Editorial Articles

Companies in almost every industry are looking for ways to enhance the value and effectiveness of their digital communications. From SMS to social media, digital messaging has become the basis for critical customer and stakeholder communications. 

It is email, more than any digital channel, which has cemented itself at the centre of the digital customer relationship. According to industry analysts, 73% of consumers name email as their preferred communication channel. Yet even with this level of adoption and years spent building email marketing programmes, marketers are still only scratching the surface of email’s customer relationship management potential.

We recently assembled a team of email industry veterans to scour the Internet and their respective inboxes for programmes that truly demonstrate the power of the email channel. The following five trends, which emerged across all industries, represent the latest best practices to help your campaign achieve success:

1. Getting Your Email Moving
Email marketers have been striving for years to determine the most effective application of movement in email. Whether it has been the proper use of animated gifs or the holy grail of video in email, marketers have struggled with applying them effectively. The relevant application of motion, however, need not compromise the marketing message, and encourages the recipient to spend more time with your message and get exposed to all relevant offers.

2. Tying it all Together
Creating a series of related follow-up emails gives you the opportunity to reinforce key messages and drive conversions. By sending dedicated messages about, for example, an upcoming event, you can carry the messaging through subsequent messages, achieving recognition of the content and keeping it top of mind.

3. Taking the Subtle Approach
The tides seem to continuously turn between direct, sales-centric messaging and the soft-sell approach in email. Many of the strongest campaigns choose the subtle approach. This may include direct calls-to-action in the messaging; however, it is secondary to the content focus. The first goal of these messages is to either educate or engage – which, once achieved, makes the progression to conversion more natural.

4. Leveraging Word of Mouth
If you’ve been in email for more than a day, you’ll know that its strength is not in acquisition – unless you are using your existing and engaged customer base to help you out. Email marketers cannot afford to ignore the power of social media to extend the reach of their programmes. By running referral-marketing programmes, brands can leverage their biggest brand advocates to drive sales.

By reaching out to your email subscriber-base (which is where most of your best customers exist) and asking them to tell their friends about their experience with your brand/product, you are doing just that. Offering a prize for sharing information is also a great way to say thanks.

5. Let the Content Flow
The amount of content you put in your email is always a concern…too much and no one will read it, too little and no one will understand it. But it isn’t all about how much – sometimes it has more to do with how it is organised. Organising a lot of content, for example by using images instead of words, makes it look less daunting.

Creating compelling and relevant campaigns that get customers to engage with your brand isn’t just good for driving sales and customer satisfaction; it’s increasingly becoming a factor in getting your email delivered.

ISPs are now looking at engagement behavior to determine whether emails from your domain get delivered to the inbox, relegated to the junk folder or outright blocked at the gateway. The trends noted here showcase the types of practices that can help you get your email noticed and acted upon.

Kritsin Hersant
Vice President of Corporate Marketing, StrongMail