I recently worked with a company that partnered with a TikTok influencer to rapidly grow their contact list. The campaign was highly successful in generating leads, but when it came to engaging with these contacts, the company ran into serious roadblocks.
That’s when they called me to help.
The Symptoms
Based on the TikTok partner’s recommendation, the company migrated their email marketing to a marketing platform. However, they lacked a full understanding of the platform’s functionality and compliance requirements. In their eagerness to leverage their new audience, they uploaded approximately 40,000 contacts without properly vetting or segmenting them. This triggered the platform’s compliance system, which ultimately led to their account being blocked.
To fix this issue, they uploaded all the 90,000 contacts to a different platform, but with the same result. Feeling stuck and frustrated they asked me to look into what was causing these systems to break down.
What the Consultation Revealed
I conducted a review of the company’s data flows and identified key areas for improvement. Not only did this mean the next system wouldn’t break, it also improved the overall quality of their data. When it comes to data quality always trumps quantity.
Filtering and Segmenting Contacts
Instead of uploading the entire list at once, I advised the company to first filter and segment the contacts to ensure quality and compliance. This would help prevent further account issues and improve deliverability rates.
Tailoring Communication Strategies
Tagging and segmenting would also support differentiating messaging based on contact source. The TikTok contacts needed introductory messaging to familiarise them with the company, rather than being treated as warm leads like the existing audience.
Understanding Audience Behaviour
By segmenting contacts based on how they were acquired, the company could craft more relevant messages, improving engagement and conversion rates. This also helped them understand the return-on-investment of the collaboration with this influencer and make better informed decisions about doing something similar in the future.
The Benefits of Consultancy
This case highlights the importance of understanding your audience and data before taking action. Accumulating contacts is just the first step—having a plan to manage and engage them effectively is what truly drives success.
Do you have a plan for your data? If not, let’s have a chat and see how I can help make your data go the extra mile!