3 Steps to Effectively Trigger Enriching Emails with Data Warehouse Data

October 17, 2022 Stan

Sending emails from marketing automation platforms has never been easier. Today, most marketers are already sending emails that are both personalized and targeted to customers and prospects based on data stored in their marketing automation platform and seeing great results. By taking this approach one step further, even more, significant results can be achieved. Integrating data warehouse data with a marketing automation platform can be incredibly powerful in tailoring the personalized content included in promotional emails as well as defining the exact timing of when a transactional email should be sent.

Integrating data warehouse data with a marketing automation platform can be done in a variety of ways. The first step is to define where the data warehouse data should be stored in the marketing automation platform. As an example, in the Eloqua marketing automation platform, there is an option to save the imported data directly in the main contact table or it can be stored in a related custom data object that has been set up to capture this information.

Depending on the data included in the import(s) from the data warehouse a combination may be used. For example, if the data warehouse contains customer information as well as purchase history, the customer info would likely be written directly into the contact table whereas the purchase history would be best stored in a relational table, or Eloqua CDO, to maintain the 1:many relationship between a customer and their purchases.

Once the data architecture has been defined in the marketing automation platform, the integration method can be selected. For real-time data feeds between the data warehouse and the marketing automation platform the most direct integration approach would be via API.

However, if an API integration is not an option the next best method would be to schedule automated imports into the marketing automation platform, likely using an SFTP as a middle point. For example, in Eloqua, this approach would require export(s) from the data warehouse to an SFTP followed by scheduled imports from the SFTP to Eloqua. In either case, the data would be sent from the data warehouse to the marketing automation platform for use in marketing emails.

With data flowing from the data warehouse into the marketing automation platform the final step is for marketers to begin using it! For promotional emails, this could be as simple as adding additional personalization to existing email copy or as complex as defining entirely new audiences based on their non-marketing automation platform activity history. In these scenarios, the customer experience will be augmented and we could expect a boost in the relevant email reporting metrics.

If the data feed calls for a 1:many relationship with the contact data, e. g. purchase history, these use cases can be further explored with the use of apps. For example Relationship One’s Personalization Manager app can do great things for promotional emails in Eloqua to allow for messaging a contact or prospect multiple times, once for each eligible purchase rather than once overall.

For transactional emails, there is an opportunity to generate audiences directly as a result of the data warehouse data and for near real-time email messaging to be set up. This data can also be used as part of the reporting for transactional messaging. Depending on the marketing automation platform being used there are a variety of ways to optimize specifically for transactional email messaging. For Eloqua, this could be done by using Relationship One’s Transactional Email app.

In any scenario, by leveraging the data warehouse feed either for audience generation or by taking advantage of the opportunity to include additional points of personalization, the quality of emails being sent will rise and the consumer will feel empowered by the enriched email content rather than feeling overwhelmed by too many non-targeted emails. From helping define data architecture to building transactional emails, Relationship One is always here to help!

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