4 Steps to Dealing with 2017’s Email Marketing Trends

We’re big believers in email marketing, but if a steady flow of highly-customized emails promoting your brand and its mission isn't part of your digital marketing arsenal, you’re probably shooting yourself in the foot.The New Year is the perfect time to take on a new email marketing strategy, but if you’re sitting there thinking that email is an archaic way to promote brand awareness, you couldn’t me more wrong. After all, according to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing yields an average 4,300% return on investment.But like most things digital, email strategy is constantly transforming. Thanks to Marketing Land, here are a few developments you can expect to see in 2017, and advice on how to deal with them.

1. Make your email interactive.In 2016, all it took to get stable open and click through rates was a catchy subject line and personalized intros, but in 2017, this won’t cut it. Interactive emails are changing email strategy in a big way with the inclusion of tabbed menus, collapsible content, image carousels, rollovers, and reveals.
2. Look for integrated solutions.Composing emails day in and day out then sending them to customized lists takes a lot of effort, and unfortunately, it’s not always a practical use of time. An estimated 11 times more B2B organizations utilize email marketing automation than they did five years ago, and this trend is expected to continue in 2017.
3. Avoid blasting your audience.How many times per day do you get an email in your inbox that completely goes against your interests? Probably not too often, right?Well, generic email blasts aren’t as heavily used anymore. Roughly 76% of marketing professionals feel that emails will be fully customized in the next five years, which could spell the end of the email blast.
4. Focus on concrete results.This year, digital marketers are looking way beyond email click through and open rates and instead will focus on conversions and revenue. It’s critical to understand a customer’s entire journey from opening an email to purchasing your company’s products or services.