The Future of Email Marketing

Posted by Sarah O'Donovan
July 26, 2019August 9, 2019

“Is email dead” I hear you ask? Certainly not! Statistics say, email is here to stay, and as we marked 40 years of email marketing in 2018, the future still looks bright. Below, we discuss some of the up and coming trends that will keep email in the running for the most widely used form of marketing communication among most companies. Highly anticipated trends for the future include interactivity, personalisation and content. The hottest topic of all though, Artificial Intelligence. Interactivity One trend that has remained, is that of ‘Interactivity’. One way to be truly engaged with your customers is to have an interactive element to your marketing emails that allows a two-way street of communication. For example, the opportunity…

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Getting started with Email Marketing for small businesses Part 2.

Posted by Josh Green
July 12, 2019July 15, 2019

Once you have started to send email marketing to your customers it’s important to listen to any feedback you get from your subscribers. You should also keep tailoring your emails based on how they perform. One easy way to do this is use a click map. This is a graphic representation of where in your emails you are getting the most clicks. Many larger businesses have quarterly or biannual email reviews, this practice could easily be adopted by a small business. These email design reviews are a great way to evaluate your emails. Use these reviews to build on successful elements within your email designs. With this knowledge you might want to make popular sections larger, more in depth or…

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Will you still love me tomorrow – how to use post-sales automated emails

Posted by Tony Macpherson
October 19, 2016

As email marketers, we all know it’s the channel that gives the best ROI and the emails which get the best open rates are ones sent after the transaction is complete. These include automated order confirmations and delivery notifications so it’s important to get right them right. Tinder culture In a world where retailers are a click away from a competitor, it’s tempting to keep jumping to the next option in the hope you’ll find a better deal. Most customers now have the attention span of around eight seconds so making sure you deliver them the right content immediately is critical to reduce distractions from a myriad of online things they can do. Today’s promotional environment has made shoppers highly…

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Emails that work

Posted by Tony Macpherson
March 11, 2016July 2, 2019

As we all experience every day, emails, particularly those viewed on a ‘phone – which is most of them – get read or not based on two things: brand affinity and the engagement factor. And whilst many of us are loyal to the brands we like, most emails are only read and then acted upon if they contain a clear message, easy to read copy, strong call-to-action, are succinct and use eye-catching and original imagery. But this is just the start. Our use of online, interactions with brands, exposure to thousands of marketing message across multiple channels and devices, increasingly short attention spans and reduced tolerance for generic old fashioned methods of selling products and services means even the most…

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Good behaviour

Posted by Tony Macpherson
October 8, 2015October 16, 2015

When it comes to sending marketing emails, it’s still common practice to send manual batched campaigns where the same message is sent to the same people. The smarter marketers are sending more targeted emails to segmented lists based on information such as purchase history, previous email interaction and demographics but there’a a wealth of more subtle information available to really take your email marketing to the next level. Executed well the use of behavioural data and the subsequent generation of emails triggered by certain actions and events can improve customer retention rates as well as increase acquisition levels. When you send an email blast to a large list, you are guessing the message might resonate with the recipients. But when you let customers…

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Email strategy – getting the basics in place

Posted by Tony Macpherson
August 5, 2015July 15, 2016

Creating a strategy for email marketing will keep you in the race for customers. Continuity is key – both in terms of implementation and in identifying and reacting to change. Outlook (Hotmail), Gmail, Yahoo et al have been employing user interaction (or lack thereof) to determine whether emails are delivered in the inbox or junk folder for some time now but engaging users should, of course, be a marketing fundamental. Email is the mainstay of online marketing – commercial tools for sending mass marketing emails have been available in the UK since 1999. Every year since has shown double digit growth in email marketing spend despite the decline in the cost of email volume. Why? Because people like emails. Well,…

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Set the tone

Posted by Tony Macpherson
June 24, 2015July 15, 2016

Many businesses are still creating online marketing collateral that comes across as rigid and impersonal. It often mirrors more traditional offline advertisements and brochure formats. Whether the excuse is ‘we’ve always done it this way’, fear of brand perception or just plain lack of imagination, adopting a so called ‘professional’ approach and conforming to old school thinking no longer fits with the new user of the Web. Of course, certain business sectors allow for more flexibility than others but, generally, there is scope to increase the appeal of marketing messages using a more conversational approach. TV advertising has been doing this for years. Why? Because you can see people in situations where anything other than interaction and behaviour we can…

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Love at first sight

Posted by Tony Macpherson
May 15, 2015May 18, 2015

We all know how important it is to make a good first impression – especially when we’ve spent time and effort to look good in front of those we want to attract! So how do you do that with emails? Building an email database is about more than building a data capture form on your website as you need to drive traffic – whether it’s SEO, PPC, generating followers through social platforms or more traditional media – getting people to your website is an expensive business. So, when people do find their way to your website, ensure two things are done well; make it quick and easy for them to add their email address to your mailing list and create…

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If not now, when?

Posted by Tony Macpherson
March 6, 2015April 24, 2015

Welcome to the first in a series of what to test and why with email marketing. It’s said that timing is everything and, given the change in the way we access our emails and the online world generally, it’s now even more important to send the right message at the right time. I’ve read a few posts lately saying 2015 is the year of customer experience, where marketers will put the customer first and create a positive experience from initial contact through to purchase and beyond. The other ‘big thing’ for this year is for marketing to become truly omni-channel. The drivers for these remain unchanged; fear and greed. Fear over rival brands stealing a march and customers, fear over…

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