Digital Marketing, E-blast, Marketing0
Email Marketing in 2018
Email marketing is not dead! The tactics marketers must use in order to be effective have just changed. Businesses must be willing to change with the times or fear getting left to rot in the SPAM folder. As a company that has been involved in email marketing for years, IAS has learned many lessons (in some cases, the hard way) through numerous experiments with strategy.
Potential clients and subscribers are unlikely to open an email from a business unless there is a clear benefit in doing so. There must be a given initiative such as a 50% off coupon, a promise of knowledge or insight, etc. This needs to be communicated within a captivating subject line or you could severely hinder your open rates.
Here are some ways email marketing strategies have shifted, and several examples of how marketers can leverage this knowledge to improve customer outreach:
– Tailored Email Campaigns: Today, by analyzing a given customer’s interests, you have the ability to spark their curiosity, leading to more clicks and opens. Marketers can allow each user to customize email settings, which include allowing them to choose frequency and the type of content they receive within those emails. By allowing potential customers to create their own “email experience”, you create an emotional connection with them.
– Real-Time Email Outreach: Companies such as Yesmail are already utilizing an early form of this email marketing where a campaign is based on what the consumer is currently reading or searching for in their various social media feeds. For example, if a customer is reading about sports events, the times and option to buy tickets online would arrive in their inbox in real time. The general idea is to leverage awareness about your customer’s situation so you can ignite a real-time dialogue with them via e-mail and achieve greater influence.
– Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: If you’ve used Google inbox, you’ve already seen how your phone reads your emails and learns to respond. It’s still pretty basic (an algorithm that creates 3 short responses based on the content), but it’s gotten more intelligent in the last couple years and will likely continue. These types of AIs are becoming more common for marketers and consumers alike.
The future of email marketing is definitely here, yet far from perfect. In the coming years, businesses and marketers should already be using all the methods available along with being on the cutting edge of marketing strategies to come.