Digital marketing relies on the collection, analysis and exploitation of ever-increasing volumes of data, whether for CRM, e-mailing campaigns, online advertising or customer segmentation. This overabundance of information has an invisible but real cost: an increasingly heavy carbon footprint.
Today's marketing departments are being asked by CSR departments to integrate more responsible practices into their strategy. Fortunately, optimizing database management not only means reducing the environmental footprint, but also represents an opportunity to improve campaign performance and optimize costs.
So how can marketers take concrete action to make their database management more sustainable and responsible? Here are the best practices to put in place today.
Why are databases an environmental issue for marketers?
1. Marketing data explosion and impact
Every day, billions of e-mails are sent, CRM databases are enriched with thousands of contacts, and digital campaigns generate a multitude of logs and tracking data. Every piece of data stored has a cost: more server space is required, more energy is consumed for hosting and backups, and the carbon footprint increases. As an example, a single e-mail sent represents 4g of CO₂ when it rises to 50g when there's an attachment.
2. Impact on performance and ROI
A poorly managed database slows down the execution of marketing campaigns. Storing unnecessary contacts makes management more cumbersome and distorts campaign performance, while e-mail deliverability rates drop if the database contains too many invalid addresses, wasting resources.
Marketers can take effective action by reducing the volume of data collected, regularly cleaning their databases to eliminate duplicates and obsolete contacts, and validating data quality as soon as it is collected.
environmental footprint: How can we make database management more sustainable and efficient?
1. Optimize data collection and storage
It's essential to collect only useful information, limiting form fields to essential data.
Using email validation solutions directly in your forms avoids sending useless emails: sending email validation codes, resending emails following an account creation error, etc. This solution also makes it possible to send abandoned basket reminder emails at the right time, and to limit bad data lines in databases. This solution also makes it possible to send abandoned cart reminder emails at the right time, and to limit the number of bad data lines in databases (EnsoEmail).
Does your company make deliveries? Eradicate parcel returns! Use auto-completion and postal address validation solutions as soon as the information is collected in your forms. (EnsoAddress)
Do you work in B2B? Enrich your company data right from the form to ensure the right targeting.
What should you do with your current databases?
Regular database cleansing is also essential. This includes deleting duplicates, updating inactive contacts and identifying obsolete data.
Our solutions validate e-mails (EnsoEmail), telephones (EnsoPhone) and postal addresses(EnsoAddress) in real time, directly at the point of collection, to avoid registering incorrect contacts and limit waste.
2. Better segment and exploit data
More sustainable marketing requires targeted rather than mass campaigns. It's important to detect and remove inactive or erroneous e-mail addresses, and streamline marketing workflows to avoid unnecessary mailings.
3. Calculate the carbon footprint of a marketing campaign
To assess the environmental impact of an email campaign, you can calculate its carbon footprint using the following formula:
Carbon footprint = Number of e-mails sent × Average emission per e-mail
For example, for a campaign of 100,000 e-mails sent with an estimated emission of 4g of CO₂ per e-mail, the total footprint would be 400 kg of CO₂.
This data enables us to adjust our strategy by reducing the volume of mailings, optimizing targeting and choosing less energy-intensive e-mailing solutions.
For your Ads campaigns, for example, multiply views by 0.25g.
4. Adopt responsible solutions
It's advisable to opt for eco-responsible hosting providers such as OVH Green, AWS Green or Google Cloud Carbon-Free. Marketers can also choose optimized e-mailing tools to reduce the impact of mailings, and implement a "Zero Data Waste" strategy by regularly deleting unnecessary contacts and retaining only strategic data for the brand.
Promoting ecological commitment as part of your marketing strategy
1. Communicate the reduced carbon footprint
Companies can integrate a "Green IT" dimension into their communications by using the reduction of their carbon footprint as a differentiating argument. The adoption of environmental labels and Green IT certifications reinforces this approach.
2. More effective and responsible marketing
More responsible digital marketing means lower costs thanks to the elimination of unnecessary data, and improved campaign performance. By demonstrating an eco-responsible approach, companies reinforce their brand image and establish a climate of trust with their consumers.
Conclusion
Database optimization is a powerful lever for reconciling performance and environmental responsibility.
Actions to implement today include cleaning and optimizing databases (e-mail, telephone, postal addresses), validating data at source to avoid the accumulation of invalid contacts, and using more environmentally-friendly solutions such as green hosting, precise segmentation and the deletion of unnecessary data.
Sustainable digital marketing means smarter, more efficient marketing!
Our advice: Contact Cédric to discover our database cleansing, real-time validation and enrichment solutions, and reduce your carbon footprint at lower cost!