According to the DMA Insight on Marketer Email Tracking Study 2017, 95% of marketers believe that email is “important” or “very important” to their businesses. About 31% of respondents said e-mail marketing is best used for retention, about 24% wanted to use it for conversion, 21% for brand promotion, 14% for customer acquisition, and only 8% for customer reactivation.  Now, the question is: are the e-mails sent to customers relevant?  The DMA Insights survey shows that fewer than one in 10 marketers (9%) said they have sent relevant emails to their customers and what is even more alarming is, only two in five (42%) say that at best ‘some’ of their emails are relevant to consumers. The data clearly manifests the gap between what marketers say they want to achieve and what they admit they produce. This surely calls for action. Here, we discuss five e-mail marketing trends that will help you create effective e-mail marketing campaigns for success.  

e-mail marketing trends

1. Personalization:

Personalization is one of the top e-mail marketing trends to follow. According to a recent Shopify article, 75% of consumers like personalized messaging from their preferred brands.

Also, 74% of users become frustrated with irrelevant content. Retailers must always keep track of your users’ preferences and plan targeted e-mail marketing campaigns for them.  

You may refer to Google Analytics, your customer loyalty program, activity on your email list, completed surveys, third-party research, focus groups or insights from customer service to organize your existing customer data and make informed decisions about what your customers are interested in, where they spend time and what motivates them to take action.

The purpose is to detect any noticeable patterns in customer behavior with your existing content and website to direct what topics you are most likely to focus on moving forward. Some of the best ways to do this are:

• Add your subscribers’ first names in your email content. Insert a creative element in the e-mails. Use the first name for addressing the recipients, instead of addressing them as “Dear [insert first name]”. Incorporating a first name in the middle of a paragraph is appreciated.
• People love to be remembered on their special days, birthdays and anniversaries top the charts. They love reading a celebratory message!
• Last, but not least, do not forget to thank your new customers for purchasing a product, throw in a few tips for using it, and then recommend similar products they might like. 

2. AI or Automation:

Artificial intelligence continues to be one of the hot trends in e-mail marketing. AI technology can help measure and understand countless metrics on how users interact with content. Accordingly, Content can be customized for different segments.

With AI, brands can aim for a faster, better, more relevant content for their subscribers, at a lower cost.

Several AI applications are trying to make their mark in this space. Optimail, for example, optimizes email campaigns through adaptive personalization.  Phrasee, on the other hand, focuses on subject lines, and their technology has expanded to all sorts of copy/content.

The best thing about AI technologies is that they add the human touch in the mail, without actually deploying a human for it.

AI helps create deeper connections with your subscribers, through more personalized user experiences and invokes more emotion with its language. 

3. Chatbots/conversation:

Chatbots have been around for quite some time but picked up the pace during 2017, to become one of the top e-mail marketing trends to follow.

The users want to have long and engaging conversations with digital assistants who can guide them through a portal, answer their queries or get feedback. chatbots can go a long way to provide great value to both your business and users.

As a marketer, you will be able to use specific data from your users to ensure a more fulfilling experience.

Make sure that chatbots remain true to their purpose, of being virtual assistants, and not annoying sales guy who keeps on making suggestions, caring little for the customer’s preferences.  

4. Kinetic e e-mail:

Kinetic e-mail, one of the newest trends in e-mail marketing, introduces a new layer of interactivity to the email experience. Some of the most well-known examples of the kinetic email include hover buttons, hotspots; add to order carts, image carousels, and other features.

These emails are visually more appealing than traditional mails, and also more effective for encouraging subscribers to engage with the brand and its products.  

5. GDPR:

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which becomes operative from May 25, 2018, is also one of the hottest e-mail marketing trends. The GDPR is intended to strengthen data protection and privacy rules for recipients in the EU.

The GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation, represents undoubtedly the most substantial change in data protection regulations in the past 20 years.

The GDPR also represents the opportunity for companies to improve the quality of their database and the success rate of their email marketing campaigns. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that the GPDR is your opportunity to send a better email and align with inbound.  

So, which one do you think is the coolest of them all? Share with us your views on e-mail marketing trends that have made a difference.