Rethinking data collection for email marketing

Every day, I see talented marketing teams pour immense effort into crafting seamless customer journeys—only to have them undermined by outdated consent experiences built for lawyers, not customers. The result? Frustrated customers, abysmal opt-in rates, and data strategies and marketing efforts that consistently fall short of their full potential. But with the launch of Ketch Progressive Consent, Maxwell Anderson and team have fundamentally reimagined how brands can approach data collection and customer engagement: ➡️ Embedding privacy choices contextually within customer journeys ➡️ Transforming consent from a blocker to an engagement opportunity ➡️ Creating value exchanges that make data sharing beneficial for customers ➡️ Enabling A/B testing to optimize for both compliance and conversion The marketing leaders I work with seek solutions that balance performance with responsible data practices. This approach represents the kind of innovation our industry needs. Take a look at what Ketch has built. Whether you implement their solution or not, forward-thinking marketing teams should follow this path. #marketing #innovation #customerexperience super{set}

99% of email marketers think their job is about maximizing email-attributed revenue. They're wrong. After working with 200+ brands in the last 6 years, these are the 4 pillars that are going to redefine the job role for winning DTC brands of the future. CONTEXT Driving email-attributed revenue for a healthy brand is actually one of the easier things you can do as an email marketer. Why? You're mainly capitalising on the intent that was already there by virtue of staying top-of-mind. Setting up basic segmentation, harmonising the cross-channel merchandising strategy, and creating effective designs can be a commoditized process that doesn't require a sophisticated strategy. To provide true value to the brands we serve, we need to think beyond short-term revenue. 4 PILLARS THAT WILL REVOLUTIONIZE RETENTION MARKETING 1. Supporting Acquisition 🧲 Most brands grow most effectively through acquiring more customers. This also increases the database of existing customers to pull returning customer revenue from. Ways email marketers can provide value: ↳ Zero-party data ↳ UGC collection ↳ Surveying to understand commonalities of high LTV customers ↳ Partnership campaigns with other DTC brands All of these can be fed back to paid media teams to support more effective acquisition campaigns. 2. Product Management 🧲 Email has a critical role to play in product R & D. Rather than waste tens of thousands formulating new products, we can leverage our existing customer data to minimise wastage. Ways email marketers can provide value: ↳ Qualitative research (surveys, customer interviews) ↳ ZPD ↳ Communicating beta access to new products to high LTV customers 3. Retention Diagnosis 🧲 Your efforts are going to be capped driving returning customer revenue for a brand that doesn't have product-market fit or bad CX. So what should you do? Diagnose the issue! Ways email marketers can provide value: ↳ Analyse drop-off points in product assortment to support better acquisition decisions ↳ Conduct qualitative research to understand where the product fails to meet expectations ↳ Mine reviews to look for commonalities in bad experiences ↳ Monitor & track NPS 4. Customer Experience 🧲 Email is one of the best channels to drive WoM through exceptional experiences. Ways email marketers can provide value: ↳ Proactively tackle CS issues before they arrive (returns, support, etc) ↳ Communicate shipping issues ↳ Leverage surprise-and-delight programs ↳ Collect and demonstrate UGC ↳ Product education & media assets ↳ Community building & competitions __________ TAKEAWAY Using email marketing to drive revenue is one of the easier jobs of managing the channel. A true retention marketer works to strengthen every facet of the business they work with. _____ P.S. I’m offering a few FREE Klaviyo audits this month ($3K value). Book yours here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eXVSZiCS

Fact: You’re probably messing up your email marketing by not paying attention to what your customers really want. Want to stop bleeding cash and start seeing some real engagement and sales from your emails? Follow these steps 👇 Step 1: Truly understand your customers Stop guessing. Start paying attention to the signals your customers are throwing at you. Which emails do they open? What time are they in their inbox? Use this data. It's gold. Match your email send times and content to their habits, not your convenience. Step 2: Cut out anything generic Nobody cares about your "Dear Valued Customer" emails. Get real. Dive into what your customers are into. Segment them based on their actions, purchases, and interests. Make your emails feel like they're coming from a friend who knows them, not a robot. Step 3: Ask, listen, act The most ignored step: actually asking your customers what they think about your emails and then using that feedback. It's simple. Send a survey, ask for feedback directly in your emails, and use what they tell you to make your emails better. Bottom line? Your emails could be making you more money, building loyalty, and driving sales through the roof. But only if you stop being lazy with your approach. Understand your customers, personalize like a pro, and use their feedback to dial in your strategy.

A new term sales teams will start hearing as they implement automated outbound systems: "defensible context". To get the best output from an LLM (like a relevant personalized email icebreaker), you need two ingredients: a well crafted prompt and access to relevant context (a.k.a. data) on the buyer. Not all context is created equal though. Most sales teams today are leveraging publicly available context, such as information scraped from LinkedIn profiles. It's easily accessible but it's often not relevant enough to your message and the reason you're reaching out. This leads to mediocre output from the LLM. Everyone's AI-personalization emails start sounding very similar... As companies seek to personalize at scale with AI, they're realizing that this public context isn't sufficient to write high performing emails. Enter "defensible" context - unique information on buyers that is more relevant to your message (and that your competitors can't easily access or replicate). This can take two main forms: 1. First-party context: Data collected from your own digital properties, including: --> User behavior on your website or product --> Interactions with your social media content --> CRM data on the account or prospect's interaction with your sales funnel 2. Hard-to-access context: Information that's difficult or unscalable to curate, such as: --> Data from niche internet sources that requires custom-built scrapers --> Insights gathered through manual, high-touch data collection processes In order to achieve higher sales performance, companies will increasingly focus on developing robust first-party data strategies in order to fuel their AI initiatives with "defensible context". The goal is to feed these unique contexts into LLMs, allowing for truly personalized messaging that goes beyond surface-level observations like "I saw you went to Michigan State." By investing in defensible context, companies can create outreach that resonates more deeply with potential buyers and stands out in a crowded marketplace. As we move forward, the ability to gather, analyze, and leverage defensible context will likely become a key differentiator in the efficacy of outbound sales strategies. Companies that master this approach will be better positioned to cut through the noise and connect meaningfully with their prospects. #DefensibleContxt #Outbound #AI

If I ever stepped into a GTM role, the first thing I’d rethink is the company newsletter. The fundamental problem I see? Most companies treat newsletters as glorified update channels when they should be building what I call a "Newsletter IP”. A branded content asset that drives demand, builds authority, and generates sales intelligence. Here's my playbook (based on my experience): 1. Narrative before format I wouldn't waste time debating weekly vs. monthly cadence. Instead, I'd ask, What story can we uniquely own in the market? - For AI infrastructure → The hidden costs of scaling AI - For compliance solutions → The Risk Ledger - For productivity tools → Workflows that bend time The right narrative makes your newsletter an asset that appreciates over time, not just another marketing channel. 2. Prototype over pitching Executives don't want to hear about newsletter concepts; instead, they want to see them. Rather than explaining what it could be, I'd create a fully realized spec issue with actual subject lines, copy, and visuals. 3. Distribution beyond inbox • Repurposed into LinkedIn content for executives • Double as SEO-friendly blog posts • Snippets embedded in sales materials 4. Connect to revenue systems This is where I see most teams missing the opportunity. Newsletter engagement data should flow directly into your CRM: - Does the prospect click compliance content twice? SDR gets an alert - The investor keeps opening infrastructure pieces? AE knows to lead with scaling stories - Customer replies with a question? That feeds the product team 5. Set realistic expectations I'd make it clear to stakeholders that this newsletter is about building authority and embedding your POV into the market. I'm curious, how many of you are treating your newsletter as strategic IP versus just another update channel? What's working in your approach?