Email Marketing Outlook for 2017

Even though video, pay per click, and other marketing techniques are extremely popular, the one constant in the digital marketing world is email. Many thought email marketing would be dead by now, but that's just not the case. Mobile devices have a lot to do with email being alive and well, with approximately 55% of emails being opened on the go. Another interesting stat in favor of email marketing is that over 80% of US online shoppers are more likely to make additional purchases, either online or in a store, as a result of emails. You might be surprised that email is more effective at obtaining new customers than social media, although it is still important to have a presence on social platforms as well. Even though social media marketing is a favorable method for connecting with people and drive engagement, it doesn't bring on as many new clients as a good email campaign. It could be because there are three times more email accounts than Facebook and Twitter accounts combined , at 2.9 billion. A high percentage of email marketers claim that it provides a positive return on investment, and over 50% of internet marketers say that email outperforms social media. The ongoing changes being made on social media make paid advertising a roller coaster ride.  It seems to be more complicated than ever to convert a connection into a client. But email marketing hasn't really changed as a solid way to engage and build a list of fans. This post from martechadvisor.com provides insight on the future of email marketing:

In Trying Times, Email Still Cuts Through the Dissonance in Digital Marketing | MarTech Advisor

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="301"] Image from martechadvisor.com[/caption]

Publishers still have the horror embedded in their collective memory as they watched helplessly as Facebook’s shift to prioritizing personal content over business updates sank their engagement rates. A similar effect from Instagram’s algorithm change signaled the end of organic reach on a platform once heralded for having the highest social engagement of all platforms. Social media now requires significant investment, both in time and money, to successfully reach an audience. With this in mind, it’s hard to ignore email marketing’s ROI of 3800%, harder still to ignore that it's still the fastest-growing channel for ROI.

Nevertheless, reaching an audience isn’t enough; in a data-driven world, getting your audience on board means nothing if you don’t have the right numbers to support your claims of engagement. Facebook’s admission that it inflated its video reporting did little to help their rocky relations with advertisers, but Facebook isn’t alone in providing flawed metrics. Thin, inconsistent reporting capabilities plague many content outlets. From conversions to click rates, the powerful metrics available through email service providers paint a clear picture of email marketing efforts. Read the original post here:  In Trying Times, Email Still Cuts Through the Dissonance in Digital Marketing | MarTech Advisor

Some important pointers for writing a good email series is targeting the right audience, personalizing your approach and following up regularly to nurture your list. It is also critical to perform split testing to see what subject line and content works best. Even more far-reaching is to make sure your email is mobile friendly. Some other key elements to consider are line length. Emails do better when there are only 40 to 60 characters per line with shorter paragraphs. This video provides five tips for creating a solid email campaign:

Will email marketing continue to be a great source of ROI? The experts tend to think it will, but they agree that it will transform into a more personalized experience with easier user interface and better automation. This will likely be accomplished using technology advancements like machine learning to help better target and segment your audience. This post by martechadvisor.com offers the opinions of industry experts on the email marketing outlook for 2017:

The future of email marketing 2016 edition | Email marketing consultant | Email Monday -

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] Image via emailmonday.com[/caption]

What will be the most interesting developments and trends in the coming years? Industry experts share their views on the future of Email Marketing & Marketing Automation.

René Kulka – “hyper-personalization” is becoming a reality. Specialist third-party services pop up in deliverability, testing, live content, remarketing, predictive analytics, email advertising & customer intelligence. Dave Chaffey – Guidance for triggered marketing sequences is a necessity. Effective experiences will form the starting point. Tom De Baere – Consumer expectations are pushing marketing automation technology vendors, while enterpise supplier-agency-model is needed for digital transformation. Jordie van Rijn – Email marketing and marketing automation will be stealing from each other. “Functional Chunks” will be the next step in modular evolution. Stewart Rogers – No big changes in the email marketing ecosystem through 2016. Yet personalisation will be the bigger trend. Parry Malm – The new focus on optimising is a huge movement in the industry. Innovation will come from outside the industry feature-set arms race. John Caldwell – Easier multi-channel multi-touch campaigns thanks to better UI. While mid-market platforms are proven big game hunters. David Raab – Widespread integration of machine learning. It will become substantially easier to import third party data to enhance the marketer’s own (first party) information about her customers. Todd Lebo – Technological advancement of marketing tools will be extremely valuable, while 59% of marketers are only using a limited amount of the marketing automation tools. Read the full post here:  The future of email marketing 2016 edition | Email marketing consultant | Emailmonday 

Building a list and nurturing them is key to online marketing sales. Since the subject line is the first thing they see, it is important that you grab their interest with a brief but compelling title that offers value. Through your followup emails, you need to build the trust of your supporters by providing relevant information and solid programs that will keep them opening your emails.  

Email Marketing Outlook for 2017 was originally published to www.ssprosvcs.com