by Wikus Engelbrecht
13. January 2011 02:10
Our predictions for email marketing in 2011
Every business starts the new year with a new plan, a new strategy, and new objectives in place. January is the best time to look out for new industry trends in online marketing and communications. So we’ve done some pondering for you – here’s what we think you can expect from email marketing in 2011.
More mobile marketing
Mobile is a growing focus for digital marketers and has become an integral part of any integrated online marketing strategy. Last year we saw email converge with social, and this year we should see more adaptation of email campaigns to mobile. Consumers are converting to smart phones at a staggering rate and email campaigns that don’t cater to mobile users will fail to reach a growing segment of subscribers. It’s not that subscribers don’t check their emails on PCs or laptops, but rather that they’re growing accustomed to having the choice.
GraphicMail is preparing help you gear up your mobile email marketing this year. January saw the launch of the first version of our free iPhone app, and you can expect to see some rather big developments in our mobile offerings during the course of the year.
Greater focus on content
2010 saw some interesting developments in email marketing, with social becoming a big game player. However, it soon became apparent that with integrated digital marketing strategies booming, internet users are bombarded with online marketing in various forms. Getting their attention focused on your campaigns is not easy. Relevance quickly became a buzz word – the key to customer engagement.
In this global virtual community we’re building, customer interaction and engagement builds successful brands. Instead of newsletters filled with sales pitches, we’re seeing more and more attempts at gauging response – from opinions and feedback to videos. Stories and customer referrals are huge revenue generators.
This year we expect to see an increased focus on producing email campaigns based on value-laden content – content that is engaging, fun, personal. Content that answers the question: What is in it for me?
More behavioral targeting
The way we track and monitor the web has advanced at a staggering rate. It’s now possible to track almost every way in which a user interacts with your website – and even on your social networks. And as every marketer knows, the first principle of marketing is knowing your target audience. By looking at users’ and subscribers’ online actions and email interactions you can get valuable insights into your client base.
Email marketers are quickly starting to use all this information to more accurately segment their mailing lists and target subscribers. During the course of the year we’ll also be providing you with even better, more visual and more detailed reports and analytics with which to track your sends. These reports will, as usual, available free to all GraphicMailers.
Deeper integration with social media
We witnessed the benefits of email-social integrations last year, and this year we’ll continue to see even deeper integration between these two mediums. We’ll also see email marketers cross-market these channels more, with mobile thrown into the mix.
This year email marketers will be focusing on more accurately tracking the usage and efficiency of these email-social integrations. At GraphicMail we will also be extending our social tracking, reports and statistics to help you monitor your own email and social marketing.
We’ll be doing our best to help you adjust your campaigns to accommodate for these trends. Let’s keep those integrated email, mobile and social campaigns flourishing in 2011!
