Email Marketing in 2017
Email Marketing is one of the most effective as well as popular online marketing methodologies. As emails are the crux of modern communications system, they can be effectually utilized by organizations to improve the commercial interactions with all the stakeholders.
The utility of the emails lies in their ability to transmit a wide range of business content such as graphical ads, digital brochures or flyers, newsletters etc. It paves the way for organizations to use them as a specialized method to build relationships with their current or previous customers, prospects, and other target audience. This makes the email messages ideal for getting in touch with the leads, as well as nurturing and turning them into loyal customers.
When it comes to the need of convincing the prospects to buy the products or asking them the reason for abandoning the sale, emails can be highly valuable, as they allow for a lot of personalization.
For instance, they are only few marketing tactics that let companies address their customers by their name and also add enough customization to tackle their specific need and queries. The language used in emails is one-to-one, which also adds more objectification to the interactions.
Also, emails let the customers interact with the businesses just by logging into their personal email, which is quite easy for them. They can do this even through their mobile devices such as phones or tablets, making it quite convenient.
As it is easy to check the emails and respond to them on the go, both customers and enterprises find it suitable regular communication. Companies also find it easy to answer the specific queries of the customers, which customers can also respond to the detail surveys sent to them by these enterprises.
To be able to figure out the right way to strategize for an email marketing campaign, it is important to get an idea of the new trends that are gaining acceptance by the masses. Discussed below are some of them.
Trends and Predictions for Email Marketing 2017
1. While email marketing has been an ideal method for boosting customer loyalty, it has also proved itself as a compelling tool for repeating the business with current or past customers. The advent of mobile phones has added another opportunity to utilize the power of emails, which could be further harnessed in 2017. By integrating it with the mobile apps, brands can regularly send out business communication to their loyal customers and keep them engaged by offering new products.
2. The rapid increase in Mobile payments can also lead to further interfusion in 2017. As the number of people using the mobile for payments can continue to increase, the integration of fingerprint-based SDK (Software development kit) for payments with a user’s inbox could allow the direct option of mobile payments with just a simple tap on the mobile screen, and get instant confirmation in the inbox.
3. When it comes to encouraging them with the advantages of using the new offerings, the email can deliver the message in the exactly right tone and voice as the sender wants it, as well as at the precise time. On the other hand, it has been observed that the information collected through the mobile apps can be used to derive continues stream of the customer’s behavior. By combining these two, brands could well be able to identify the current and future needs of the customers precisely at the right time and email marketing can be effectively used to inform them about the customized offerings. This would add a sense of personalization to the customer’s experience and also increase the conversions.
4. The unique advantage of the emails makes them a potent option for remarketing in e-commerce. When sellers find that the visitors have abandoned their shopping cart on the e-commerce portal, they can track the behavior and the precise needs of the visitors, and then send them a personalized email with additional incentives if they complete the abandoned transaction. While it not only encourages the users to perform the intended action, which can boost the conversion rate, it also makes them feel special and can enhance the overall shopping experience.
Once the marketers are well versed with the latest happenings, it’s now important to focus on the details of coming up with a riveting campaigns. The following ideas can form the crux of a comprehensive strategy.
1. Email Marketing Strategy in 2017
In order to get started on using the email marketing as an essential aspect of the overall marketing strategy, you first need to get the required permission from the recipients to mail them your business communication or content. As most businesses seek to use the email lists they have bought from an ineligible third-party, it is not usually recommended. Also, sending the newsletters to people who have shared their business cards with you at public conferences may not be a good idea, unless you have express permission from them, as it would be considered as spam.
It should be noted that people who are not interested in receiving the emails from you, wouldn’t anyway be interested in buying from you either. Hence, using a preapproved list of recipients including a relevant target group is the way to go, which you can obtain from authorized professional email marketing services.
While there are a number of such email marketing solutions, discussed below are some of the leading ones. They have established their creditability and could continue to build on it in 2017.
MailChimp: It’s a well-known email marketing solution with an intuitive user interface, and is popular with start-ups and small businesses. While providing free services to businesses with less than 2000 subscribers, it also offers many useful features to create professional newsletters and forms as well as to build and track campaigns.
GetResponse: It is another popular email marketing service that offers some really sophisticated features such as webinars and other marketing automation options. Apart from the efficient templates to create and deliver your emails, it also provides innovative features that enable you to build and publish your landing pages for campaigns.
2. Creating and sharing engaging content
The art of email marketing lies in delivering the right content at the right time. While the timing can be a composite task to accomplish, the quality of the content can make all the difference and cannot be compromised at any given instance.
One of the latest trends that is fast catching up and could get popular in 2017 is the ability to send the micro site as an email. This micro site performs all its functions within the environment of your inbox, and can even allow customers to make purchases from their inbox, without having to visit the primary portal of the brand.
3. Personalization is the key
Most of the email marketing campaigns are carried out by sending out mass e-mailers to a long list of recipients. However, the emerging trend is to customize the content that caters to the specific need of the users. While mail-merge has always been there to ensure every recipient get the mail addressed in their name, personalization essentially is about avoiding a ‘spammy’ look to the content.
The focus must be on making the content much more engaging and credible. Also, marketers can do well by finding a healthy balance between the content, which can be broadly classified as promotional and value addition. While too much promotional content is not good for obvious reasons, even too much of value-addition can be hard to digest.
Key Takeaways
- As the number of interesting features being added to the email marketing platform is on the rise, email marketing as a digital marketing strategy is far from being obsolete.
- On the other hand, 2017 may witness its position being consolidated as one of the most effective marketing tactics integrated with many more advanced features.