm their subscription. Even though you may not have launched a mobile messaging program, you can still use SMS to gain email subscribers.
QR codes. These easy-to-scan codes bring the equivalent of a click to anything printed or displayed. Create QR code-specific opt-in forms that are optimized for mobile devices. Users of this form will be tapping in their information, so provide enough space between form elements to avoid a potentially frustrating user experience. Keep the data you're collecting to a minimum.

Use location-specific keywords and QR codes to track the success of acquisition efforts to help determine which locations or print campaigns are driving the strongest list growth. A dedicated welcome series for new subscribers acquired via mobile devices can inform them more about your website, how to shop and your email program.

Leveraging Data
Effective use of data will be a key revenue driver for your email program. A batch-and-blast approach will result in a poor user experience, rising unsubscribe rates, lower sales, and potentially more abuse complaints and blocks by internet service providers (ISPs). Focus on the following three areas:

1. Relevance. Data can help you personalize emails according to subscriber preferences. This could mean providing content related to a preferred product category or a previous purchase. If product-level data isn't available, basic gender-based dynamic content can produce targeted emails.

2. Automation. Triggering messages based on subscriber data will generate revenue with minimal ongoing work. A first step into automated messages could be sending a birthday email. Other triggered programs include a welcome series, abandoned cart notifications, and refill or replenishment alerts.

3. Engagement. You need a clear view of your engaged and disengaged populations to better target communications that speak to their level of interest and behavior. Create engagement-based segments and develop programs to keep your best customers shopping and to reactivate nonresponsive customers. Focus on the following customer segments: