Improve Email Deliverability with Accurate Data

To provide more personalized and impactful omnichannel experiences, life sciences commercial teams have increased email volume significantly over the last two years. The formula is simple: send the right content to the right contacts at the right time. A time-honored method to evaluate the successful execution of this formula is email open rate. But is this an accurate measure of audience engagement or email campaign effectiveness?

The decreasing value of open rate metrics

Email open rate theoretically indicates whether your email has been viewed, but many question its accuracy. Emails viewed in a “preview pane” where the recipient can easily view most of the message aren’t tracked as “open.” Broad usage of this metric is likely to diminish with the advent of the “Mail Privacy Protection” setting for Apple Mail apps. Activation of this setting introduced in iOS 15 will automatically mark all incoming emails as “opened” and masks the user’s IP address so it can’t be linked to other online activity.

But as the halo around open rate metrics begins to fade, commercial teams should not lose focus on other foundational metrics, such as email deliverability rate. (In an omnichannel environment, if your email isn’t delivered, neither is your content.)

Three data strategies can help you optimize deliverability to ensure you reach the right targets across all channels and provide a seamless customer journey:

1. Build your database with accurate data.
2. Update your contact lists regularly.
3. Remove data silos.

Build your database with accurate data

You need reliable HCP profile information to identify and target prescribers, including email data to access and engage hard-to-reach customers. Lack of accurate provider data and email coverage for key provider types can impact outreach strategies and sales effectiveness. Review your sourcing strategy for accurate and up-to-date provider demographic data and email addresses to assess any gaps. But don’t be tempted to purchase multiple lists from vendors with complicated pricing structures, questionable sourcing strategies, and usage restrictions. Deliverability from purchased lists is notoriously unreliable, with high bounce rates and low click-through rates. Your carefully crafted emails will land in spam filters, and your campaign performance will miss the mark.

Update your contact lists regularly

Deliverability rates rely on clean, targeted distribution lists. Cleanse your database monthly to remove addresses that are hard bounces, SPAM traps, honeypots, or high risk/high complainers. Failure to update email information or remove unengaged contacts from your list will diminish your sending reputation, and therefore your email deliverability. But resource-constrained commercial teams may struggle to identify and correct outdated email addresses. Consider outsourcing data stewardship to continuously monitor and update email addresses. Rest assured in the accuracy of your customer reference data with fast, proactive data stewardship services.

Remove data silos

Current, accurate email addresses should be easily accessible for both field reps and brand teams rather than trapped in data silos. Field reps generally spend too much time using poor quality emails, and a lack of data integration across systems within their daily workflow can cause delays in the sales process. A single data source for your CRM and marketing systems will help your organization deliver intelligent customer engagement across all channels.

The right solution to manage HCP email data is a core foundation for omnichannel HCP engagement. Learn more about Veeva OpenData Email coverage with deliverability rates of nearly 100 percent.