• by Jess Nelson , August 24, 2017

UnsubCentral, an email compliance and data list management solution, released a new tool this week that helps brands capture customer data for more targeted marketing.

Opt-In Central enhances lead generation via a series of intelligent on-site widgets that can progressively capture more identifiable information. UnsubCentral had already helped marketers clean their email lists, but it now also helps brands collect more data to enhance customer profiles.

Email still ranks as the most effective marketing channel, generating the highest return of investment per dollar spent. The revenue solicited from email campaigns can be even more fruitful with personalization, but a certain amount of knowledge about a customer and their interests is required for personalization to be successful. 

UnsubCentral is owned by PostUp -- an email service provider that works with a number of media companies including Disney, NBC, and The Onion -- and under the hood of Opt-In Central is the ESP’s marketing technology developed to help publishers increase email subscribers and readership. 

Opt-In Central “takes static data capture and makes it more dynamic,” says Patrick Asbra, VP of Sales at PostUp.

The widgets themselves are customizable, including the color, text, and images displayed, and dynamically change on-site as new customer data is gleaned. The data capture tool also includes A/B testing functionality, so marketers can test the type of content and promotions displayed. 

“Whenever you have anything of value --- images, content, music -- metering access to that content is a good way to trigger a conversion,” says Keith Sibson, VP Product & Marketing at PostUp.

For example, a travel brand could ask visitors where they vacationed last year to build a better customer profile. That customer information can then be funneled into marketing automation systems to make future email offers more targeted.

“You might ask for age or location before asking for more sensitive information,” says Gibson. “Progressive capture is more effective than putting everything in one form, because even if a customer doesn’t ultimately complete the offer, we now have a lot more information about them than we did before.”