discover the hidden value in your email database and unlock its potential

Find out moreT: 0800 197 7920 E: [email protected]

W: www.qas.co.uk

Discover the hidden value in your email database and unlock its potential

Presented by: Simon Duong

Transform your data:Transform your cost efficiencyExperian QAS

Email Validation Solutions

Simon Duong, Data Quality Consultant at Experian QAS

Hello and welcome to my Slideshare presentation ‘Discover the hidden value in your email database and unlock its potential.’

My name is Simon Duong and I am a Data Quality Consultant here Experian QAS.

I will be looking at the changing contact data landscape and what this means for your organisation. We will explore the value of email and what you can do to make the most of your email database.


Who are Experian QAS?

• Experian QAS have built up exceptional market coverage assisting customers with their unique data quality challenges.

• We provide a comprehensive toolkit for data quality projects combining our market leading software with a vast scope of reference data assets and services.

• Our mission is to put our customers in a position to make the right decisions from accurate and reliable data.

• The size and scope of data management projects varies considerably but the common factor in all initiatives is that they are the key to unlocking operational efficiency and improving customer engagement.


The impact of bad data: Recent findings

Nearly half of consumers are ANNOYED by inaccurate data

73% of people have received errors in communication from businesses11% because their email or phone number was incorrect

On Average UK adults have Lived or worked at 8 addresses2 mobiles phones4 email addresses (preferred communication channel)

Source: Caring for Customer Data Research, Author: Loudhouse, Publish Date: June 2013


The impact of bad data: Recent findings

Today, over 100 billion business emails are sent everyday and email user numbers are expected to reach 4.9 billion by 2017*. Most people will have a work account, and many personal accounts – I know I myself have email accounts which I use to sign up to things, and others which I'm more reserved about giving out to reduce the amount of spam I have to clear.

Let’s think about this for a moment - how many of you have entered an incorrect email address because you were worried about getting spammed, or have spent ages trying to log into your email account and getting more and more frustrated that it won’t recognise your username, only to realise you have the dot in the wrong place – I know I have, it’s just too easy to do and is exactly the kind of scenarios your customers face.

Nearly 30% of businesses believe more than half of their email database is incorrect**. Think of all the time, money and resource wasted on sending out mail shots that are not even received by your customer – not to mention the awkward conversations this could cause if a customer has not received an important announcement or update.

So with so many potential addresses entering your system how can you make the most of the email addresses you collect from your customers?

(*The Radicati Group, April 2013 Report, www.radiacti.com** Research conducted by computing magazine to support Essential data Quality: achieving long term success webseminar)


Introducing email validate

By using our email validate tool you can:

Increase reliability of your dataReduce wasted time and resourceEnable more effective communicationsAvoid lost revenues


Three tips to get you started

Understand where you are now – Asses the current data quality situation within your email database. Measure your deliverability or bounce back rate. If you don’t use this data yourself speak to those that do. Is the data quality impacting their ability to do their job, or making their job harder? Understanding exactly where the issues lie, and their impact, will help secure buy-in for any data quality investment. Carrying out a data assessment is another good way of measuring such quality in your database. You can find out more about data assessments on our website – and we will circulate some information about these assessments after the webinar.

Explore how you get from A to B -– Once you understand the current level of data quality within your email database start to explore and determine what the right course of action is for your business needs. Do you want to cleanse the data ahead of a big email campaign, or make sure any address that is captured is recorded correctly at point of entry? As you have learnt, there are different options to suit different needs.

Consider the other elements – Once you are happy with the quality of your email database – it shouldn’t stop there. It’s worth considering the other communication channels and the data that sits behind them. It’s all about prioritisation. Understand what data quality issues are impacting your business and how, and prioritise them on this basis. If mobile numbers or addresses are important, there are solutions that can validate these as well – either in bulk or at point of capture.


Questions

Can email validate match invalid email addresses to correct ones using probability?

Email Validate uses a number of matching techniques to firstly assess the email against our syntax and format checks, then secondly against common formats for popular email providers. There is some element of probability in the brains of the engine.

Our campaign provider recommends blocking an email address after 3 soft bounces (in a month) - is there an industry standard?

3 times seems to be a rule of thumb adopted across the industry. We recommend the same. Remove someone who has bounced three consecutive times.

It’s worth identifying the reasons for the bounce back – a soft bounce would usually identify a reason, such as a direct error code or an email from the mail server denoting a failed delivery. Before blocking the email, have it validated – you may have an issue with the email address, such as formatting or syntax problems, that prevent successful delivery.


Questions

What is the one most beneficial step to take to encourage a more positive click through rate?

We spoke to our colleagues at Experian CheetahMail about this question to get their best practice advice. They told us that the key element is relevance – if the message and Call To Action is relevant to the recipient, then you’ll see higher engagement levels. However, there are also other factors that must be taken into consideration:

• Clear message and Call To Action above the fold

• HTML coded using latest best practices for example responsive design where the Call To Action is still visible with images off because images are now disabled as default by many email clients.

• Use of surveys and polls encourages user engagement – especially if an incentive or offer is involved.

• Effective subject line drives higher open rates therefore increases the chance of users making a click-through


Questions

How do you manage synchronising & ownership of email addresses?

You may wish to carry out a data clean exercise involving both email address validation and deduplication of your email list, to take out unnecessary costs involved with an email campaign. Look at any attributes that identify when the email address was captured. Email lists, as with any data, will decay over time, and by carrying out an email hygiene exercise you will reduce any bounce rates by recovering valid email addresses, repairing dead/previously blocked email addresses and replacing old with new.

How do you make capturing contact information system driven rather than agent driven?

I’d recommend taking a step back to look at the role of the agent, and how we can minimise input error:

• Where you are now – identify the pain points to the right problems • Implementation of a solution – for example, how to incorporate a front-end capture solution

such as Email Validate into the user journey• Best practice for on-going email hygiene.


Contact:

[email protected]

www.qas.co.uk/emailvalidate

0800 197 7920

mailto:[email protected]

discover the hidden value in your email database and unlock its potential

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