(Newswire.net — November 28, 2018) — Marketing goes through trends for the same reasons food and fashion do; customer expectations and technology are constantly changing. The rise of instant messaging and chatbots hasn’t made email marketing obsolete; in fact, it is far from it. Email marketing remains popular because nearly three billion people use email regularly, and it continues to offer an incredibly high return on investment. Here are five email marketing trends to keep an eye on in 2019.
The Rise of Automation
Automation has already begun in the realm of email marketing. Automated campaigns allow digital marketers to create personalized, targeted messages that the recipient is almost certain to read. Automated email marketing includes workflows triggered by user engagement and data collection to improve both future messages and workflows. This allows for greater segmentation and targeting in automation, allowing marketers to maximize the impact of their email marketing. There’s a clear business case for this. Email marketing already yields around $44 for every dollar spent. Segmented and targeted emails increase profits up to 18 times more than that.
The Growth of the Extremes – Text-Only and Interactive Emails
We’re seeing email marketing shift to the two extremes of highly interactive messages and text-only emails. Emails containing detailed graphics are being dropped, since this is almost impossible to read on a mobile device, and it is of little interest to those using a PC. Instead, many marketers are sending out text-based emails that notify customers or keep them engaged but can be read on any device. That’s a necessity since over half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. The fact that text-only is seen as more personal and less sales-oriented increases the odds that the email is read.
At the other end of the spectrum, customers are sent interactive messages. Examples of this include quizzes, surveys, contests, and games. An added bonus of these messages is that they’re very likely to be shared with others.
Another form of interactive emails is the call-to-action message with a button that takes someone to the next step, whether it is buying your product, signing up for a service or booking an appointment. If they like the recommended purchases but don’t want to buy it now, they can click to add the item to their wish list. This isn’t limited to marketing content either; the status email on their order could give them the option to edit an order or see the shipping status. Alternatively, customers are thanked for their purchase and given the ability to write a positive review of the business or the product then and there.
The Creation of Community
Brands have found that creating communities keeps their customers engaged and gives them another channel to reach their audience. Email marketing can contribute to this. For example, a marketing email can include buttons the reader can click to follow the brand on social media. Another tactic is including a button that allows readers to refer the business to their friends; you’ve just used your email marketing message to get the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth referrals. Your content will then land in front of likeminded potential customers, coming from a source seen as more trustworthy than a generic marketing message.
The Tug of War Between Personalization and Privacy
While the internet and social media have significantly eroded personal privacy, there has been push-back by the public. More importantly, the European Union has implemented laws that affect the gathering and sharing of third-party information. The detailed data on each customer’s demographics, habits and interests in your customer relationship management system may not have to be purged, protected or kept private if you’re sending emails to customers in the EU.
Yet this hasn’t affected the value of retaining personal information. For example, email marketers have found that including the reader’s name in the second or third paragraph keeps people reading. Including information unique to their account likewise keeps them engaged. On the flipside, information like customer location prevents them from blocking you because you sent them information about unrelated products or store openings that are nowhere near them.
One tactic is sending out informative and helpful content that doesn’t infringe on the person’s privacy, such as a business reminding people to use health savings account funds before the deadline and informing them they can buy certain items sold by the retailer using those tax-advantaged funds.
General “best of” emails can be sent to customers from time to time, especially if you have a large or engaged user community. Your business can send announcements of its charitable giving at any time, but you’ll get more out of planned newsletters sent to your customers. Check these few newsletter examples from SendinBlue for classic case studies of what works. These regular communications maintain brand awareness and boost sales. However, too many such messages could lead to you being blocked as spam. Fail to give people a clear way to unsubscribe, and you could run into legal problems, so make sure to add that option.
Take the time to analyze your email marketing strategy to this year’s emerging trends so that you can improve your approach. That is aside from the need to study click-through rates, open rates, engagement and ROI on a regular basis.