Email Marketing Trends That Impact Your Email Marketing Strategy

Good old faithful, email marketing. New, trendy online marketing strategies are constantly being introduced, which provides incredible opportunities for us marketers. However, none of these tactics should be used to replace email marketing in your marketing plan. Email marketing is still very effective, and has an average return on investment of $44.25 for every dollar spent¹. But, email marketing has evolved, and as such, so should your email marketing strategy. Understanding some of these email marketing trends can help make your email marketing efforts a success.

Mobile devices are really popular

Well, duh. But, did you know that about half of all unique email opens are on a mobile device²? And amazingly, 39% of marketers have no strategy for mobile email³. C’mon guys, get it together! By catering your emails to mobile users you can increase the reach and impact of your efforts. Make sure your email template is responsive or looks equally appealing on all mobile devices, including tablets. And don’t forget to send yourself a few tests before blasting your email lists.

Behavior-based and personalized email perform better

Don’t go sending emails such as, “Hi Johnathan Michael III, I saw you looked at our page about fly fishing bobbers on November 25, 2013 at 3:03:12 p.m. and thought you might be interested in this whitepaper,” because that’s just creepy. But when used properly, the right touch of personalization can significantly improve the performance of your email. In fact, personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened⁴. Additionally, the average click-through rate for triggered emails is more than double the rate for mass emails⁵. Consider enlisting a CMS or software to help you track visitor behavior on your site. Such information can provide valuable insight as to the problems individuals might be having or the products they’re interested in, allowing you to send them targeted content that is more likely to promote meaningful action.

Humans are social butterflies

Emails that include social sharing buttons have a 158% higher click-through rate⁶. So simply put, make sure they have a place in every single email you send. Including social sharing buttons in your emails not only breeds awareness of your participation on select social platforms, but it provides receivers the ability to easily share your content with 300 of their friends. But make sure you’re delivering content that people will actually want to share, such as important statistics, helpful tips and other content of that nature. Overall, social sharing can significantly increase the reach of a particular message, so take advantage of every opportunity to promote it.

Images are even more powerful than you think

We all love pictures, which is why they are almost always incorporated into our marketing communications. However, often times receivers of these messages are not greeted by an eye-catching stock image, but instead a giant white box with a red ‘x’ in the upper left corner accompanied by text that reads, “right click here to download pictures.” How disappointing. If marketers optimized their emails for image blocking, click-through rates and ROI would significantly increase, 9+% according to Convince&Convert. Make sure your images are of a reasonable file size, are optimized for web use and are supported by alternative text.

Short is sweet

Chances are your target audience is busy. If you write emails that are too lengthy, the only action you’re going to generate is your receiver hitting the delete button. Not quite what you were hoping for. Studies have shown that emails shorter in length are more likely to being read and receive clicks, so leave it up to your killer landing pages to deliver all the details. Some simple ways to tighten up your emails include having a clear headline, use bullet points when possible and focus on a single objective.

It’s essential that marketers understand these email marketing trends and apply them to their email marketing strategy, as when done properly, email marketing can be an incredibly effective way of achieving ongoing business and marketing goals.For more information about email marketing trends or help developing an impactful email marketing strategy, contact ZAG Interactive.

¹Direct Marketing Association

²Marketing Land

³eConsultancy

⁴Adestra July 2012 Report

⁵Epsilon

⁶Marketing Charts

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