How Email Marketing Will Change in 2020
Reading Time: 5 minutesThis article was last updated on September 10, 2020
Step back into time to 2010, a decade ago. Can you remember how you used email? Chances are, email was used mostly for professional purposes, and you were just starting to see your email evolving to be used for numerous activities. Fast forward to today, 2020, a decade later, and what don’t you use email for?
Almost every website you go to, you are probably prompted to a page that asks for your email address. We use email for personal use, professional use, and to stay in touch and up to date with our favorite brands. When Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, predicted email to be dead in just a few years, she couldn’t have been more wrong. In 2020, we predict email marketing to be even bigger! Here are a few changes you should expect to see in this year in email marketing:
Marketers will have to adjust to an entirely new audience: Machines
We know what you are thinking: There is no way we will have to cater to machines as an audience. But really, did you believe devices like Alexa or Google Assist would be there to complete commands like turning off the lights or reading you the latest information? Technology only continues to advance, and you can expect this technology to expand into emails.
For instance, you could be out of water bottles in your house and then communicate with Alexa so that she emails your grocery list to an app. Brands must be ready for this new form of communication.
Email technology will never die, but emails may not be seen by human eyes. Emails will next be seen by the machines that consumers are using. To cater to this new audience, marketers will have to alter the way they message and adopt new tools. Perhaps emails should make more use of standardized data formats.
Push Notifications Are the Future
The most significant change we have recently seen (and will continue to see) is the number of people that are using mobile devices rather than desktops to utilize email. In fact, 55 percent of email users are now using mobile devices for email. As you can imagine, the design of an email will not be the same for someone who is reading an email on a large screen, and those who are reading emails on a 4-6 inch screen. The copy included in your emails should cut back, and all emails should focus on a call-to-action. Instead of containing so much text, focus on adding graphics or images, which include a call-to-action button so that your customers can easily do what you want them to do.
In comparison, using push notifications you can send shorter, personalized and more convertible messaging to your customers without worrying about spam filters and deliverability.
If you think emails are becoming too short as we alter the content for mobile devices, think about how the email will begin to change as more users use apple watches and screens in cars to read emails. If you thought your emails were getting too short, just wait: they will get shorter.
Mailable Microsites
Consider how much email has changed. When you first began your email campaigns, you used email strictly as a form of communication to stay in touch with your audience. Now, we are so focused on generating leads by directing our readers to our site in hopes of getting them to make a purchase. That is soon to change, as well. In the near future, it is unlikely that users will even make it to the website. In the future, you can expect users to make purchases within your email. This change is huge for marketing departments. What this means is that email marketing will have an even more significant ROI.
Analytics have shown increased engagement levels from users who receive interactive messages. Moving forward, your emails should continue to be interactive so users can complete what you want them to do (make a purchase) as conveniently as possible.
AI and Data-Driven Email Marketing
In the 2020s, we will expect to see our daily lives influenced by artificial intelligence (AI) in big data. AI has already made its mark on email marketing. For instance, one of the most significant factors in the success of your email depends on subject lines. If you don’t excel in your subject line, the rest of your email is basically down the drain. Marketing tools today utilize artificial intelligence to determine the best performing subject lines to decide what should be used in their emails. For now, you can use artificial intelligence for your subject lines, but later on, in the decade, you can expect artificial intelligence to ensure performance. This interjection will help to send more personalized emails to your audience and better target your audience.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content is a strategy that is essential for the success of your emails, right at this moment. You can expect this trend to stay. Consumers today are so reliant on authenticity. After years of being bombarded with paid advertisements and brands doing just about anything to make a sale, your users appreciate and trust the content that is delivered to them by other people. User-generated content is anything that is created by other customers or followers rather than someone from your organization.
The user-generated content you can include can be reviews or testimonies. If you do not include user-generated content, you can expect your customers to go somewhere else where they can find user-generated content. If you don’t include user-generated content in your emails, there is a good chance your customer will click out of your email or website, head to Google or Amazon, to research your product. At this point, they are more interested in the product rather than your brand. So, there’s a good chance your competitor will catch their eye, and you will miss out on a sale.
MailBakery: Keeping You Ahead of Your Competitors
Now is the time to excel in your email marketing strategy. If you are overwhelmed with all of this change, we encourage you to stay up to date with the latest trends because email marketing is bound to face significant changes in this next generation.
Keeping up with such changes might be overwhelming at times, however there are many popular digital marketing podcasts that allow us to stay updated with the newest practices and tips in a casual setting. Some of those focus on email marketing and share valuable insights and strategies.
At MailBakery, we are passionate about creating extraordinary designs and coding them into compelling emails and newsletters. Looking to stay ahead of your competitors? Work with MailBakery to deliver the most powerful emails to your audience!