Email Marketing Trends and Ideas for 2017

Email keeps growing - and in 2017 that trend shows no signs of stopping. More and more content, whether informational, marketing or transactional is getting transferred around the globe and people are receiving, reviewing and sometimes getting lost in the sea of messages they get every day.

In the mix is also a concern for increasing spam rates and how to combat the issue and protect your privacy and inbox relevancy.

With a trend for increasing email in general, here are some thoughts on how to approach bulk email sending in 2017.

Stop selling, start telling

If you're sending marketing mail, chances are you're trying to sell something - and if you're trying to sell something then you're likely using big images, a lot of CTAs, colorful icons and large fonts.  But let's stop for a minute...

Are fancy images and large fonts enough to grab your subscriber's attention and encourage them to make a purchase?

Today, many people have a few inboxes, but also another folder - the spam folder. You don't want your mail ending up there. You can start by following these tips.

In addition, that folder may end up filled with an email that is similar to yours, offers, promotions, deals - So - it's obvious that you need to do more to be noticed.
But what exactly you should do? Create a great story to tell your subscribers. Stories related to interesting news, important people, trends, something touching, funny or sad.
Speak to your subscribers' hearts, because an emotional connection can help you increase your sales.

Personalization and automation - dust off these words

Emails are a perfect way to keep your subscribers attention on your brand or company. But you will not be able to do this if you will send the same message to all of your subscribers.
You've seen some great examples of marketing emails and you know that they are different. Not only because of the sender, but also because of its content and design. Personalizing your email can be part of what makes your email better. You may have heard that before, but maybe you forgot how useful it can be.

If you want to stay in the forefront of your subscriber's thoughts, start sending personalized messages at optimum times with offers for solutions to problems.
In Elastic Email, we have a powerful segmentation tool that will help you pinpoint subscribers with specific qualities so you can better create emails that target their needs.

The more data about your subscribers you have, the better campaigns you can send. The future in email marketing is about collecting and using data, and then, creating segments based on subscribers' loyalty level, the monthly budget they have, gender, age, hobby, profession or their place of residence.

Finding, analyzing and preparing emails based on targeted information can seem intimidating, but it's worth the time and effort.

Stop begging for email addresses...

... and use the right tools to get addresses for your list.
You've probably seen a pop-up window or two - If used correctly, they can be an effective way to build your contact list.

Of course, they can also be frustrating, especially when you see a lot of them in the one place! Too many can create frustration and should be avoided. Also, keep in mind that pop-ups on mobile devices will need to be responsive and well tested. Focus more on such elements that include information input, buttons, and general layout. You also need to make sure people can close the pop up easily or they will get frustrated and this discourages them from continuing to interact with your site.

Be everywhere and be relevant

As a marketer, you know that if you are focused on only one channel, you can't keep up with your competitors. This means that it's valuable to be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or Snapchat or another combination of well knows social platforms. It's also worth thinking about platforms that are dedicated to your targeted or specific groups of customers.

In 2017, marketers are trying to reach customers in a variety of different ways, but the most important focus is still the ability to tailor your content according to your customer's preferences. The bond between informational sources like email newsletters and social media will continue to get stronger.

So, one of the biggest challenges for email marketers in 2017 is to continue to build the connection and integration between and on all your marketing platforms so you that you can build the most cohesive and relevant email campaigns.

Surprise your subscribers

If you are wondering what it means to create "Engaging content", let us help you figure it out.

For 2017, a move towards more interactive and dynamic content is going to help you create better experiences for your contacts. Marketers will need to work more on building emails that include features like photo galleries, quizzes, surveys, and videos to encourage more engagement and interest.

Keep working hard to provide your subscribers with some fun, make the curious or elicit some emotion. Part of the joy is anticipating - and you want your subscribers looking forward to your emails, just like they look forward to that first warm touch of the summer sun.

To summarize everything - learn as much as you can about the people you're marketing to and stay in the game by keeping an eye on your competitors, new technologies, and social media trends.

You can improve your next marketing campaign by rethinking your strategies and including the next generation of email marketing tools and ideas that will keep you on target for 2017.
And if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us!