Email marketing seems to have lost importance in the marketing channel mix… at least if some critical voices can be trusted. Nevertheless, it is one of the most used communication media by companies to reach customers and interested parties.
In light of Corona’s increased push for digitalization, let’s take a look at the trends we can expect to see in 2021.
HYPERPERSONALIZATIOn
From the last years, the topic of personalization, and right content at the right time, is already known but gets a new direction with the aspect of hyperpersonalization.
In simple words – personalize not only salutation and bit of email content but also the related touchpoints like landing pages, sending times, segmentation. This is where AI can already play a role. The goal is the best possible identification of the user with the brand, as well as providing relevant content. It is crucial to avoid breaks in the UX between individual media such as emails and landing pages and to offer a consistent UX.
Data Protection & Privacy
Anti-Spam Laws and regulations around privacy have been around for years and got a new face with the GDPR. The fear of marketeers that Email Marketing will not be possible anymore has not become reality. Nevertheless, companies and consumers are more aware of their rights and accountabilities. Following these rules is therefore not harming you, but protecting your brand, as well as offering a source of trust towards your clients. Showing them that you respect the GDPR in your email marketing will gain trust that you take care of the regulations in every other aspect of your company.
Interactive Content
Animations and videos have been used on websites and landing pages for some time now, but will now make their way towards more interactive emails.
The reason is simple. Humans instinctively pay more attention to colours and motions. This effect can be used via embedded GIFs. Additionally using navigation within the email allows to easily access the most interesting content without scrolling all the way to the bottom of an email. Providing more control over the content will result in longer reading times.
Multi-channel interaction
Most clients have dozens of touchpoints with your brand before purchasing a first or second time. One of the best ways to harmonize the messages and allowing to push the prospect down the funnel is combining different channels in the lead nurturing. Using trigger points from offline and online interactions allow you to send emails with super relevant content at the right time.
The customer uses your app and entered the store and it is cold outside? Trigger promotion email with offer for fitting clothes.
Client subscribed to the newsletter from a Facebook video ad? Send emails with GIFs and promote other interactive material instead of plain text.
Key for success is how all this information is stored in your database and how you can access it. So putting some thoughts into data alignment will help you to generate fantastic cross channel experience.
Automation for small businesses
Email Marketing tools come with different price models and allow even small companies to benefit from this channel. Fortunately the access to automation tools and segmentation tools gets easier and cheaper. Nevertheless, pure technology is not enough to run high performing automation. Merge of data silos, enrichment of data for personalization and providing sophisticated ressources for designing, segmenting and anaylzing email campaigns will still be a bottleneck for a lot of smaller companies which have a background in more traditional marketing channels. The investment and update of the marketing tech stack will increase rapidly, but generating data and learning from it takes time.
What else can be expected in the coming years? The integrated use and legally compliant collection of data and profiling across systems and channels is expected to become more important over the next few years.