Trendwatch
Email has matured as a valuable marketing channel for many businesses. In the old days, utilizing a “batch and blast” method from your Microsoft Outlook program was standard operating procedure. Then spam became a problem and ISPs, consumers and even the government fought back against spammers abusing the email channel. Today, serious marketers utilize a third party email service provider to execute their email campaigns. This enables legitimate marketers to execute email campaigns in a sophisticated manner. Let’s examine trends in the world of email and how the landscape is changing.
One of the biggest trends is the proliferation of multiple marketing channels and determining how email fits in. Mobile marketing and social media have made some people pause and even consider email becoming obsolete. However, nothing could be further from the truth as it has been found that email actually increases in combination with these other channels. However, that doesn’t mean email should increase just for the sake of it. Determining consumer communication preferences among existing channels is the best practice and leads to our next trend.
Consumer’s demand for control is growing, and email marketers’ response to this demand is creating a trend. Allowing subsribers to specify how and where they want to receive specific types of messages creates a win-win situation for consumers and marketers. In addition, consumers are now able to select the type of content they are interested in. When marketers relinquish this control, consumers tend to stay engaged longer. Keep in mind this is a growing trend as many email marketers have not realized that content and channel relevancy is of prime importance. A recent study by the CMO Council reported that the number one reason people unsubscribe from email newsletters is lack of relevancy. Another study by Forrester Research asked consumers “What would you like to be able to do with email that you can’t today?” and the number one answer (64 percent of respondents) stated they would like to have better control over the junk email they receive. Reading between the lines, you can assume consumers are probably thinking all email that is not relevant and doesn’t allow for some sort of control is becoming junk email to them.
Another trend is the evolution of SPAM filtering. Many ISPs are adopting a variety of filtering methods such as complaint logging, sender reputation analysis and adaptive learning through user engagement that measures learned content preferences and specific behavior. This will lead to an increased need to measure inbox deliverability. Marketers will start to demand this service more from ESPs and other specialty service providers.
Email has proven itself as one of the most cost-effective marketing channels bar none. As more and more people adopt email as a primary marketing tool, the email landscape will continue to evolve as we have seen in the above trends. People that are successful today with email must keep up-to-date on these trends in order to maintain a competitive advantage. One thing you can count on is change and it will be interesting to see how the email space evolves in one, two and five years from now.
