The first three months of 2015 have been a whirlwind of excitement and change for the email marketing world. From the impact of the #Blizzardof2015 on the inbox, to Compu-Finder receiving the first CASL fine, there’s no denying that connecting with the people that matter most in this way is anything but static. With this in mind, as well as the first quarter of the year wrapping up, there’s no better time than now to take a moment and engage in a little forecasting regarding what’s up next for email marketing over the rest of the year.
Email Marketing Growth Continues Year After Year
As hard as it may be to believe, Jayson DeMers of Forbes magazine points out that the current growth trend surrounding email marketing is alive and well. Despite the fact that this form of outreach has stood atop the marketing world for quite some time now, 59 percent of marketers and brands have plans to increase spending over the duration of the year. Additionally, 73 percent point to this process as a core portion of their marketing strategy moving forward. The moral of the story is a simple one – email marketing is the biggest name around in terms of consumer outreach, and the rest of 2015 should go a long way toward further cementing this claim.
Demand Will Only Go Higher
DeMers goes on to explain that the other side of this brand-viewer equation, consumer demand for value-driven email content, should also keep trending upward. However, with this continually rising demand comes higher expectations as well. The brands that do the best with the rest of 2015 will be the ones that go above and beyond the expected in the inbox. This means giveaways, extended content, and other offerings that focus more on value and less on a thinly veiled sales pitch all play perfectly into the current positioning of the email marketing world.
Coordinating Across Channels Still Needs Some Polishing
Even though the digital world has never been more connected, iMedia Connection’s Chris Marriott notes that email marketing hasn’t come quite so far as to make cross-channel marketing a walk in the park. This means that if you want to maximize the potential of your marketed messages on Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms and digital gathering spots, you’ll need to dig deep into the assets standing before your brand.To overcome the “Big Three” multichannel roadblocks – inadequate campaign coordination, not having the right support people and team members, and limited marketing budgets – during the remainder of 2015, Marriott points to attacking the problem from a variety of angles. For instance, utilizing “Big Data” and first-party insight alike, as well as aligning your brand with a team of dedicated industry experts, can help alleviate this surprising, yet manageable, hindrance to the email marketing process.
Deploying Your Own Homegrown Solution Remains a Risky Business
Much like the issues facing cross channel promotions, Marriott points to the stubbornness of certain factions within the community in regard to homegrown email marketing operations as a point of contention moving forward. While there’s nothing wrong with doing things your own way, the unfortunate truth of the matter is that most brands simply aren’t capable of conducting a successful campaign when left to their own devices.Even for those that can generate some value, there’s still plenty of potential left on the table thanks to inefficient or ineffective email marketing operations. For the 47 percent of organizations still following this path to the inbox, according to Marriott, it’s time to shift the discussion toward how a proper email marketing platform can increase productivity and minimize the wasted potential garnered via substandard email operations.Obviously there’s a variety of options standing before you if you fall into the category, but the big key here is connecting with a team of experts that both understands your marketing needs and has the tools to get you on the right track in terms of consumer outreach and impact. Templates, management tools, storage options, and anything that helps you win the social media battle should all fit into the image of what makes an ideal email marketing partnership.Perhaps the biggest asset you can gain from this approach is acquiring the insight of experts who understand what it takes to map out the landscape of all of the years to come. After all, there’s no doubt that once 2015 is in the books and gone for good, you’ll want to stay up to date with whatever the next big thing is that’s altering the email marketing landscape.
