Putting email data to work across the open web

Data privacy is one of the biggest issues facing the digital advertising industry, and rightly so. For too long, advertisers and those who support them have relied far too heavily on third-party cookies that many browsers no longer support, many consumers have opted out of, and which, in any case, are a poor proxy for true consumer intent.

At esbconnect, we decided, many years ago, to take a different approach - one that is completely up front and transparent with consumers about the value exchange involved in sharing their data with us and with our clients.



As a result, we have been able to build an opted-in email database of 17 million UK consumers and 2 million B2B email addresses, with more than 400 attributes, spanning demographic, behavioral and modelled data. That’s everything from age and income to marital status, proximity to specific retail outlets, and a proven history of actively researching certain product categories, amounting to strong purchase intent data, based on the emails they are reading, clicking and transacting on.

It’s one of the largest, scaled addressable data sets in the UK, and it’s compliant with all major data privacy regulations, including GDPR, CCPA and COPPA. It’s also completely cookieless, since all our data comes from consumers who have shared it with us, and consented for us to share it with our marketing partners.

Email represents a rich and sometimes overlooked channel to reach consumers. An OptinMonster study found that 58% of people check their email before looking at anything else online each day, while research from Adobe suggests that we spend an average of 6.4 hours each day in our inboxes.

And, as with search and social, email provides powerful behavioral signals when you track actions taken after an email arrives in an individual’s inbox. Lookalike modelling enables brands to use the data to find prospects who share the same attributes as their existing customers. Ready-made vertical segments include travel, auto, retail, home and finance, among others.

But the real power of data comes when it can transcends channels, and that’s what esb’s recently-announced partnership with audience data firm, Eyeota, is all about. The partnership makes esb’s email data available to marketers in any channel, including social, programmatic and offline.

This is the first time this type of intent-powered data, direct from individuals’ inboxes, has been made available, and it’s also the first solution to enable a full omnichannel journey at a one-to-one level, allowing a brand to span a journey across programmatic, social, email and postal. I believe it’s a game-changer for brands looking to harness the power of email data across all their channels - online and off.

It takes the power and proven effectiveness of esb’s email database and sets it free across the wider open web and social, as well as offline channels. We send 50 million emails a month to drive acquisition for over 100 brands, gathering rich intent data on what a consumer engages with and buys. Brands like Clarks, Coach, AA, IcelandAir, Ocado and Tapi have come to rely on the quality of our data for email marketing. Now they, and others, can put it to work wherever they see fit.

Also published in: The Drum