Back in
1971, when the first email was sent by computer engineer Ray Tomlinson, no one
could have predicted it would become an effective digital marketing strategy to
interact with existing and potential customers.
With the
total number of 2.5 billion email users worldwide, email marketing is a great
tool to reach out to your target audience, deliver a brand message, keep in
touch with your readers, acquire customers, and even provide customer support,
no matter what your business niche is.
With a
great number of bulk mails and unsolicited spam, your letter may get buried in
the inbox or annoy your potential customers. In other words, it takes knowledge
and practice to run a successful email marketing campaign.
Why bother
about email marketing in 2020?
While it
seems difficult to cut through the noise with email marketing, 59% of marketers
still see the most ROI from email. Why? The numbers speak for themselves:
- 61% of customers want brands to provide them with information via email
- 59% of consumers claim that marketing emails influence their purchase decisions
- 49% of users say that they want to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands on a weekly basis
Interested
in making the most out of email marketing? Read on to learn what six trends can
help you drive more sales.
Six email
marketing trends that can drive more sales in 2020
1)
Minimalist email design
Since users
receive a great number of brand emails, it’s crucial for any business to stand
out from the crowd. When it comes to creating eye-catching emails, most people
believe that bright and colorful images can attract attention. However, plain
text emails are better as they are more authentic and clear. Thus, it’s no
wonder that minimalist email design helps to sell more.
In the era of paid posts and overly-polished ads, customers crave authenticity, so sending simple emails helps to humanize your brand and establish an emotional connection with customers. That also means that companies can stay one step ahead of their competitors who focus on their products, not the customers and their needs. To sum up, the minimalist email design helps to:
Optimize email load time
Deliver a
polished brand message
Keep a
focus on the offer, not the image
Let’s take
a look at Calvin Klein. In honor of Mother’s Day, the company ran an email
marketing campaign to provide customers with gift ideas and share a promo code
to encourage them to take action faster. With minimalist email design, it
doesn’t take much time or effort to get the main idea of the message. Moreover,
the company helps both offline and online shoppers make the most out of the
offer: Since 70% of consumers report using an emailed discount within, it also
increases sales.
When you
send minimalist design emails, you gain more customers’ attention to the offer,
not the image. As a result, you share a clear brand message with your audience
that helps to sell more.
2) Hyper-personalized automated campaigns
In 2020,
email marketing will be not about having a one-size-fits-all approach to
reaching your audience. With a focus on psychology, brands can increase an open
rate if they put their clients first and think about their individual problems.
It’s in our nature to talk much about ourselves and our interests, so it’s no
wonder that remembering someone’s name is a proven way to convince people to
buy from you.
And when it comes to email marketing, hyper-personalized automated campaigns are the future of personalization that gives great results: Segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. With hyper-personalization, companies can consider browsing behavior and real-time data to send highly-relevant emails.
In the case
of ASOS, the company knows that visitors leave their website for a variety of
reasons, and sending a customized offer can help to remind the visitors about
their intent. Moreover, with automated campaigns, it’s easier to collect the
right data and deliver the right message without spending much effort and time.
3)
Mobile-first optimization
The number
of mobile phone users is predicted to reach 7.26 billion in 2020. Using mobile
phones help modern people save their time and solve their various problems on
the go: From reading emails to making purchase decisions. Not only around 61%
of all emails are opened and read on mobile devices, but also 79% of mobile
users have made a purchase online with their device in the last 6 months which
means customers are ready to learn more about your product and buy it with the
gadget.
But here
comes the ugly truth: only 20% of email campaigns are optimized for mobile
devices. This means customers can’t read your email and it gets buried in the
inbox.
A
well-optimized email is clean and simple to look great on smartphones. Once you’ve
optimized your email for mobile, you’re more likely to increase the email
click-through rate.
Mobile
email marketing is taking the world by storm, so optimizing your email campaign
for mobile devices is a must if you want to deliver your brand message and
increase sales.
In the
multitude of social media platforms, it seems every user has found a network to
join. The number of social media users is constantly growing: According to
Emarsys, about 42% of the population (3.2 billion users) are on social media.
For brands, this means an alternative way to reach their target audiences,
establish a connection with them, and deliver the brand message without being
too salesy.
To make the
most out of your email marketing, it’s important to integrate it with social
media as people use networks to discover products and read customers’ reviews.
Moreover, modern customers crave peer recommendations before making the
purchase decision, so working with Instagram nano- and micro-influencers is a
great way to leverage reviews, and therefore start selling on Instagram.
In
partnership with fashion influencers, Lulus ran an email marketing campaign
that combined referral email marketing and social media: Sharing photos of
opinion leaders who wear Lulus clothes, the company could prove its popularity
and credibility.
What is
more, the brand added a brand hashtag and social media buttons to let its
subscribers know how to find the company on social media. When brands interact
with shoppers on social media, these people spend 20-40% more money to buy from
them which means more sales for companies. Thus, combining email marketing and
social media is a great way to promote your products, earn customer trust, and
get better results.
5) Video
content popularity
Over the
last few years, video content has gained in popularity. Today, people spend
much time watching videos online and it has become one of the most favorite
types of content for the majority of consumers. For 90% of customers, product
videos are helpful in the decision process: With video content, it’s easier to
show off your product, explain how to use it, and even build brand authority.
And if you
want to create interactive emails that deliver business results, make videos a
part of your email marketing strategy. Plus, more and more brands use motion
graphics to show off products.
nstead of
selling its products with video, the company invites fashion gurus to share their
tips and tricks that can help their target audience live a better life. As a
result, the brand gains credibility in a creative way, and it becomes the
number one option when it comes to making purchase decisions.
Several video content ideas for your email marketing campaign:
- Product unboxing
- Product review
- Tutorials
- New product launch announcement
- Expert roundups
- Niche trends and tips
6) Brand
storytelling
It’s the
era of brand authenticity: With a great number of overly-polished ads, modern
customers look for a genuine brand with real people behind it. Thus, it’s time
to humanize your brand if you want to sell more with the power of brand
storytelling to hook your subscribers and engage them.
Stories
have a great impact on our perception as they are 22x more memorable than
facts. Moreover, brand storytelling helps to create an emotional bond with your
subscribers, humanize your brand, build brand authenticity, hold customers’
attention, influence consumer behavior.
With the
help of email marketing, the company takes subscribers behind the scenes to
show people who stand behind their brand. Although the email invites
subscribers to take a look at tips from the experts, it tells the story, and
therefore it humanizes the brand and hooks audience.
In a Word
Email
marketing is still a powerful tool to drive sales if it’s done right. To stand
one step ahead of your competitors and ensure your subscribers will love your
email campaigns, think about their needs and give email marketing trends a try.
After all, knowing trends is a great way to deliver your message the way your
subscribers want to get it.
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