According to research, email users will exceed 2.9 billion by 2019. Why is this significant? Emails can no longer be boxed into the send-and-receive model – nowadays, people use their emails to log into their social media, mobile apps, access sites, and many more. From an OmniChannel Marketing lens, a single email address can hold the key to the user’s profile. If a user signs up for an app and provides information such as his/her demographics, current location, and preferences, marketers can utilize this data to build a picture of the individual.

Email marketing is not for everyone – some people prefer to see ads on their social media or receive a physical copy in their mailbox. An OmniChannel marketer doesn’t merely use an email address to advertise, but to collect data regarding the content and channels that the person uses primarily according to the information he/she provides. That way, they know how to optimize the message and deploy it through the customer’s preferred channels rather than randomly send out newsletters, which can annoy the consumer.

Let’s look at this in a real-life setting. Suppose someone signs up for a vegan groceries store’s newsletter using his/her email address. It’s safe to assume that this individual practices a vegan diet or enjoys vegan food; hence sending a vegan restaurant ad to their Facebook seems far more reasonable than any other restaurant ad. From an OmniChannel angle, one email address can hold the key to consumer insight.

Optikal values the role of emails beyond the traditional send-and-receive paradigm. Emails used to be a one-way form of marketing where businesses sent out what they needed to say; however, with the rise of OmniChannel Marketing, it has now become a two-way medium where the customer can get a saying of how they want to be approached.