Email marketing is more important and efficient than ever. Read on and find out why...
It’s true that consumers spend more time on social networks like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat and use Whatsapp and different Instant Messengers to interact with the brands they like rather than reading emails. Thus some marketers make the mistake of thinking that email marketing is obsolete in 2020.
The truth is that the opposite is the case. The relevance of email marketing in the modern marketing stack remains as prevalent as ever. According to Wishpond, around 307 billion emails will be sent each and every day in 2020. In the flood of the “digital overstimulation” on each and every device we utilize, checking your email happens in an organized manner. Everybody checks their emails but nobody consciously looks at different banners on a news site and clicks on them. Users pay attention only to a very small percentage of the digital content they are exposed to, but few emails go unnoticed.
Indeed, according to what we at Digipave have seen over the years, open rates for email newsletters are around 20% and for automation/ drip emails (like a welcoming series for a new newsletter subscriber or a recover your cart email from an eCommerce store) it’s around 30%. These are impressive numbers if you think about CTRs (click-through rates) of 1 or 2 percent on banners and the like in the best case.
The average CTR (click-through rate is the percentage of users that click on a link within the email) for most businesses falls between 1-3%. On social media, it’s a mere 0.07% on average according to Influencive. But how can a Marcom manager or a content specialist who handles email marketing on the side craft email campaigns that are as appealing and informative as a cool Instagram video? How can the next newsletter truly resonate with the interest of the subscribers or a specific segment of the subscriber list?
The potential is huge and there are a number of hot trends to be aware of in 2020. We put together the 5 most important ones:
Email automation
Using data to deliver the best and most relevant content to each individual user not only gives the user a smooth customer experience but also brings campaign performance to previously unimaginable levels. Think about those shoes you bought online and the email you got 10 min later featuring the matching socks at 50% reduction if you buy them the same day. With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning the levels of sophistication will only increase. Use automation to reach your goals.
Customer segmentation
Does it make sense to send the weekly newsletter to the full list of 100K subscribers? Not anymore. It matters whether a user opens your emails daily or if he hasn’t opened any of your last 20 newsletters. It makes a difference whether someone just subscribed or if they are one of the biggest and most loyal customers. It’s all about segmentation today. Dynamic segmentation uses real-time data to update your lists, based on the user’s latest interaction with your website. On a practical level, you have one master list and create as many sub-segments as needed. The same user can be in several segments. Example: Test User 1 is in the geographical segment US only plus in the segment of customers who have spent over $500 in the last month.
Build relationships, don’t advertise
While some brands choose to send out daily promotions with the best deals, in the end, they miss the component of relationship-building in their email marketing strategy. Continuously sharing blog posts about industry news, feature customers and customer-generated content such as Youtube or Facebook reviews are just as important as that $19.90 deal on Cyber Monday about which you send five email reminders. Building relationships creates a community, ensures higher open and click rates and increased customer loyalty.
Integration of email marketing with SMS and Messenger bot
When Klaviyo (one of the leading email marketing software solutions for Shopify ecommerce sites) announced their launch of text message marketing at their Boston conference in September 2019, it became clear that even in the digitally advanced eCommerce field, text message (SMS) marketing will play a part in the future. What’s more, Messenger bots, such as the one run by Facebook, have become an indispensable way to reach out to website visitors and engage them.
Subject line and call to action(s)
Everyone loves opening emails with an exciting subject line. There are ways to create excitement in the subject line by adding a call to action. For example, by adding scarcity (“only 10 items left”) or a sense of urgency (“sale ends in 12 hours”, “you don’t want to miss this”), open, click and conversion rates are likely to increase. Another proven tactic is highlighting that others are using a product or service as well. Examples: “This is how thousands of Americans use Example Product 1 to cut their gas bill” or “Join Influencer 1 and start using GetTaxi to get your kids to school”. A clear call to action (CTA) in the email helps to make sure that users not only look at the email but also take the desired actions.
When looking at these trends and at the emergence, growth and increased sophistication of email marketing platforms such as Klaviyo we can clearly see that the potential is huge.
Stay tuned for our next blog post - “15 Email Marketing Tips - How many did you know?” which will be published in a few days. Happy marketing!
Are there any other trends for 2020 that you came across recently? Leave a comment below and join the conversation.
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