The top email marketing trends of 2018

What’s new in email marketing? 

We will break down this year’s top trends for you to take advantage of in your own email marketing strategy.

Personalization and targeting

While personalization in email marketing is nothing new, it is becoming increasingly important for marketers. The 2017 Email Marketing Industry Census shows that 80% of email marketers use segmentation in their strategies. The ability to send personalized, targeted messages that reflect what your audience really wants to know will supercharge your email marketing efforts in 2018.

Learn more about the benefits of personalized marketing here.

Mobile-friendly design

Making sure your emails are mobile-friendly is a bit of a no-brainer in 2018, but many businesses are focusing on mobile optimization this year.

The level of importance that mobile optimization plays depends on your industry. For example, most of our member businesses read email on their computer, not their phone, since they’re often opening our emails at work. In fact, only 29% of our email opens are on mobile devices.

While this can be seen in many B2B industries, B2C businesses see a much higher percentage of email opens on mobile. In fact, mobile email opens can account for as much 61% of your total opens according to some sources.

Many businesses are just now catching up to the smartphone phenomenon of the past decade by implementing basic mobile optimization in their emails. However, some businesses will be using 2018 to really focus on the growing number of customers opening  emails on their mobile devices. In fact, 33% of marketers said they were adopting a mobile-first strategy.

No matter what your percentage of email opens are on mobile, everyone can benefit from mobile optimizations like:

  • Responsive email templates that look great on mobile and desktop
  • Shorter subject lines and content that is easily digested on mobile
  • Making calls to action and buttons easy to tap as well as click

Interactive emails

Giving your customers a better experience from beginning to end is an important marketing goal. By doing so, you have a better chance of converting leads into customers and customers into brand advocates.

One place that can use improvement is email marketing. A great way to do that is making emails more interactive by using one of the following tactics:

  • Hover-over animations
  • Animated gifs that show product features or functionality
  • Quizzes and surveys
  • Add to cart buttons or in-email registration
  • Games or videos

As long as your interactive features aren’t distracting, making an email more interactive can increase engagement with your business throughout a customer’s lifecycle.

Automation

According to research by GetResponse, 65.5% of marketers are already using basic email automation. However, most marketers aren’t using automation to significantly change the way they send emails.

Automation in your email marketing can mean anything from autoresponders and welcome emails, to advanced tactics like dynamic content based on user profiles.

There are many benefits to marketing automation, but the main ones include improved targeting of messages, improved customer experience and improving return on investment in marketing.

If you are going to consider marketing automation make sure you find a software provider that fits your needs and budget as some platforms can get pricey.

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from investing in their email strategy. Campaign Monitor reported an average $44 return on investment for every $1 spent on email marketing. Even as trends change, email is predicted to remain a top strategy for brands across all industries and sectors.

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