By MICHAEL S
Email marketing today looks a lot different from email marketing in 1978 when the first mass email went out.
And with customer expectations and technological solutions increasing, itās continuing to change.
Thatās why 2020 and the next few years could be both exciting and challenging for eCommerce stores.
Here are the trends we identified which you need to be aware of as an ecomm store owner who wants to leverage email marketing.
1. Email marketing wonāt be deadĀ ā ļø
Will eCommerce email marketing still be relevant in the coming years?
Email has been declared dead many times over the years. And yetā¦
91 percent of Internet users in the U.S. are still using email with younger generations leading the way. Marketers rate email marketing as their most effective channel.
The numbers back that up, frequently cited studies show email marketing has a tremendous ROI of up to $40 – 44 for every $1 spent.
Adding to that, according to Litmus, 70 percent of people believe email will still be relevant in 10 yearsā time. Among those, 25-34 year-olds are the strongest advocates of email sticking around, but a very healthy 68.9 percent of 18-24s also believe in the staying power of email.
2. Email marketing is a conversationĀ š¬
More businesses now realize that email marketing is a two-way street.
You should make it a habit to let people react to your newsletters.
It doesnāt always have to be a reply-to email. You can ask them to watch a video and comment, answer a survey in your newsletter or react to a social media post. For example, you can always include a fun quiz or a joke in your emails…
3. eCommerce email marketing will be even more personalized than beforeĀ š§šØšæš©š»āš¦³
eCommerce email marketing personalization isnāt a new idea, but with more data and better technology, personalization is about to go to a whole new level.
The more personalized an email, the more likely it is to get results. 74 percent of marketers say targeted personalization increases customer engagement rates, and personalized emails generate 600 percent higher performance rates.
Why does personalization work?
Customers are increasingly savvy, and increasingly overwhelmed with the sheer volume of marketing they encounter online. As a result, āone size fits allā emails arenāt going to cut through the noise.
4. Post-purchase marketing will become even more importantĀ šµ
A sale is not the end of your communication with your customers.
Itās an opportunity to scale your business organically. If your customers love your product or service, they’ll come back and might recommend it to their friends.
Find ways to benefit from these valuable customers by treating them right and letting them promote your business for you.
Building a relationship with your audience is a long process. Continue the conversation with your customers after the sale and give them the tools to spread the love about your business, thatā how you can increase your CLV (Customer Lifetime Value).
5. Technology and behavioral data will drive eCommerce email marketingĀ š¤
For email marketing, the key principle will be data, data, data. When envision eCommerce email marketing in 2020, think automated and integrated, using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to deliver unique experiences to customers and subscribers.
Around 66% of people think that email content will be determined by AI, with marketers using that technology to choose the best subject lines and the most relevant email marketing copy, sending times and creatives.
This will result in emails that are much more finely targeted as marketers are better able to predict subscribersā actions based on past behavior.
When you put it all together, email marketing has a shining future, but it wonāt look exactly the same as it does today.
The rise of search engines and SEO, the emergence of social media, and, more recently, the boom of group messaging has put email under pressure to evolve and change, but statistics continue to show that email marketing is (and will continue to be) a foundational piece of eCommerce online marketing.
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