Top 5 Email trends to watch
A survey of 511 marketers by StrongMail/Zoomerang found that the following trends are emerging across best–of–breed emails and should be considered when planning your next email:
1. Social Media Integration
Social media is emerging as a direct marketing channel, with 36% of respondents claiming that social media is owned by the direct marketing department in their organization. The survey also found that social media is a hot initiative with email marketers, with 66% planning to integrate the two channels in 2009, and 48% who have already formulated a strategy for achieving this initiative. Only one of the best–of–breed emails in this report features social integration, but we expect this number to grow throughout the remainder of the year.
2. Leveraging Video in Email
Integrated video in email is a logical extension of the Web 2.0 video craze that has swept the Internet in recent years. best–of–breed email that leverages video in this report uses a simple screen capture to convey video; however, technologies from LiveClicker and Goodmail offer other exciting deployment methods through which video can be conveyed. LiveClicker uses animated GIFs to give the illusion of a video playing in email, whereas Goodmail actually streams live video into email at AOL inboxes. Watch for this hot new creative technique to become more prevalent in 2009.
3. Balancing Images and Text within the HTML
A good email designer knows that images don’t render by default across most email clients, and yet test after test has shown that images outperform plain text in driving response. All five of the winners featured in this report employ a smart balance of images and text, so that the key value propositions aren’t lost if the email arrives with images suppressed. The days of using one large image map in an email are long gone.
4. Making Email Conversational
The advent of spam is causing consumers to become more and more desensitized to email marketing messages. By making the email interactive and conversational, smart marketers are able to rise above the noise and connect with their customers.
5. Offering Exclusive Promotions
With so many different channels available for accessing information, consumers are easily distracted. It’s important to remember that your email recipients need to find your content valuable if they’re going to pay attention and continue to subscribe. Emails with exclusive content or offers that can’t be accessed anywhere else, increasing the stickiness of their subscriber base and driving up open and click–through rates.
Is your email marketing on trend? No? Then why not give us a call?
P-J - Head Of Creative And Strategic Development
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