Database marketing specialists and e-mail marketers who wish to interact with their target groups in a relevant manner analyze - in a systematic and structured way - the behavior and patterns of people in their e-mail lists. It is key in establishing successful e-mail marketing programs that respond to the needs of recipients.

At the same time it has become clear that e-mail marketers, just as other marketers, can no longer work and think in silos. I have already explained the reasons for this: we live in a cross-channel communication landscape where people always want more control. Obviously this also has its consequences for ‘audience analysis’ practices.

It is no longer sufficient to analyze isolated e-mail lists to find trends and patterns in order to improve the conversion, even if we cross the data in our lists with data from for example CRM programs or third party databases.

From a cross-channel point of view combining various details from all possible contact moments is crucial. But it must not only be intended to optimize the efficiency of a channel. Marketers who aggregate online and offline data must also use them to improve their cross-channel strategy.

Or, in other words: you must also see how the different channels strengthen one another based on a set of key performance indicators.

Let your customer and channel data strengthen each other

The influence that email marketing has on social media marketing – and vice versa – must form part of a cross-channel audience analysis. The same applies for search engine marketing, online bannering and all possible other channels, including offline.

After all it is well known that offline campaigns can give a ‘lift’ to online actions and reversed. The same applies for various forms of online marketing and communication.

An integrated cross-channel strategy is aimed at making use of the interactive channels that people use. But they must also strive towards a total result whereby the entirety is greater than the sum of the parts.

If you know how various campaigns strengthen one another you can use these insights -especially from the behavior of the target group viewpoint to strengthen other channels and for remarketing purposes.

It is important that you look further then the channels themselves. Combine details about your channels with data about your clients.

Audience analysis should therefore happen across all media and e-mail marketing and interactive CRM can play a pivotal role here. Or, in other words: also think cross-channel when performing audience analysis.

J-P De Clerck is a 360 degrees interactive marketing, content, conversion and social media consultant. You can connect with him on Twitter, his site or his personal blog.