News Round-Up: Email Personalization, Explosive Growth, and Putting the Spark Back in Your Campaigns

• Updated on: 2018-10-23
• Read original article here

Greetings, marketers! Let’s take a look at some recent industry news, shall we?

Lisa Bedgood writes at Business 2 Community that “personalization is already gearing up to be one of the biggest digital buzzwords in 2017.” She cites recent studies indicating that more than half of B2C marketing influencers are making improving email personalization their top priority this year.

“According to eMarketer, 70% of people already expect a personalized experience,” she reports. “But this year, marketers will push the envelope and take personalization even further. While email marketing strategies are continually evolving, at the heart of email marketing is creating connections with consumers. One-to-one messaging, highly personalized experiences, and customer-centric strategies are key to email success.”

Personalization works: “When emails are personalized, the average click-through rate is 2.5 times higher with an average increase of 5.7 in revenue. Email personalization reduces unsubscribe rates and has a major impact on boosting revenue.”

“The first marketing email was sent almost forty years ago, and yet email still remains a high-functioning and rapidly growing marketing channel,” writes Jess Nelson at Email Marketing Daily, in an article reporting on a recent SalesForce survey of 3500 global marketing leaders.

According to the survey results, email was one of the top five marketing channels growing the most over the last two years – it jumped 83%. The use of email has seen growth in both B2B and B2C markets, according to Nelson.

“Email experienced the largest surge in consumer-facing marketing programs, with email use by B2C marketers rising 106%,” he reports. “Email was the second-highest advertising channel in growth for B2C marketers, but trailed video advertising’s growth of 141%.”

“As an email marketer, you test subject lines and calls to action for optimal performance, but are you submitting your copy to the ultimate test? If you’re not testing your copy for readability, you may be missing out on clicks, conversions, and revenue,” writes Trisha Randolph at Marketing Profs.

High readability helps your emails stand out from the dozens (or more) marketing messages many consumers receive each day and helps readers easily understand what you are asking them to do, according to Randolph. “Content that is clear, concise, and easily understood passes the readability test, ensuring that readers reach your call to action (CTA) before mentally checking out.”

To improve readability, Randolph suggests breaking up convoluted sentences, removing filler words, using simple language and avoiding strings of smaller words in place of a single, stronger word.

For more tips to ensure readability, check out our post on the topic.

“Email has become a central ‘hub’ for all things digital, making it more useful and important than ever,” writes Michael Fisher at Entrepreneur. “Just think: When was the last time you purchased something online (and even in-store!) without providing an email address?”

Despite being around for nearly 40 years, Fisher sees email marketing continuing to have momentum: “The number of new email subscribers (those who have subscribed within 90 days) is at an all-time high,” Fisher writes. “According to new research from Yes Lifecycle Marketing, as of the first quarter of 2017, new email subscribers make up 6% of a marketer’s database, registering a 30% increase over the last three years.”

But email marketers cannot afford to become complacent, and Fisher offers several best practices that he suggests email marketers adopt to ensure continued growth. At the top of his list is offering unique content. “This means learning more about your audience, and offering them valuable, relevant information that meets their needs at the right time. By delivering content that’s unique and keeps their brand top of mind, email marketers will leave their subscribers wanting more.”

In addition, he suggests that email marketers, carefully time sends, use triggered messages to maximize engagement, and make meaningful offers.

“As we blow out the candles on email marketing’s 40th birthday cake, marketers must ask themselves if they’re doing everything they can to maximize the channel’s timeless appeal,” Fisher concludes.

“If your email marketing strategy isn’t working, you’re losing money,” writes Syed Balkhi at HuffPost. “People who buy products promoted via email marketing spend 138 percent more than those who don’t get offers by email. And the latest statistics from the DMA show that on average, companies that use email marketing get back 30 times what they spend.”

Balkhi points to six mistakes that could be affecting email marketers’ bottom lines: Sending too many emails, or too few; failed audience targeting; poor email marketing copy; email design errors; missing trust factors; and lack of planning and testing.