When you're looking to reach and engage top-of-funnel prospects—to kick-start them on a journey with you—it doesn’t get better than email. Reports show email generates more revenue than any other channel for marketers, boasting an average ROI of 4,200%, according to Litmus.

But when it comes to acquisition email campaigns—which target individuals who haven’t previously engaged with your company—success is hugely dependent on using the right platform. The problem is that most email-sending platforms aren't designed for acquisition or "cold" email campaigns. Many don't allow the use of third-party data, which fuels outbound lead gen. And if they do, they struggle to get the emails delivered.

Additionally, unlike acquisition platforms, traditional CRM platforms often follow strict guidelines for engagement and won't tolerate higher opt-out rates. Acquisition email platforms operate under different standards, making them ideal for third-party data campaigns. Anyone who's ever implemented an email acquisition campaign also knows they involve a completely different strategy than first-party nurture email—from content creation to the last step of sending your email.

Email acquisition and third-party data represent a core competency at OMI, and recently, we unleashed our own proprietary email-sending platform specifically designed to send third-party emails to top-of-funnel prospects. Lots of planning and thought went into getting it just right for our clients. As we developed it, we considered these four essential elements for fueling successful acquisition campaigns:

- Protect Your Sender Domain Rotation

Effectively delivering emails requires a clean sender domain. This domain should be separate from your main website but look as close as possible to your company branding without being identical. The purpose of the separate domain is to silo away any potential reputation damage that can occur during acquisition campaigns. For example, companies using low-quality or inaccurate email data to fuel their campaigns may face the suspension of those campaigns – and the associated domain -- by spam and data watchdog groups.

Recovering from such a situation can take up to six months. For many businesses, this delay could prove fatal. With a separate sender domain, should damages occur, your primary domain is unaffected and can continue supporting ongoing marketing and business activities.

As your email marketing partner, OMI ensures you have a successful foundation for your campaigns.

- Real-time Customization

With increased control built into the platform, OMI can customize the sending variables in real-time as a campaign is underway. Should the hard bounce rate become too high or email delivery fall below the baseline metric, OMI can pause and adjust any variables associated with deliverability to maximize results.

Your choice of an email-sending platform can make all the difference between success and missed opportunities for your top-of-funnel campaigns. The right platform increases deliverability so your messages reach the intended audience, while the wrong choice can lead to deliverability rates that tank your campaign results. The most compelling message in the world—even with the highest quality contact data—won't make an impact if it never reaches your prospects' inboxes.

- Monitor Your Reputation

Email marketers must be diligent about following the rules and best practices of CAN-SPAM and any other applicable laws or regulations, and abiding by general marketing guidelines and best practices. Also, be mindful of email timing and frequency. Your sender reputation is always on the line, and as mentioned above, you don’t want to be flagged by spam or watchdog groups. This would impact your ability to successfully perform email delivery. And clearly, if recipients don’t receive your email messages, your campaign will not be successful. When working with OMI, you can rest assured we’ll make sure everything is in order. We run checks on the domain and IP to ensure they won’t be flagged by Spamhaus or other watchdog groups.

- Email Authentication

Authentication is an important part of email sending. It verifies that the emails came from the domain they claim to be from. If your emails are authenticated, then more of your email messages will make their way into the inbox of your recipients – versus having the messages end up in the spam folder. OMI’s sender platform supports the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC email authentication methods. Using these methods is helpful for preventing spam, phishing attacks, and other email security risks. To make email authentication possible, you must first add CNAME (canonical) records for your domain through your hosting provider. Of course, our team will ensure that all the appropriate technical aspects of authentication have been properly set up and propagated for your campaigns.

Reach out today to learn more about OMI’s proprietary email-sending platform and how our media activation expertise can empower you to engage the right omnichannel audiences with pinpoint accuracy.