No one can underestimate the power of email marketing and I’ve always encouraged my clients to get started with it right away. Top bloggers have said one of the biggest mistakes they’ve made in blogging is NOT collecting email subscribers from the very start. They could have doubled or tripled their email subscribers if it was something they implemented from the very start. However, I’m pretty sure from all the content online telling people to collect subscribers, all of you are definitely practicing this marketing strategy. If you haven’t started, then do it right away!
I recently came across a post talking about email marketing and how it’s changed over the last 5 years. It talked about things like landing pages, applications, conversions, popularity, and many others. Next, it started talking about the next “5” years and what to expect going forward. Here are a few cool statistics:
When people were asked what “3” factors they lack in email marketing and what they should focus on, here’s what they said:
- Automation
- Campaign planning
- List quality
This data is great, however, we need to apply it to the future and what we can do 5 years from now. Here’s something to think about.
Email Communication Personalization
Years of testing a tweaking has proven email marketing will be becoming more personalized. There are two reasons we are seeing this shift. First, many people are personalizing their names when building a brand. Bloggers know the power of branding and will focus on a personal brand, for example, JohnChow.com, ZacJohnson.com, Trump.com, etc. Because much of the blogging and commerce will be personalized, you can expect correspondence through email to shift the same way.
Secondly, years of testing has proven open rates are increased when you communicate first name-to-first name. I have written about this extensively and mentioned how people are more likely to open an email when names are in from and subject fields. This, together with personal branding, will be a huge shift in “5” years and we can already start to see the transition taking place.
Email Integration
If integration hasn’t taken place, then you can be assured you’ll see it in a few years. Email service providers understand the importance of partnering with other applications and I think they’ll take this one step further. They’ll start to integrate with other marketing channels like social, PPC, PPV, etc. When referring to integration, I am talking about ESP’s providing a way to capture subscribers through various marketing channels. However, keep in mind, you’ll still have to be creative and test what’s working and what’s not. The point is, you’ll have the option to integrate with many more marketing channels than are available today.
Still Offer Highest ROI
This is something we’re NOT surprised about and I think it’ll double or triple as email service providers provide more integrations. With growth comes the ability to test different things and content has provided us with enormous case studies to show us how to do things right. Once ESP’s grow, you’ll have enormous amounts of people testing different things while creating case studies. They offer them on blogs and streamline how quickly and efficiently we start building our email subscribers lists. Next,
Because you’ve pretty much doubled your subscribers by being creative when collecting email subscribers, you’ll be able to market, convert, and increase product sales 10 x. This is awesome, but remember, you’re going to have competition along the way because ESP’s will integrate with marketing channels everywhere.
These are a few things I believe will make a huge different in a few years. The transition is already taking place so be sure to make the shift to stay ahead of the trend. It’s amazing what creativity and a blog can do these days, but you need to know how to leverage the tools you have at your disposal.