Breaking down the Hottest Email Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2016

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Key takeaways

• Use timed lightbox pop-ups (trigger later in a visit) to grow your mailing list without disrupting the user experience.
• Include hashtags in emails to mirror audience language and link emails to social sharing and campaigns.
• Leverage big data for deeper consumer insight, but keep datasets updated and use them ethically.
• Implement real-time personalization by pulling activity from related channels so recipients receive unique, targeted emails.
• A coordinated on-site experience complements inbox content and can boost sign-up rates.

Introduction

As hard as it is to believe for some, 2016 and another year of email marketing growth and prosperity is waiting just beyond the horizon. While others might take the time leading up to Christmas and the New Year to sit back and enjoy a job well done, now is the perfect time to get a leg up on the competition via a look at the hottest trends and predictions that are sure to define the email marketing world in 2016. To help you along in this endeavor, we’ve compiled an in-depth review of all of the rising stories and practices that you simply can’t afford to miss during the lead-up to the coming calendar year.

Growing Your Mailing List via Lightbox Pop-ups

The first trend to keep an eye on, according to Adam Baetu of Business 2 Community, is all about growing your email marketing contact list via a better on-site experience; specifically with the help of lightbox pop-ups. While this type of pop-up reminder isn’t exactly new to online marketplace, Baetu suggests that the practice of leveraging the power of these overlays is considerably underutilized.

If you’re interested in maximizing the impact of lightbox pop-ups on your branded website, consider the role of timing within this process. Triggering this event not when a user first engages your site content, but rather later on during their visit is the perfect way to create a pleasing customer experience and give your contact list sign-up rate a healthy boost at the same time.

Incorporating Hashtags in Your Email Content

The past couple of years have seen a meteoric rise in hashtag usage on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks, so it should come as no surprise that experts like Baetu predict a similar rise in popularity for this conversation labeling tool in the inbox. Adding in the already strong bond between these two platforms further cements the credibility of this claim.

Whether you’re simply trying to “speak the lingo” of your audience, or you plan on integrating hashtags as anchor text for social share buttons and links, getting a head start on using the “#” symbol in your upcoming inbox offerings is a great method of getting in on the ground floor of this impending trend and fostering a deeper connection between your email marketing and social media content.

The Rise of Big Data and Enhanced Consumer Insight

Knowing as much as possible about your audience is key to creating a winning take on the email marketing process; no one can deny this fact. However, Code Fear’s Ravi Ahuja explains that this pursuit will continue to learn toward the raw power provided by Big Data sets in 2016.

With the help of countless gigabytes of consumer information and statistics guiding the way, brands like your own will have more insight into the lives and habits of its target viewers than ever before. Naturally, maintaining updated and relevant iterations of this content, as well as utilizing the insight held within in an ethnically responsible manner, will be key pieces of the puzzle as your organization continues to meet – and exceed – the needs and desires of these viewers in the coming year.

Implementing Real-Time Personalization

Finally, Ahuja notes that as cross-channel services and integration grows stronger and more interconnected with each passing day, 2016 stands as the perfect backdrop for the emergence of real-time personalization. Essentially, this practice pulls insight and activity from related channels – search result pages, social media likes and interaction, etc. – to augment inbox content automatically.

In other words, no two emails sent out to members of your audience will be the same again thanks to targeted real-time content. Instead of hoping for the best and relying upon the “painting with a broad brush” approach, your content will incorporate little touches that create a highly personalized, and engaging, experience for the person on the other side of the screen. The question still waiting to be answered on this front isn’t if real-time personalization goes live in 2016, but when exactly it will become a key part of your brand’s upcoming campaigns.

Needless to say, there’s plenty of reasons to be excited about your email marketing operations in the upcoming months. From a better on-site experience that compliments your inbox offerings, to real-time personalization and email customization, there’s plenty of opportunities for the quality – and effectiveness – of your marketed messages to take a sharp jump in 2016. All that’s left to do now is put this information to good use and take advantage of these predictions and trends while your industry competition continues to waste time looking back at the year that’s currently coming to a close.

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