Your customer email and address lists are gold mines. Do you mine for gold every day?

By Anne Flinn, Anne Flinn Advertising, LLC

Over the last several years consumers have become super savvy about their personal data. We’ve all been on a rapidly accelerating learning curve about it, and we don’t want devices listening to our conversations. We don’t want to be served offensive ads. We are not happy with our data being rent, sold, or traded at will to companies we know nothing about. We are reluctant to give up our data. Everyone is affected by this! Apple devices now come with updates so personal data is not collected as easily as it once was.

This awareness is excellent from a consumer point of view, but what about from a business or marketers point of view? It creates challenges.

Enter: “First Party Data” a technological name for “Customer Address and Email lists.” It’s a term businesses should become intimately familiar with, starting now, as it’s the future of advertising in the digital space of Streaming TV, Streaming Audio, Social Media Advertising, and all digital advertising products in-between once “cookies” become a more difficult way to find people.

When you hear “email marketing” likely you immediately think of your Inbox. But, there is SO much more to targeting with email address and physical address targeting. In fact, Apple has recently changed its platform where all email is going to look like an “OPEN”, but in reality, the data is seen no matter how it lands in someone’s computer. This means businesses are going to get a false sense of how many “opens” are actually happening.

But, that email and address data is still solid gold. Are you ready to learn more?

Here’s a look at new and sophisticated ways you can use your email/address list to advertise directly to your existing customers without jamming up their in-boxes:

SOCIAL MEDIA: finding your existing customers on their social media accounts and delivering targeted social media ads to them and friends “like them”.

MOBILE ADS: create an “address targeted” campaign where your ads are served only to people on who’s name and address you have on file. These are ads, not emails, and are extremely affective.

AMAZON TARGETING: match your email database with shopper data on Amazon and deliver targeted ads on Amazon products, from TV’s to Mobile Devices

And, this can all be done: TODAY. This is not the future of advertising. In many cases, you can create a “match back” report to see who has bought a product from your address targeting campaign. The “match back reports” are powerful ROI tools.

That said, in order for these campaigns to really do well, businesses must have a lot of First Party Data! So, look at 2022 as the year of data collection! The sooner you start to build a solid database, the better.

But how can you collect data without being cringeworthy and off-putting to your customer? Offer them something in return:

Enter to Win something substantial (the bigger the prize, the more email collection - maybe partner with a bigger company?)
Loyalty Program Award (creates customer loyalty while gathering data)
Monthly Prize (keeps people engaged and believe you)
Something special and unique (what do you offer that your customers love?)

Always be honest with your customer, too: “We want to Give You Something”, “We Appreciate You”, etc. It is always about the customer, and giving them something back for their loyalty.

Are you ready to mine for gold in 2022? First Party Data is the future. Don’t shy away from it, but embrace it and let it work for you. People really don’t mind getting advertising from companies they LIKE (and by that we mean, genuinely like, not a Facebook ‘like’!)

Good luck with your digital advertising! Contact Anne to set up an appointment today!