Person typing on laptop and taking notes.
Email marketing remains one of the most effective and affordable ways to communicate with your customers, build credibility, boost your brand recognition, and increase sales.
While effective, there’s no denying that creating and monitoring an email marketing campaign is time-consuming. The good news is that the following five trends won’t just improve your efforts, but they’ll also save you a ton of time.
1. It’s time to automate.
Automation has been around for years; it’s time to get on board with it. After all, according to Social Media Today, 75% of marketers are already using some sort of marketing automation tool. What’s more, Omnisend found that when it comes to “capturing customer attention and keeping it, custom automation workflows performed the best with the highest click-through rate of any automation workflow at 17.27%.”
HubSpot reports that the most effective tactics for optimizing marketing automation are mapping the customer experience and using personalized content. Marketers are also using automation to save time by creating drip campaigns, setting up email funnels, testing subject lines, gathering feedback, and scheduling follow-ups and reminders.
In my opinion, the best use of email automation is trimming down your to-do list so you can focus more on high-quality leads. I’m bias since I’ve used their tools for a long time now, but their free email marketing tools are some of the best to start out with when you are looking to automate.
2. AI is still on the rise.
Wait, aren’t artificial intelligence and automation the same thing? No, they’re not.
Automation streamlines tasks, while AI improves decision-making. In the grand scheme of things, AI is still relatively new to enterprises. But AI and machine learning have made great strides over the past couple years, and we should expect that trend to continue. In fact, by 2025, it’s estimated that the AI market will grow to become a $190 billion industry.
AI and machine learning can use predictive analytics to help deliver a more personalized experience for your audience. AI can guide you in writing higher-converting subject lines, along with determining the best copy and content and the best send times and frequency.
3. Harness the power of user-generated content.
User-generated content, or UGC, is just like any other type of content you’re creating: blog posts, photos, videos. The difference, however, is that it’s been created by your audience members. This type of content also includes reviews and testimonials.
UGC has been found to promote trust and provoke conversations. In fact, 82% of consumers consider user-generated reviews extremely valuable. As an added bonus, it’s an affordable and time-efficient way to promote your products or services. For example, instead of spending time writing copy or recording videos of your product or service in action, you can embed a review or source photos from your customers in emails instead.
4. Focus on quality, not quantity.
Roughly 281 billion emails are sent per day, 42% of which are being opened on smartphones or tablets. As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that subscribers are demanding content that’s more accessible and easy to digest. In fact, studies have found that the highest click-through rates are between 75 and 100 words. Constant Contact pins the rate closer to 200 words, saying that “emails with three or fewer images and approximately 20 lines of text result in the highest click-through rates from email subscribers.”
Regardless of the exact number, the truth is that you can’t go wrong with a “less is more” approach. Keep your messages short and sweet so they can be easily scanned while your subscribers are on the go.
5. Email less.
It may sound counterintuitive, but it’s been found that 43% of subscribers would like businesses to email them less frequently. In fact, data from Campaign Monitor found that “every two weeks is the ‘sweet spot’ for getting the most people to see your emails without burning out your subscriber list.”
That’s actually good news if you’re looking to save time while keeping your audience happy and engaged. For this tactic to be effective, make sure it’s what your audience really wants. Data from AI can help, but you should also send out surveys or polls to find out how frequently your audience wants to receive emails. You could also allow subscribers to select the frequency of emails they receive in your welcome email.
If you want to reach and connect with your target audience to improve your cash flow, it’s a no-brainer: You need to keep up your email marketing efforts. As your efforts become more streamlined, thanks to these trends, you’ll save time and money — and your recipients will reward you with their attention.
