As more companies begin to realize the value of email marketing, the volume of relevant campaigns have started to expand significantly, offering firms a wider range of beneficial opportunities to collect information on trends by way of best practices. Additionally, increased involvement in these endeavors has started to stimulate innovation and expansion in the technologies involved in managing and optimizing email ads.
Companies that have not yet started to expand upon their existing email marketing campaigns or establish new ones should certainly do so soon, as it has become clear that this relatively traditional form of online advertising has a place in today’s industries, as well as those of the future. In fact, the types of approaches to email marketing are converging with other trends in the online advertising arena, such as video blogs and similar forms of content creation.
Some analysts and researchers have gone so far as to say that the average email ad will involve some form of video within the next few years, and this means that data available is showing continued and sustainable consumer interest for these communications. Brand management is a matter of keeping up with trends in target markets, and one would be hard-pressed to find a movement in marketing that is more established and future-proof than email.
However, there are plenty of steps that need to be taken to ensure that the campaign works to the benefit of the company rather than the disadvantage, as errant and half-hearted efforts in these endeavors can quickly reduce the stature of a brand. Two emerging trends – one of which involves novel technologies and the other is simply focused upon the subject line of the email ads – are shaping what will likely represent the next battlegrounds for this advertising medium.
The future is now for email marketing management
Forbes recently reported that the use of artificial intelligence in email marketing campaigns might be the next step in the progression of the campaigns, and that it might end up being quite effective in driving the value of these pursuits over time. The news provider began by musing that so many types of reports have shown just how often the email marketing industry has to defend itself as still being relevant, despite the fact that it is among the most prolific avenues for advertisers.
As a note, the source cited research from the Direct Marketing Association that found that the average company will see $43 in returns for every $1 spent on email advertising efforts, and this still has not solidified the stature of this approach. So, because innovation and evolution are critical to maintain relevance in a highly fast-paced, constantly changing consumer marketplace, email ads must also move along in a linear fashion, and new technologies might be what ends up making that happen.
According to Forbes, the use of certain forms of AI and automation within the realm of email marketing has already become somewhat of an option, though many companies have only used it for specific portions of the sales cycle. One company even offers the tool to companies that will essentially send out a follow-up email to individuals who have recently been in for a sales meeting in efforts to automatically improve the chances of conversion.
There is still plenty of ground to cover with respect to the use of these solutions, and companies must work to ensure that they are only beginning to leverage tools once they have become comfortable with the management demands. After all, automation can be a highly effective support system in the modern marketing department, but when the practices and processes involved are completely raw, chances are the recipients will not be as thrilled about the ads.
Proactive, but patient, approaches to email marketing and other forms of digital advertising will often yield the strongest results over time.
Subject lines matter
As many email marketers know already, more than half the battle of the campaign is to evoke a click from the recipient, as so many individuals will simply not be interested enough in the correspondence to open and read. This is why subject line creation has turned into an art of sorts, and one that is exceedingly challenging for marketers of all tenures given how concise, engaging and unique the short sentence fragments must be.
Marketing Profs recently reported that a new analysis of roughly 700 million emails’ worth of data revealed trends in how companies are creating subject lines and what is working best. According to the source, action words such as “introducing,” “celebrate,” “buy,” “get your” and “continues” have among the highest scores when looking at use and click-through rates.
In terms of sales, the three highest-scoring phrases appeared to be attached to deals, including “on orders over,” “off selected” and “your next order.” The news provider added that “plus free delivery” and “delivery” were commonly used among email marketers, and that a sense of urgency in the phrasing contained within email ad campaign subject lines had among the highest scores of all.
These included “sale starts,” “back in stock” and “sale now,” further proving that there needs to be a certain level of excitement in the delivery of the matters that will be covered in the body of the email. For obvious reasons, companies will not be doing themselves any favors by creating subject lines without researching the preferences of their target markets, as each type of prospect will react differently to varying approaches.
Either way, once the insights have been garnered that relate back to the behaviors of recipients, including what has worked in driving click and conversion rates and which types of phrases have proven ineffective, creativity and imagination will need to be honed as well. Engaging and converting prospects and current customers can be a highly difficult process, and an impossible pursuit when the firm does not try new things and separate itself from the myriad other businesses sending out the ads.