Key takeaways
- Email marketing is not dead. Tactics have evolved and businesses must adapt or risk landing in the spam folder.
- Custom-fit campaigns use behavioural analytics and customer data to craft emails aimed at each recipient’s interests.
- Pinterest replaced generic templates with user-specific emails and saw more opens and clicks by making an emotional, personalized appeal.
- Real-time email triggers target consumers at the moment they’re reading or searching (currently limited to triggers like location and weather) and are underdeveloped but high-potential.
- Modular, drag-and-drop templates speed creation of tailored emails and reduce the need to code from scratch.
Introduction
Businesses are constantly developing their strategies to become more capable of serving their customer’s needs. This is particularly apparent within the online realm, where companies are continuously evolving their methodologies in order to create stronger connections with their customer base. Those who fail to adapt with the changing environment are those that are doomed to lose the interest of their potential clients.
Successful customer relations are built through connecting with audiences in a meaningful manner. One digital marketing tool that is successful at this is email marketing. Although some people may claim it is a dead technique, it is likely that those people have not adopted any of the breakthrough strategies that continue to make it an effective method of appealing to a customer base.
Forbes contributor, Eric Samson, the founder of Group8A, has learned this the ‘hard way’ through tireless effort in modifying his methods. Samson says “Email marketing is not dead: Email marketing tactics have simply evolved. Businesses must be willing to change with them or fear getting left to rot in the spam folder.”
Utilizing Custom-Fit Email Campaigns
With more access to behavioural analytics and customer data, it is becoming easier to create email campaigns that are specifically geared towards the interests of each customer. “The days when you could drum up a boilerplate email and blast them off to your subscribers are quickly diminishing,” says Samson. “So, what’s the alternative? We looked to one of the most innovative and exciting social media networks: Pinterest.”
Last year, Pinterest has stopped using generic email templates entirely and moved towards emails that are custom crafted for each user. The social media giant is able to rely on their goldmine of customer data in order to connect with its customer base through highly effective email marketing. This has lead to more clicks and opens for Pinterest because they are able to make an emotional appeal that is directly intended to inspire each individual.
Connect Through Email Triggers in Real-Time
This is a newly forming technique that can help businesses reach out to potential customers at the exact moment that they are searching for relevant information. “Real-time email triggers, which are already in use but not altogether effective yet, are going to be a game changer for email marketing,” writes Samson. “Essentially, a campaign like this is based on what the consumer is currently reading or searching for in their various social media feeds.
”This presents some huge opportunities for digital marketing, which could rival the effectiveness of search engine optimization. Although the methodology is currently underdeveloped and it is mostly limited to triggers such as location and weather, the potential is massive for initiating conversations with customers at ideal times. The strategy is to pull from a company’s knowledge about their potential customer’s inquiries and to use it for a stronger influence when it matters most.
Develop Tailored Emails with Customizable Templates
This is another underutilized strategy that will have a big impact on the future of email marketing. The majority of businesses still painstakingly develop their emails by coding from the bottom up, but there is an alternative that is rising within email marketing. Modular templates offer a faster and easier way to craft personalized emails.
“Think of modular email templates as a sort of digital collage: Drag and drop the content you want to use and build it, much like you would use web-building services like Weebly or Squarespace,” says Samson. “…As personalized email becomes increasingly more common, so too will these kinds of email templates.”
FAQ
A custom-fit campaign uses behavioural analytics and customer data to craft emails specifically geared to each customer’s interests instead of sending boilerplate blasts.
Pinterest stopped using generic templates and moved to emails custom crafted for each user, relying on customer data to make an emotional, personalized appeal which led to more opens and clicks.
Real-time triggers send messages based on what a consumer is currently reading or searching in their social feeds, so businesses can reach customers at the exact moment they’re seeking relevant information.
The approach is underdeveloped and mostly limited to triggers such as location and weather, though the potential is massive for initiating timely customer conversations.
Modular templates are drag-and-drop building blocks (described as a digital collage) that let teams assemble personalized emails quickly without coding from the bottom up, similar to web-building services like Weebly or Squarespace.
The days of boilerplate, broadcast emails are diminishing because personalized, interest-driven content better connects with audiences and drives engagement.
Adopt custom-fit campaigns using behavioural analytics and customer data, experiment with real-time triggers to reach people at ideal moments and use modular, customizable templates to speed up personalized email creation.
