10 Hot Email Marketing Trends for 2017

Email marketing: it’s something dozens of marketers want to get better at, but have a hard time predicting — and rightfully so. Because digital marketing is constantly changing, the top trends and best practices can be tough to keep up with. Fortunately, knowing what’s trending can get you a head-start in the coming year.

10 Relevant Email Marketing Trends for 2017

Whether you’re new to marketing or looking for ways to enhance your strategy, being familiar with these marketing predictions can help.

1. Context-Driven Emails

Context-driven emails are emails that are driven by personalization and customer context. Because they are typically sent to segmented lists, context-driven emails seek to respond directly to a person’s recent action, consideration or need for value. They’re consistent and specifically designed for a target group of customers. They are ideal for encouraging someone who’s just joined your email list to make their first purchase, or bringing an existing customer back for a big sale. Context-driven emails are a critical part of any good marketing strategy.

2. Shorter, More Relevant Content

While emails are an effective way to land a spot in a customer’s inbox, staying short, sweet, and relevant is critical. This year, marketers will focus less on sending a lot of emails, and more on sending emails that matter.

This involves taking personalization to a new level. Use strategies like geo-targeting and demographics to ensure all email copy is relevant. What’s more, companies will begin to use platforms like WhatsApp and WeChat to communicate with clients and customize their email strategies.

3. Social Sharing Buttons in Email Bodies

NonProfit Hub reports that emails with embedded social sharing buttons see a 150% boost in click-through rates. Not only is this a massive ROI, it also means that more marketers will be using the body copy of their emails to embed social sharing buttons. In addition to giving customers more ways to interact with your brand, integrating social share buttons can also make your emails more interesting and supplement your offers and content.

4. Video Content

Social video is currently exploding across all forms of marketing. From full-length videos to short GIFs, video can increase click-through rates. It also makes emails more relevant and exciting to viewers.

5. An Increased Focus On Interactive Content

Interactive content, like video, is critical for a good email. By giving customers something to interact with, companies can enhance the appeal of their emails and engage customers more effectively. What’s more, including interactive content can increase email share rates and promote brand recognition. By including interactive content, your customers will feel as if they have a role within your brand story — further boosting engagement.

6.  Machines to Choose Targeted Content

In 2017, many companies are using algorithms and machine learning to understand subscriber behavior. In doing so, they plan to select targeted content that will appeal to a segment of their user base. As an expansion on the existing concept of buyer personas and personalization, machine learning is helping to make marketing more customized. Further, it’s cutting down on the fluff and decreasing the number of irrelevant emails customers receive.

7. Cross-Channel Measurements

Today, big data is making its way into marketing. We want to send the right content to the right people at the right time. Big data can be used to create actionable signals that allow implementation of cross-channel measurement. A popular trend among big brands, this approach is slowly making its way into the strategies of smaller companies and startups.

8. Predictive Lead Scoring Technology

Thanks to data born from trackable website behavior, companies are beginning to utilize predictive lead scoring in their marketing efforts. One big player in this endeavor is more in-depth subscriber sheets. While marketers used to collect only email addresses, today’s companies are gathering more information at the time of subscription. This helps them score leads, target their on-boarding programs, and deliver more customized company content.

9. Chatboxes

Chatboxes are becoming a critical medium for companies to meet their customer service needs. These useful tools allow companies to provide targeted and highly-customized attention for every client. Because they are simple, easy-to-use, and applicable to virtually every platform, chatboxes are shaping email marketing. It’s happening the same way conversational e-commerce platforms like WhatsApp are. They make the process more personalized, instant, and more helpful for customers.

10. Profile-Based Segmentation

Advanced profile-based segmentation is the process of dividing your customer base into different demographic lists. It allows marketers to take their list segmentation one step further and ensure relevant content. Not only does today’s profile-based segmentation consider factors like what time users open emails and how many emails they open, but also where the emails come from, and more. Once this information is collected, it’s integrated with other platforms to ensure specificity and relevance for all customers. Keeping up with this new technology will help companies market in an intelligent, efficient manner.

Smarter Email Marketing in 2017 and Beyond

These ten email trends shine a light on the future of marketing. The industry is tilting towards deeper personalization, more relevant content, and more carefully curated lists. These technologies and trends make marketing more enjoyable for customers and more lucrative for marketers.

Don’t let your business fall behind on the new trends in marketing. To learn more about email marketing, or to partner with a team who can help you grow your efforts this year, contact Thrive Internet Marketing.