MarTech360 Interview with Suzanna Chaplin, Chief Executive Officer at esbconnect

“Move beyond instant gratification and bottom-of-funnel tactics. Focusing on immediate returns on ROI/CPA goals will reduce the customer pool you are targeting, and even drive down ROI.”

Suzanna, can you tell us about your professional background and your current role at esbconnect?

I founded esbconnect in 2014 with the aim of building a programmatic platform for email inventory, allowing brands to use email as an acquisition channel. The idea was to create a platform that enabled brands to choose data based on demographics and purchase intent, which displayed results in real time.

Historically, I think email was considered hard to buy, opaque and a bit of an unknown in terms of quality. I wanted to show that it’s an amazing opt-in and opt-out channel, works at a one-to-one level, deterministically includes data about users, and serves as a successful identifier away from walled gardens.

Since then, esbconnect has moved beyond a simple acquisition channel to enable brands to use our scaled, rich, addressable data in any channel to create connected journeys.

How does esbconnect differentiate itself from other companies in the space?

We’re different because we send 50m emails a month to our database, across 150+ brands. We don’t just have a rich database of email addresses; we also know what these individuals engage with daily in their inbox, and what they buy.

How can esbconnect help businesses boost their ROI through customer acquisition, and what specific features and strategies do they offer to optimise results?

A brand’s email database will consistently deliver the highest ROI of any channel, but it will always be limited by its size. We enable brands to mirror their data efforts to 17 million new customers, building lookalike audiences of people who share the same attributes as your existing customers.

We believe every brand should collect its own first-party data, because this reduces long-term acquisition costs. So we offer a tool to help clients grow this data by adding nurture journeys, while offering appends and enrichment services for greater personalisation. We also believe in the power of creative to engage, and data plays a huge part in achieving that.

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How can email addresses be leveraged to create effective omnichannel marketing strategies that enhance both customer acquisition and retention, and why is it important for marketers to move away from channel-specific budget planning?

Brands know they need to reach a consumer multiple times to drive a conversion, but if they target at device level they risk over-targeting or under-targeting. Email removes the device channel, allowing brands to speak directly to an individual through their inbox, while effectively limiting reach and frequency, making spend optimisation easier.

Using email as the identifier, it is possible to create omnichannel journeys to guide consumers down the funnel. Email is also an amazing retention tool, allowing brands to engage consumers and gather data in return for opportunities they value.

Creative personalisation significantly improves ROI, and email offers advertisers a low-cost channel to test content, promotions and ad formats before running a campaign on expensive channels, such as Facebook.

Ultimately, the industry is still hung up on the customer journey being vertical and linear, but it’s not. Consumers certainly don’t think like this, and email offers a familiar, powerful personalisation tool with which to engage an audience.

How do you see the shift beyond cookies impacting consumer behaviour, particularly in how they interact with brands online?

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware that their data has significant value. They are willing to trade their data, but not at any price, and only with brands they trust. Brands need to respect consumer privacy, outline the value they are offering and be more transparent with data use – and to incentivise data sharing through early access to limited stock releases, competitions or loyalty programs.

With increasingly stringent privacy regulations, how is esbconnect adapting to help brands engage new customers while ensuring compliance?

We’re doing a number of things. For example, we own an email acquisition opt-in brand called opt-me-in.com – a first in the UK – allowing brands to use our data to capture new customers in a compliant, safe, transparent way.

Secondly, when we work with brands to grow their first-party data, we ensure it is compliant with local standards. We play with UX to make it frictionless for the consumer, but we also help brands to come up with the most effective incentives to encourage opt-in and data sharing.

Thirdly, attribution and measurement is a real challenge, so we have created our own attribution tool, which relies on email consent rather than the CMP to attribute sales correctly.

How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance despite the demanding responsibilities of a CEO?

This is always a challenge for me. I have a couple of non-negotiables, like daily exercise and always doing either nursery drop-off or bed time, with no phone or laptop. These rules are really important to me, and help mitigate the guilt of my busy working schedule.

What is the biggest problem you or your team is solving this year?

There have been quite a few over the years! Attribution was a big one, as was working out how to grow and acquire first-party data quickly and cost-effectively. Developing our creative has also been a challenge. The creative is often overlooked within performance marketing, which is a huge mistake, given its power.

What advice do you have for other leaders looking to drive growth for their brand?

Move beyond instant gratification and bottom-of-funnel tactics. Focusing on immediate returns on ROI/CPA goals will reduce the customer pool you are targeting, and even drive down ROI. Long-term strategies such as investing in first-party data, and developing programmes to nurture that, will grow a database of quality customers who will stick around.

What are you currently reading, or which books would you recommend?  

I’ve just finished ‘Empire of Pain’ by Patrick Radden Keefe, about the Sackler family and the US opioid crisis. I have also recently reread ‘Winners’ by Alastair Campbell – a personal favourite, and highly recommended to any leader.

Thanks Suzanna!