Flashy Trends in Email Marketing in 2015

 Design 

Modular simple design that works on all devices 

Adaptation of Email Marketing to wearable technologies, smart watches and the smart TV (internet TVs as they are sometimes called). 

Adapting to responsive design templates and proliferations of web browers, operating systems, devices, email clients and types of cell phones with different screen sizes. 

Content Dicated by Mobile Viewing 

Content that is more tailored to mobile viewers (more visual, move to more video content) 

Animated Gifs, move to animation (mixed-media & FX) in Email Messages

With HTML5 it's easier than ever to embed Videos or animations 

Dyanmic customization, Smart personalization, Next Generation targetting via Predictive Intelligence 

Up Front CTAs

Huge trend in increase of pop-up Newsletter sign-up forms boxes, which significantly boosts sign-ups. It's the web equivalent of a CTA in the subject-line (not to mention annoying to the degree of interface spam). 

Social Media Grid

Social sharing and social media links in and of Newsletters and especially to grow your list, e.g. CTA on facebook to join sign up for Newsletter. Twitter has a list creation feature that can help you create segements. Each social media platform has solutions to grow your list, though you need to keep up-to-date with their promotional guidelines. Using promotional coupons across all channels is a good idea. 

Levels of Consent

Double-Opt in subscription protocols. More professional and anti-spam proof. Sometimes this is accomplished via a trending opt-in method that allows a recipient to opt into a brand’s email program by sending a blank email to a particular email address. When someone does that, it triggers an opt-in confirmation request email that asks the person to activate their subscription by clicking on a link in the email.

HERE NOW Consumerism 

With geographical mobile beacons and real-time analytics, the trend is towards real-time and location based trigggered Emails and an "Always-ON" approach to marketing. Snapchat, the SMM channel popular with western teens for example, creates a sense of living in the present via photos that expire, and any promotion that creates a sense of urgency, immediacy and placing the sharing of our authentic experience at a new premium. 

Email marketing that is plugged into Big data and Ecommerce, increasingly with machine learning is on the rise. The predictive analytics algorithms are getting better at matching people to products & services on a real-time basis.  

With the alleged rise of the internet of things (IoT) as it's fondly called, location specific email marketing is also trending. These bluetooth smart beacons are getting quite some attention in Retail. Though they are generally via apps and not necessarily related to Email marketing. In general, location demographics is being targetted more often via landmarks and stores that are most relevant to specific segements of consumers.

Proximity and geocentricity is combining with "real-time" emphasis to increase the feel of consumer immediacy and smart marketing. Cookies track our web behavior so mobile phones track our location, brand loyal segements will be amble targets for promotional campaigns "personalized" in this manner. This will arrive to us via SMS (text messages) or Email, depending on what we use most. Time & space will no longer become operationally constrained for advertisment. This quasi-hyper targeting is starting now.  There are obvious privacy issues concerning the use of proximity and geolocation services; however, geolocation applications provide the ability to opt in or opt out.

AUTOMATE It

Marketing automation platforms that integrate some sort of strategy for Email marketing as well, custom APIs and such are on the rise as well.

As 3-D printing, drone delivery and eCommerce go more mainstream, Email marketing may prove to play a keyrole on how these interact for the everday and average consumer.   

 Visualize It 

Text to image ratio changing to adapt to mobile devices, especially for tablet use. Video content is exploding, websites without video with animations and mixed media, and FX, are outdated. 

Products that not only have photographs but short video previews becoming more common.

Video are not only more engaging keeping us on a particular page or topic, but stimulates how interactive Email marketing can be. Accordingly, marketers will have to become more creative in the short term for delivering subscribers an interactive video message. Notice on facebook, videos play just by going to a page. While some software clients support video playback in emails; however, Outlook and Gmail, two of the largest, do not support playback. 

Showcasing products via video is trending. This also gives you an opportunity to animate the customer journey and create tacit memories in the psyche of consumers about your brand. 

 Behavioural Triggered Messages 

Transactional or triggered Emails drive more revenue. Transactional emails deliver four times more revenue than promotional mailings. There is tremendous opportunity for delivering more creative transactional emails and for boosting conversions. From alerts to purchases, to abandoned cart reminders, these Emails or SMS text messages are becoming so common we barely notice. However, since transactional email open rates are typically much higher than promotional emails and incorporating better creative quality in transactional messages boosts email conversion rates even further, smart companies will translate this new reality to their advantage. 

Artificial Intelligence Connects the Grid 

As machine learning and automation further enter our lives as consumers, whether in the form of predictive analytics or in other ways, all approaches to automation and AI integration require a personal channel & its email marketing which allows you to earn permission to deliver a message directly to subscribers.

As converting abandoned shopping baskets and moving prospects through the funnel is a top priority for marketers, behavioral emails will emerge as a top priority. The better machine learning is able to profile and learn our patterns as consumers, the more we can expect all of this will connect to us on a highly individualized and personal level. 

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