Trendwatch: The Future of Email Marketing

Don’t believe those that say that email marketing is a thing of the past. Email still plays a vital role in the marketing mix, but marketers must get rid of the one-size-fits-all approach and cater to specific customer needs and wants. Here we explore some email marketing trends and provide some tips to consider when putting together your 2012 emarketing campaigns.

• Marketers need to think outside the box — the inbox that is — when it comes to their emarketing tactics. By definition, email marketing is electronic messaging. With many younger demographics moving away from the true inbox, marketers need to think of emarketing as electronic messaging in all forms including text.
• Many more subscribers are reading your emails on the go. Make sure your messages are readable on mobile devices. This also means you may need to condense your copy or format in a much more mobile-friendly manner.
• Avoid being marked as SPAM or placed on blacklists. There are many things you can do to avoid this, but a few small tips include being consistent in the way you format your emails, avoid lots of different colors, images and font styles; check for words that trigger SPAM filters (do a Google search for “spam word list”; always include an unsubscribe option and contact information.
• Integrate email marketing and social media. Use email marketing and text campaigns to grow your followers within social circles and use social channels to grow your subscriber lists.
• Give subscribers more control in what they want to receive. Allow interested customers to choose what information they want to receive. Personalize their messaging to help build stronger relationships.
• The top email marketing initiatives for 2012 are increasing subscriber engagement, improving segmentation and targeting and growing opt-in email lists.

Explore award-winning email campaigns from Travelocity, JetBlue, Citrix and more to get great ideas for effective email marketing campaigns.

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