{"id":53645,"date":"2022-10-06T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/?p=53645"},"modified":"2022-10-06T00:36:38","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T04:36:38","slug":"progressive-profiling-email-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/progressive-profiling-email-marketing","title":{"rendered":"How Progressive Profiling Email Marketing Improves Data Accuracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t
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This piece originally appeared in B2B News Network<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

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Email offers brands a great opportunity to connect with current and potential customers. Yet\u00a049% of respondents in a\u00a0recent study said a brand has inaccurately targeted them<\/a>. Of those receiving an incorrect message, 88% took action:<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a042% immediately unsubscribed from the brand\u2019s marketing content.<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a024% blocked brand content across social media.<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a022% opted not to purchase\u00a0from the brand again.<\/p>\n

Clearly, accurate personalization matters. But your email personalization is only as good as the data you have available. And since email subscribers\u2019 interests and preferences can change, it\u2019s critical to implement good data hygiene practices through progressive profiling email marketing for optimal results.<\/p>\n

Think about the first time you collect data from a customer. Chances are, you gather\u00a0preferences<\/a>\u00a0when someone initially signs up for emails. Then track on-site behaviors and interactions. Many brands also send periodic emails requesting that subscribers update their preferences\u00a0\u2014\u00a0but doing so requires the recipients to take action themselves. How many people take time to update their preferences throughout their relationship with your brand?<\/p>\n

Probably not many.<\/p>\n

Yet every interaction, touchpoint, and brand experience provides marketers with valuable data to inform personalized efforts and customer profiles or personae. Email content provides the perfect opportunity to build a picture of individual customers based on their engagement behavior over time through progressive profiling email marketing. It\u2019s an easy lift for you \u2014 and requires even less effort from your customers because you\u2019re capitalizing on actions they\u2019d likely take anyway.<\/p>\n

Use email content<\/strong>\u00a0to build individual profiles<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Personalization boosts email performance. Generic emails either get sent immediately to the trash or the recipient may opt-out of future communication, severing any relationship with your brand. But relying on customers to update their latest styles or preferences isn\u2019t a realistic expectation. Fortunately, there\u2019s a solution.<\/p>\n

Leverage your email content to make it work for you.<\/p>\n

Updated, accurate customer data is critical for marketers. Because the more you know about each customer, the more effectively you can personalize their experience with your brand. This data goes beyond their gender, birthday, or most recent purchase. Ideally, you want actionable data collected in real-time.<\/p>\n

Progressive profiling email marketing<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Progressive profiling email marketing enables you to gather data to build individual profiles based on the customer\u2019s behavior. This strategy allows you to create more robust customer profiles about their demographics, interests, needs, and pain points. But best of all? Without requiring recipients to complete a long list of fields.<\/p>\n

For example, if someone visits your website and wants to access a white paper, you might ask them to share their contact information in the request form. With progressive profiling set up, should this person revisit your website in the future and ask for another downloadable resource, instead of typing their contact info \u2014\u00a0like name and email \u2014 they would share more specific information. And if they visit your website a third time to request a\u00a0product demo, the third form in this progression would ask for their role in the company and a budget range.<\/p>\n

Dynamic web forms allow you to use a direct or indirect approach. Direct profiling asks recipients to answer a question\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>provides an easy way for the reader to respond \u2014 generally by clicking a button.\u00a0The system collects and records the information, adding it to the customer\u2019s existing profile. Indirect profiling requires creating a link category for each link within the email copy. The system uses click category information to gauge and record interest\u00a0\u2014 and update the existing profile.<\/p>\n

The beauty of progressive profiling email marketing is that it empowers you to build a picture of every subscriber, via email content, based on their engagement behavior over time. Using multiple interactions to gather and add preference data over time prevents customers from feeling overwhelmed by too many questions to answer or forms to complete.<\/p>\n

Progressive profiling email marketing offers a host of benefits:<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0Facilitating the creation of personalized messages by leveraging the information you\u2019ve collected to create lead-nurturing campaigns targeting specific individuals or segments.<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0Helping qualify leads more effectively by gathering different information to build out more complete, accurate customer profiles in real-time.<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0Growing conversion rates by reducing the number of fields in lead generation forms, increasing the likelihood more people will provide the information you\u2019re requesting and hit the submit button.<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0Enabling marketing teams to craft more personalized messages and create campaigns designed to appeal to target segments.<\/p>\n

Indirect profiling\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Not many brands use indirect profiling effectively \u2014 that is, clicks in email as interest indicators. This strategy doesn\u2019t ask direct questions. It simply offers customers an option to click on the most relevant content. And when used well, it\u2019s super effective in collecting information to refine email personalization further because each customer response adds more insight to their profiles.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how indirect profiling could work:<\/p>\n

Your marketing team creates an email advertising a clothing sale. It offers a \u201cshop my size\u201d section, inviting readers to click the size they want to shop for. That single click gives you instant knowledge about the person\u2019s clothing size. With progressive profiling email marketing, you could send a follow-up email a day or two later featuring specific items available in that customer\u2019s size. It\u2019s not just a great revenue opportunity but also \u2014 thanks to the personalization \u2014 a fantastic customer experience.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at another example: a company offering products across multiple categories. One recipient clicks on women\u2019s clothing and returns to the email to click on shoes and accessories. Now you know the customer wears a size 12 in Gucci skirts and a size 8 Prada shoe and browsed Coach handbags. You can use this data to customize offers, generate specific email journeys, and send personalized content created specifically for them.<\/p>\n

Email campaigns using progressive profiling help you target customers based on data collected about their recent activity, behavior, and preferences.\u00a0Eighty percent of customers are more likely to purchase from brands offering personalized experiences<\/a>. Organizations using advanced personalization generate 17% more revenue through their ad campaigns.<\/p>\n

Investing in building relationships with customers along their brand journey enables you to gather and use data to create and deliver content specifically tailored for them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n \t\t<\/div>\n \t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Create individualized email experiences at scale<\/strong><\/h2>\n\t\t\t

Get powerful results with uniquely personalized, engaging email experiences that boost customer loyalty and drive revenue with Litmus Personalize, powered by Kickdynamic.<\/p>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t Learn more<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learn how progressive profiling email marketing improves your data quality—and your personalization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":53794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[10268,10253,9363,381,10248],"blog_category":[10307],"class_list":["post-53645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-campaign-planning","tag-email-automation","tag-email-marketing-strategy","tag-personalization","tag-segmentation","blog_category-email-personalization"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Progressive Profiling Email Marketing Improves Data Accuracy - Litmus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how progressive profiling email marketing improves your data quality---and your personalization.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/progressive-profiling-email-marketing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Progressive Profiling Email Marketing Improves Data Accuracy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn how progressive profiling email marketing improves your data quality---and your personalization.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/progressive-profiling-email-marketing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Litmus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/litmusapp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-06T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Oct-LeadingFWD.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@litmusapp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@litmusapp\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Progressive Profiling Email Marketing Improves Data Accuracy - 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