Targeted email marketing remains a big opportunity to build lists and get people in the door, and new technologies are set to make it more impactful
While social media, voice search, video and artificial intelligence (AI) are all the rage, email is holding it’s own in the marketing realm according to new statistics.
Consumers spend five hours a day checking email according to the 2019 “Adobe Email Usage Study.”
“While it’s important to note that the time we spend checking email overall has declined since 2016, the frequency remains substantial,” says Adobe VP of Global Marketing, Digital Experiences Sarah Kennedy, on targeted email marketing. “This means there is still a big opportunity for marketers to utilize email to engage with people in relevant and useful ways.”
Of that email-opening time period the study cited 80% work emails being opened during a day.
Respondents to the survey said they opened only 25% of emails from brands, citing off-target topics, already-purchased products or just poor pitches.
Millennial personalization
Approximately half of Millennials said they wanted personalized emails from brands, with Generation X not far behind.
“It’s no secret that customers now expect personalized experiences both online and off,” Kennedy said on targeted email marketing. “Accurate and useful personalization in email marketing is a must…Forget about mass emails to your entire subscriber list.”
Almost 1/3 of Millennials and Gen Z say they check personal email multiple times per hour.
Targeted email marketing and social media graphics
Graphic trends heading into the coming years will lean towards minimalism according to Social Media Today.
They predict color palettes will be more muted, and that the website trend of minimal landing pages (think giant photos featured) will extend to targeted email marketing and social media graphics.
AI applications and added-on benefits to software packages will let retailers and companies target individuals to a greater extent, especially off of conversations and web posts. Animations are predicted to include an increased amount of branding, with heavier fonts taking over online to catch more eyeballs.
Email strategy
While email holds firm as a marketing tool, Business2Community predicts email strategy will morph over the coming years to reflect increased technological applications, more data and more data access.
They cite 400 million more email users around the world than all social media platforms combined, and that we will continue to interact with email through new technologies such as smart speakers and non-desktop applications.
The population is also getting older in the U.S. and other wealthier countries. Older people are email-ingrained, and smart speakers allow those with sight restrictions to maintain access.
Forward-thinking marketers will be looking to accommodate older users and smart speaker users in general with their targeted email marketing as smart speakers will likely continue to grow quickly in popularity. Alt-text on images then becomes all the more important as they are read aloud, as does clear and concise language in messaging.
AI is being used to determine the best subject lines for e-newsletters, and is already used to determine what is the best time of the day to send a certain type of e-newsletter. One day AI will create the entire e-newsletter, text and pictures, optimized for best results.
As you you’re probably relize to your delight or dismay, users are already followed around the internet, pitched ads based on past purchases or websites visited or — as some are accusing — conversations captured by smart speakers.
All this is causing email marketers to rethink their targeted email marketing approach to keep up with the latest technologies — and their competitors.
