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The modern consumer is no longer a passive player in the customer journey. They are more informed and empowered, and their expectations go beyond just services or products. They want genuine engagement with consistent experiences that speak to them in a very individualized way. Each with their own values, goals, and preferences. The buyer and seller relationship is evolving to a more nuanced dialogue of authenticity, security, and an equitable exchange of value.

Brands are at an unfortunate crossroads between the promises of advanced technology – such as AI and machine learning for personalization and engagement at scale – and being perceived as transactional and impersonal. Finding the right balance has always been difficult but is becoming even more so as new advancements are made and channels evolve. But it is in this rather chaotic landscape that email address intelligence offers a solution to elevating the customer experience.

The Increased Emphasis on Trust
Trust, for a brand, is not a luxury — it’s a necessity. If there is one key point modern businesses need to realize about targeting modern consumers, it’s that the foundation is constructed on the basis of trust. The unfortunate truth is that many organizations are letting their consumers down in this regard. With reports of negative shopping experiences being more the norm, this is the time for a change in approaching the customer journey.

As Millennials and Gen Z experience more likely false declines at checkout and are more aware, and face more, data breaches as compared to previous generations, it can be frustrating for these shoppers who would willingly invest into businesses they find to be trustworthy. And as more interactions are handled online – browsing, comparison shopping, and contemplating the utility or joy an item would bring – their digital identity and behaviors become increasingly important.

Many shoppers have embraced and enjoy online shopping. However, burdened with inflation, a questionable economy, and concern for privacy, any friction will result in cart abandonment and potentially tarnished reputation in their eyes. So, how do retailers build rapport to combat diminishing trust?

Enter email address intelligence to the equation.

Tapping Into the Power of an Email Address
The common misconception is that an email address is good for email marketing… and not too much else. The truth is, however, there is a wealth of information surrounding an email address and connecting the dots between it and the person behind it opens up new value in a company’s existing first-party data. Email address intelligence is the means and the outcome of harnessing that wealth of data to solve for modern challenges:

• Personalization at Scale
  It has long been known that personalization is a large benefit in interacting with your audience. As the shift towards hyper personalization takes hold, propelled by AI and consumer demand, retailers need to move beyond broad segmentation and focus in on an individual’s unique journey. People evolve, and so too do their behaviors, preferences, and lifestyles. Email address intelligence allows for the accurate, confident linking of information. This allows retailers to gain insight from past behaviors and purchase history, while enriching profiles with demographics and activity signals to reach the individual with the right message that will resonate with them. The result provides stronger fuel for AI and machine learning models to be less mass manufactured, but generate more precise, personalized messaging curated to the recipient.
• Providing a Consistent Experience
  The modern customer journey can take place over hundreds of touchpoints. There is no shortage of methods and channels with which the consumer can engage with a brand. The cracks begin to show when an individual doesn’t receive a consistent experience, or even worse receives the experience meant for someone else. The solution lies in the key digital identifier that we utilize across dozens of apps and services, that we log in with, verify with, and communicate with – the email address. With email address intelligence utilized to identify multiple emails for the same person or same household and providing the most utilized for outreach, resolving identities for a strong customer journey gets easier. Couple omnichannel consistency with personalization, and now you have a winning combination.
• Building Customer Loyalty
  We can already start to see how email address intelligence can improve a relationship between a customer and a brand. Giving them a unique, relevant experience in every engagement builds on the relationship and makes it known that they are cared about and that what they want matters. Email address intelligence is not just about what happens after they log into your app and buy your thing, but about the nuances that define each individual’s journey to pave the way for genuine interactions – sharing an exchange of value by engaging with them with tailored topics relevant to their interests, providing loyalty rewards that matter to them, or offering deals that cater to who they are and where they are in their life journey. And perhaps most importantly, email address intelligence allows you to reach them with validated, up-to-date information.
• Protecting Against Threats
  The speed at which data breaches and security vulnerabilities seem to be disseminated in today’s society could make your head spin. With trust being so paramount to the modern consumer, these stories can make or break a brand. And not only are threats coming from external sources, but the increasing cost of bad data within internal systems is of serious concern as well. Once again, we can look to email address intelligence. By processing activity signals and behaviors, determining the validity of the person behind an email address can greatly reduce fraud attempts. In fact, email has a higher correlation to fraud than phone or postal address. Verifying email addresses in real-time and updating decayed data within systems not only protects against the compounding costs of bad data, but also protects against malicious activity.

Looking Forward
We can see that the consumer experience is changing. In order to thrive into the future, ecommerce needs to address these pervasive challenges that aren’t going anywhere and put trust at the forefront of their strategy. The next steps are clear – innovate and evolve so that every engagement reinforces your commitment to the consumer.

Email address intelligence is the toolset to help you get there. It provides the foundation to solve existing issues and build a customer experience that is personal. It is evident that the combination of technology and genuine human connection will define the standard in business strategy, and brands that have a data-centric focus will be at the forefront.

Learn more about AtData’s email address intelligence.