• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 21, 2023

Email marketers have a new tool to help them reach the right people. AtData has added what it calls the Engagement Score to its SafetoSend service. 

The new machine learning-based tool provides a view of a single email address and its activity across the web, enabling the marketer to reach beyond the silo of its own list or email service provider, the company says.

Factored into this score are recency, quantity, type, and sources of activity, AtData says.

"Generally, email verification services only tell you whether an email address is deliverable or not,” says Mallory Green, vice president of marketing, AtData. “AtData is taking a leap forward to help marketers determine if an email address is active and engaged." 

Other companies may counter that there is nothing new in this, at least not when it comes to communicating with customers: At the least, marketers can certainly send emails using the old RFM formula — recency, frequency, and monetary. 

AtData says brands can benefit from the score ranges that are more likely to engage with them and become customers. But how many email senders are operating at the highest levels of sophistication? 

To some extent, this seems like a prospecting tool: AtData says the score ranges will show the consumers likely to become customers, identify lookalike audiences and increase ROI and conversions.

Are we simply adding what the old list business called selects?

The company says it processes billions of email opens, website visits, and other usage signals every month. And Green contends that the Engagement Score has “profound implications” for email-centric data strategies. 

The new Engagement Score is available to all new SafeToSend subscribers at no cost.