Optivo for Dotdigital: Recover Anonymous Visitors, PECR-Compliant

Dotdigital visitor identification through Optivo, by esbconnect, finds 10-30% of anonymous visitors not in your CRM, emails them, and adds those who opt in to Dotdigital via API.

In short, Optivo emails the people browsing your site who you cannot currently reach, under consent they have already given, and invites them back to buy or to join your list in one click. If you connect Dotdigital, anyone who joins is created there as a new contact. Optivo’s retargeting is driving 4-18x ROAS across live UK ecommerce accounts.

What is Dotdigital visitor identification, and how does Optivo do it?

Dotdigital’s automations, including browse and cart abandonment programs, run on contacts already in your account. That leaves out the anonymous majority of your traffic, the people who view products and leave before ever giving an email address. Optivo’s tag sits on your own website, not inside Dotdigital, and identifies a portion of those visitors by matching them against a permissioned email graph. Optivo, never your business, sends the retargeting email, acting as sender of record under its own consent chain. You can therefore retarget visitors who are not in your CRM by email, while helping protect the sender reputation and domain health of your own Dotdigital sends.

If you choose to connect Dotdigital, only people who opt in to your brand from an Optivo email are created as contacts, via Dotdigital’s API, with consent recorded when they are created. Optivo does not add everyone it identifies to your account.

Does Dotdigital need to be given API access for this to work?

Only if you want opted-in contacts created automatically, and optionally to manage suppression through Dotdigital. This is a connection you authorise with your own credentials, not something that happens by default. Without it, Optivo still identifies and emails anonymous visitors under its own consent chain. The API connection automates adding new opt-ins and keeps your existing contacts and unsubscribes out of Optivo’s sends.

Suppression, meaning the removal of your existing contacts from any Optivo send, can be managed in three ways: through an API connection to Dotdigital, through a bulk upload to a secure S3 bucket, or through the tag on your site, which can add an email address to your suppression file in real time.

Why can’t Dotdigital identify anonymous visitors on its own?

Dotdigital works on contacts that exist in your account. Identifying a visitor before they become a contact needs a tag that reads information about the visit, and that is only appropriate when the visitor has given consent. Here is how Optivo’s process works in detail:

1. Optivo’s tag is placed on your website.
2. A visitor accepts marketing consent on your own cookie banner (your consent management platform, or CMP).
3. With that consent in place, the tag reads technical information about the visit, such as IP address, device and browser details, and matches it against the 17 million consumers in the esbconnect email community.
4. If there is a match, and the person is not on your suppression file, Optivo emails them under the explicit consent they already hold to receive marketing email.
5. The email invites them back to your site to buy, or to opt in to your brand in a single click. They receive up to three emails unless they purchase or opt in to you directly.
6. Only if they opt in, and only if you have connected Dotdigital, Optivo creates them as a new contact in Dotdigital via its API.

The database behind Optivo belongs to esbconnect, and every consumer record in it has opted in to receive marketing emails through opt-me-in.com. At sign-up, people are shown the types of email they will receive and the brands esbconnect works with. During their welcome journey they also receive an email dedicated to Optivo, explaining what it does and the value it brings them. They can opt out at any point.

For the legal detail, see our full breakdown of how PECR applies to anonymous visitor identification, including the specific regulations and ICO guidance involved. In short, Optivo operates as sender of record under its own consent chain, so your business never holds or emails a list of matched identities directly.

What results should a UK Dotdigital user expect?

We would rather understate than oversell. Typical match rates run 10-30% of qualifying anonymous traffic, and campaigns built on those matches have delivered 4-18x ROAS across live UK ecommerce accounts. Both figures vary with traffic quality, basket value, and how closely the email reflects what the visitor was looking at.

Across esbconnect’s live UK ecommerce accounts, results in this range are typical rather than exceptional. Match rate also depends on how many of your existing contacts you choose to suppress, whether that is every record you hold or just your active customer base. We give a range rather than a single headline number for exactly these reasons.

How does the Dotdigital connection work day-to-day?

Optivo’s tag runs on your site and identifies and emails visitors continuously, with or without a Dotdigital connection. Where API credentials are in place, each person who opts in from an Optivo email is created as a contact in Dotdigital, and Optivo checks your suppression data before every send so existing contacts and unsubscribes are excluded. Optivo stays focused on net-new email growth. Your existing Dotdigital programs and campaigns for known contacts carry on exactly as they are.

Is this compliant alongside our existing GDPR obligations for Dotdigital data?

Your existing UK GDPR obligations around the contact data already inside Dotdigital are unaffected. Optivo only writes new contacts via the API connection you authorise, and only when the consumer explicitly opts in. It checks existing status to avoid duplicate targeting.

The compliance question specific to anonymous visitor identification sits under UK GDPR and is handled through your own CMP: a visitor must accept consent on your cookie banner before the tag reads anything about them. Consent to email them is held by esbconnect under PECR and UK GDPR, because every record in the Optivo database has opted in to receive marketing email through opt-me-in.com, where they are shown examples of the emails they will receive and the brands involved. Their welcome journey includes a dedicated email about Optivo and the value it brings them.

Next step: See how Optivo would connect to your Dotdigital account.