As 2019 started and marketing budgets “refilled,” it’s our chance to give email marketing a restart and refocus efforts on innovation and speed to keep pace with the demanding customer. Consumer expectations for quality content will keep on increasing, it’s like an eternal tradition.
Marketers will need to leverage new technologies and disciplines to continue to push the boundaries. Email programs will become even more personalized and more interactive, and as a result, more effective at driving revenue and brand loyalty.
In order to achieve these goals and your marketing dreams, here are some changes in the email marketing landscape you should be most aware of:
The right content, for the right customers
Marketers have no excuse not to personalize email content based on the data they capture from browsing, purchase histories, and preferences. If you haven’t done so already, you should make it a priority to collect and use more data for personalization in content execution. Marketers should expand their current preference centers for content choices or follow browse, purchase, click and open behavior to identify the content that gets the most attention from subscribers.
In 2019, marketers will continue to test AI platforms, while pushing vendors to handle their AI needs and automate at a larger scale. This innovation in technology should enable marketers to identify content combinations that perform better, faster and more efficiently.
Mobile average order value will grow
Mobile average order value has always stayed behind its desktop counterpart because consumers are less likely to make big purchases on-the-go. In 2019, we’ll see this gap close.
It will become more common for subscribers to purchase larger orders on mobile devices as the user experience gets better. To take advantage of this trend, brands need to gain subscribers’ trust by offering detailed product content, more images, and videos, or customer testimonials to push subscribers over the edge.
Interactive content on the rise
Emails that contain games, quizzes, image carousels or are fun allow users to interact with the brand without leaving the email itself. The more brands allow subscribers to engage within emails in new ways, the more engaged and ready to purchase subscribers will be.
The use of interactive content can help boost sales or simply educate and entertain. Fun games are a great way to get subscribers in the habit of opening your emails. The ability to actually make purchases within email makes the buying process even faster and will boost sales for the brands that embrace interactivity.
Quality over quantity
To reach the inbox every time and maximize revenue from email marketing campaigns, marketers need to ensure they are sending relevant content to high-quality value email subscribers and stop focusing on the total quantity of emails sent. In the coming year, that means embracing best practices even more, such as segmentation, data hygiene, email verification, and preference centers.
In addition to reaching customers, smart marketers will use data to drive their digital acquisition efforts and better target new subscribers. Again, quality over quantity in acquiring new subscribers will pay dividends for your email program down the road. In the end, the lifetime value of higher quality customers is worth the additional investment. Smarter acquisition = greater ROI.
Loyalty programs will further expand
Many marketers already embrace loyalty programs and in 2019 these programs will become much more sophisticated. Smart marketers will use loyalty programs to collect customer data and better understand customer behavior, allowing them to reach loyal customers with better personalization and acquire new customers with the same characteristics.
Email marketers can track the behavior of their most loyal customers and better understand their needs when it comes to email. What time of day do they want to receive emails? What types of products do they typically browse and purchase? What promotions work best for them? Then, marketers can take this data to encourage subscribers with similar behavior to join the loyalty program.