The rise of digital marketing saw unprecedented growth globally. With an estimated growth of $786.2 billion by 2026, the industry offers immense potential for anyone breaking into the field. However, with more than 4 billion email users, almost half of the entire world’s population, email marketing offers a significant boost for businesses if used correctly.
Not to mention, it is cost-effective, highly scalable, and a must-have to grab your audience’s attention and establish meaningful connections with them. However, the market is cut-throat, and your target customer is probably receiving tons of marketing emails from your competition as well.
So, how do you stand out? By staying up-to-date with the latest trends and adapting to changes accordingly.
Email Marketing – A Brief Overview
The fascinating thing about email marketing is it’s not as new as you may think. The first time an email marketing campaign ran was in 1978 when a company sent out mass emails to about 400 recipients. But it was not until 1983 that it began to be used more widely. Fast forward to today, where we have so many channels, email marketing still holds strong as it has both a traditional touch and blends in well with modern usage.
Email Marketing Trends
Much of the trends often lead back to automation in email marketing but that’s not the only thing new. Let’s take a look at how some new trends have popped up.
1. Marketing in Uncertain Times
As we no doubt have seen the numerous layoffs and the impact of global inflation, marketing teams across companies think of optimization. During times of uncertainty, companies often strive to reduce their spending, and this takes a huge toll on marketing as their budget gets reduced a lot. So, marketers need to be quick on their feet and see how they can continue to market their services to the target audience without taking a hit.
In a report, it was found that email marketing was the number one trusted medium during an economic downturn. Over 41.80% of respondents feel safe that this medium gives people higher ROI. After all, you get $36 for every dollar spent in this medium.
2. Different Priorities with Metrics
As most marketers may know, open rates signify whether the emails written were able to capture the audience’s interest or not. Traditionally, they were seen as a measure to see how well campaigns influence marketing goals. However, this may change in the future. As new features have come into the market, such as tracking IP addresses, measuring this metric has become rather obsolete. Hence, through UTMs and attribution models, companies must plan on improving the efficiency of every mail to get the best results.
3. A New Dawn for Personalization
How many times have you received an email with your name only to find the contents to be generic? While these personalized emails may work for some, they might not work forever. As the average person receives over 100 emails, a slight personalized touch might not be enough. In the years to come, hyper-personalization will take the front seat as more consumers expect tailor-made recommendations rather than more generic ones.
However, the challenge lies in the implementation of such a measure as privacy and data collection need to be shared more freely by the user to the company. Furthermore, with customer data to be made more stringent on its availability, marketers must work with such factors to deliver a truly unique journey to each subscriber.
Ride With the Trends
Seeing how marketing trends evolve over the years, it is quite certain that email marketing might become more challenging in the years to come. However, as consumers and companies work together to create a more evolving ecosystem, the whole idea of email marketing will revolve around privacy, data, and ensuring best practices. The future of marketing is here now, and as we approach it, we should learn to ride with the trends.