Email Marketing Trends That Will Help You in 2018

Email marketing plays a huge role in business because it’s one of the main ways brands communicate with their audience. From updates and promotions, to retargeting strategies, email marketing does it all. In fact, it’s the most effective channel in terms of revenue generation for B2B marketers. For B2C marketers, consumers spend a lot more money when offered products through emails compared to those that don’t. So whether you’re auctioning off your old clothes or providing digital marketing services to the businesses down your block, email marketing has a place in your 2018 digital strategy.

1: Upward Mobility

Is isn’t enough to have your website optimized for mobile SEO. All aspects of your business need to be accessible through mobile, including and especially your brand’s emails! Today, more than 3.8 billion people use email globally and 54% of users are opening them through their mobile devices. This digital marketing trend is only going to grow, which means your team should be on top of this NOW!

One of the easiest ways to start optimizing your email marketing 2018 strategy for on-the-go users is to use templates that are especially designed for mobile. This requires little effort on your part and all you have to do is inquire with the agency that caters to your digital marketing services what these templates look like. Another way to approach email optimization is to use a responsive design. This means that no matter what kind of device your consumers are viewing your content on, everything will be sized appropriately.

2: Let’s Get Personal, Personal

Click. Delete. Click. Delete.

There goes another announcement about the same sale that’s been going on for three weeks. There goes another reminder to schedule a dentist appointment. There goes another notification about what your friends are doing on social media. While email marketing can be a great tool for businesses, users (and you can attest to this as well) can find it repetitive and overwhelming. Yet, among the hundreds of emails that get sent to our inboxes each day, there are a couple that always end up standing out.

Research has found that time and time again, the more personalized an email is, the more likely a user will open it. In fact, when email messages are personalized, they improve click-through rates by approximately 14%, and conversions by 10%. This is why personalization is one of the top email marketing trends 2018 has brought. Users want to know you care about their unique needs. Overall, 74% of marketers agree that targeted personalization increases customer engagement, and 66% are looking to drive more personalized marketing programs.

You can start your personalization efforts by asking your audience to fill out short surveys of what kind of content they want to see in their inbox. It’s a lot like mobile SEO, but for email. Some content will rank better than others based on how much it applies to the user, so let them choose their own preferences. Aside from content type, let them choose the kind as well. For example, it turns out that having the word “video” in the subject line of your email will boost open rates by 19% and CTRs by 65%! Play around with how you engage your audience by looking at the best email design trends 2018 has, but remember to keep it personal.

3: AI in Your Inbox

This should come as no surprise, but AI has been one of the biggest trends to take off in 2017 and will only grow more in 2018. But where does AI play a role in the best email marketing practices 2018 will see? The answer is in automation. Chad S. White, Research Director of Litmus and Author of Email Marketing Rules, says:

"The current advances in email automation are happening in an environment of increased integration across channels, across departments and across partners. Brands now have unprecedented insight into customer activity—insights that they are able to act on with automated emails that reach each customer at the right time—with exactly the right content for them."

AI can help with integration, personalization and even timing. If you’re a large corporate business that can’t afford to commit large amounts of time and manpower to customizing emails, AI will be your best friend. Automated emails with AI are slowly becoming one of the best email marketing practices because they’re a huge time saver. Nandini Rathi of VentureBeat notes that:

"Machine learning has made it easier to segment, with algorithms that can automatically identify the most prominent segments in your data that also hold the most promise. For example, if you are an apparel company selling to all age groups, machine learning might identify the age group that’s giving you the most conversion. Even a simple segmentation like this can help you boost your conversion overnight"

Allow AI to take over some part of your digital marketing services so your team can use their time to focus on other things like growing the business!

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These top email trends 2018 has in store will help you stand out among your users’ crowded inboxes. Instead of just sending updates, you have the chance to build a real relationship with your audience that could turn into a lifetime of loyalty. Seize this chance! Here are those top trends one more time:

1. Optimize your email marketing for mobile viewing so users can interact with your content while they’re on-the-go
2. Focus on email customization to drive engagement and click-through rates
3. Utilize AI’s benefits so you can interact with your users when they want and with what they want

Good luck and, as always, don’t forget to let us know how it goes!