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In his midday keynote presentation at last week's All About eMail Live! conference in Atlanta, David Daniels, CEO and co-founder of The Relevancy Group, a provider of marketing consulting and research services, highlighted five trends that email marketers need to be aware of if they hope to succeed in today's crowded marketplace. Daniels also offered up takeaway tips for attendees on how to leverage these trends to their advantage.
1. Devices are the new interface in today's era of browser wars. A couple of factors are playing into this trend, Daniels said, namely skyrocketing mobile email adoption rates as well as the popularity of online video. Consider new content rendering paradigms such as responsive design and agile email marketing programs to tap into your growing base of mobile subscribers. Embrace content formats for every screen, Daniels advised.
2. Privacy takes on personalization. Collect data that you can actually use; if you're not going to use the data, don't collect it, Daniels advised the audience. Furthermore, honor your subscribers' preferences by updating your terms of service. Lastly, Daniels recommended the email marketers in the room embrace the Online Trust Alliance's data protection and breach readiness guide to understand the evolving privacy landscape, enhance data security and develop data loss incident plans.
3. Email is here to stay. The all-too-frequent reports on the death of email marketing are way overblown, Daniels said. While it's true that less people are reading their emails on desktop PCs (they're reading them on their smartphones and tablets), email as a marketing channel still resonates with consumers. In fact, according to a survey from The Relevancy Group, 41 percent of consumers said that email is the most effective approach at keeping them engaged with a brand post-purchase, ranking ahead of the brand's own website, face-to-face recommendations from friends, online ads and online social recommendations from friends.
Email marketers must know the value of their email subscribers; this number will get you more budget from the C-suite at your company, Daniels stressed. To accomplish this you need to create an email subscriber engagement index, he said. Daniels recommended the email experience council's index as a template to follow.
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