Email Marketing is a beautiful crossing between technology and marketing. This implies that email marketing is always moving. The emails we sent out ten years ago are ugly ducklings in comparison to all the beauty that an average email marketing platform delivers today.
And yet, the evolution never stops. That we noticed a lot in recent weeks when ransacking the many predictions of trend watchers. We highlight three mega trends, specific to our field. An evolution that you should certainly keep in mind!
1 Mobile is already booming, but will soon be predominant
Statistics already show it. More and more email messages are being opened on iDevices. It of course depends on the target audience that you’re marketing, but mobile email clients aren’t in the majority – yet. Every source has somewhat different opinions, but the overall trend is clear: within a year mobile will dominate as a reader of email messages. Numbers suggest over 80 percent.
There is also a second trend. The newest webbased email clients will behave as a mobile reader in the future. And that is an extra argument to put your eggs in the “fluid design” basket for your emails. Also keep in mind that the interaction after reading your email will be in a mobile environment. That also has an impact on the size of your call to action for example.
2 The inbox is evolving as well
The inbox isn’t actually limited to one device anymore. An email that is read on an iDevice, is viewed a second time on the desktop and who knows, there could also follo a third reaction in the web-based client. And an interaction with the message inbox is already possible. In the future you have to take into account that your email needs to be adapted and compatible across all devices. An e-mail intended for an email client is answered from a texting area. It will take some getting used to.
On top of that, the inbox is becoming more and more intelligent. Google pioneered like no other with Gmail. Email messages are now sorted by relevance by assigning them to a priority or promotion tab. Or, based on the contents of the incoming email, advertising is displayed. Trend watchers predict that on all platforms and in all mail clients, inboxes will become intelligent. Want an example?
You send an email with a last-minute offer to the Costa Del Sol. The inbox suddenly digs up offers from your competitors, to present them alongside your message. Something to take into account. But we also read something about an intelligent inbox that knows you usually order X product after receiving email A. So the email client will already suggest a standard response proposal. You only need to click send. We can already start dreaming of awesome conversion rates.
3 Customers’ expectations become leading through automation
An email that completely meets the expectations of your contact will automatically get more response. That’s logical. Only we do not use that enough. Because generally email marketing platforms today are still stand-alone applications that need to be fed with lists. More advanced platforms already provide connections with standard CRM packages, but this will become more and more important.
In the future those systems will be linked to each other by default, along with the sales systems of the company’s e-marketer. And every email that will be sent out will automatically be calibrated to target the contact. And since all inboxes are linked, an integrated system has soon an additional element, the location where your contact is at that moment. This will have incredible value to sales, not just in terms of adjusting the offer, but also for the timing of the offer. In the future, such information will certainly be integrated in the opt-in form!
Additionally sales will know exactly who has read which email when. Because if a message is relevant, it will be read. And if a message is read, the ISP who has delivered it will get a green flag. The more green flags you collect, the more likely it is that you can directly go to the priority inbox. It is certainly a trend to keep in mind. The sooner you have a link, the harder you’re ahead of the competition!
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