If your New Year’s resolution for 2019 is to boost your revenue, you need to bump up your email marketing.
Email marketing isn’t dead. In fact, by 2020 email will be used by 3 billion people, that’s almost half of the world’s population. And with new technology, email marketing is only getting better. But if you want to take advantage of new email marketing tips and tricks, you need to keep up-to-date with the trends.
Consumers get a ton of emails in their inboxes — 10, 20, even 30 a day — and if your business’s emails are out of date and out of touch, consumers will pass you up in favor of a company whose emails are more current. So, what can you do to your email marketing next year that will help you beat the competition and capture the attention of consumers?
Let’s take a little look into the future, here are five email marketing trends to watch out for in 2019.
1. More personalization
Consumers are no longer swayed by seeing their name in the subject line or getting an email on their birthdays, in 2019 you’ll need to add more personalization to your email marketing if you want your campaigns to be successful. While adding the recipients name in the subject line and addressing them personally in your email is still important, what’s more important to consumers now is receiving emails that are relevant and timely to them.
With email marketing software you can store a wealth of information about the subscribers on your email list. So, instead of sending blanket email messages to your entire list, you can easily send more personalized messages to each segment of your email list. For instance, marketers can segment users based on location. If you’re an eCommerce store, you can send an email promoting your newest winter products to the email subscribers who live in cold climates. Think of how much more engagement and conversions you’ll get if the moment it starts snowing your subscribers in the northern states get a winter-themed message from you in their inbox.
Bonus Tip: If you’re still struggling to grow your email list, try using a tool like OptinMonster to create eye-catching popups that will encourage your website visitors to become subscribers.
2. Interactive emails
Interactive emails have grown in popularity over the past few years and they’re only going to get bigger in 2019. Instead of making consumers jump through hoops to take your desired action, like adding a link in your email to a survey on a landing page and hoping recipients click on it, you can add a survey right inside your email. Interactive emails increase engagement and encourage more consumers to take your desired action.
Image Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/increase-interactivity-emails/
You don’t have to stop at in-email surveys either, there are a number of ways you can make your emails more interactive including:
- Scratch cards – a fun way to uncover discounts
- GIFS
- Videos and interactive photos
- Accordions – to stack more content in one email
- Add to calendar options – for RSVPing to events
- And more
3. More automation
Using more automation in your email marketing in 2019 will not only save you time, but help you make more sales — even while you’re sleeping. For example, if you send out an email and a user clicks on a link inside that email, using an email marketing software you can automatically send them another email related to that link they clicked. This is an extremely effective strategy because you know by clicking on the first link that they’re interested in that particular content, product or service and with automation you can send them more relevant information to help you close the sale.
With email automation you can engage with consumers in real-time as they’re engaging with you, even if you’re not around. More and more busy business owners will be taking advantage of email marketing automation next year so they can focus on other aspects of the business, while still making sales and nurturing leads.
4. Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just for billion dollar companies anymore. In 2019, many businesses small and large will start using AI in their email marketing. Artificial intelligence can do many tasks better and faster than a human can do them. It doesn’t mean your emails will read like they were written by a robot either.
Artificial intelligence has the potential to quickly analyze the emails in your marketing campaign to help your campaigns be more successful than ever. For instance, AI could analyze which content each user is interested in most to help you send more relevant emails to each of your subscribers. AI could also let you know what subject lines and copy will resonate most with users. Artificial intelligence could even tell you at what time of the day each of your subscribers are most engaged with your email. This coming year, don’t be afraid of robots. We predict they’ll make your email marketing even smarter.
5. More casual tone and voice
According to statistics, Millennials are projected to overtake Baby Boomers as America’s largest generation in 2019. While Baby Boomers typically prefer a more professional tone and voice when it comes to emails, it’s less important for Millennials. In fact, many Millennials respond more to a casual — even fun — tone and voice. For instance, “Dear XXX” may have been an appropriate greeting for Baby Boomers, but a simple “Hey XXX” is more relatable to Millennials. So, expect email marketing to become more casual and fun this coming year.
Image Source: https://mailbakery.com/blog/25-wonderful-examples-of-animated-gifs-in-email-marketing-templates/
Adding emojis in your email subject lines is even becoming more common and can increase opens and engagement. More businesses in the new year will be giving up their stiff email communications in favor of funner messages that will capture the attention of younger audiences.
Bonus Tip: Want more of your website visitors to email you? Add a simple contact form to your website using a tool like WPForms.
Boost your email marketing in 2019
Now that you know what to look out for 2019, you’ll be able to stay ahead of the trends and create email campaigns that’ll be leaps and bounds more successful than ones in previous years. Be sure to start planning your email marketing before January rolls around so that the moment we ring in the New Year, you’ll be ready with an email marketing campaign that’ll bring in a ton of sales.
