New email marketing technology and smarter email platform features are cropping up every day. In fact, some of the “futuristic” concepts marketers talked about just a few years ago—advanced personalization, dynamic content, triggered transactional emails—are now standard practice for most enterprise email programs.
Looking ahead, marketers have strong opinions about what should come next. According to a Forrester survey, mailers’ most anticipated innovations—the functionality they hope to gain from vendors—include:
- Microsegment targeting (66%)
- Open time personalization (61%)
- In-email transactions (58%)
- Email-enabled video (43%)
But if your email program is ready for fresh campaign strategies and innovative approaches right now, you don’t have to wait for your ESP to roll out the next big feature. Here are three examples of email marketing technology—for both sophisticated/enterprise and emerging SMB email programs—just waiting for you to adopt them:
Did you know that 65 percent of consumers seek out user-generated content before making a purchase?
No wonder brands are excited about platform integrations that will help them connect their email and social marketing strategies. But getting it right with cohesive messaging and effective content is easier said than done.
Enter Olapic. Olapic is a tool that doesn’t just connect email and social channels; it mines them for customer photos featuring your brand products, then enables publishing across all web and mobile properties. Olapic makes (approved) user-generated content shareable and shop-able. Meanwhile, the profoundly user-centric experience lends to increased engagement, revenue, and ROI.
Curious? Check out Olapic’s stats page on visual content and user-generated content.
If you oversee email marketing for a small or mid-sized business, you probably hadn’t set your sights on big data sources for predictive or contextual email content. But Square Marketing is putting big business intelligence in the hands of SMBs and local merchants who employ Square payment and point-of-sale solutions.
Square Marketing is a tool that helps you connect with your customers via personalized email promotions and announcements about your business. Using Square merchant payment data, you can target customers who shop in stores with new product emails, event invitations, and relevant rewards. Adweek reports that Square Marketing’s pilot program helped SMB mailers improve email open rates and redemptions by 100 percent, generating $1 million in sales.
The trend from desktop to mobile email usage has elevated inbox real estate into the stratosphere. Now, wearable technology is shrinking recipients’ screens even more. (Current devices from Samsung, Apple, and Motorola average just 3.98 centimeters.) So tomorrow’s email campaigns will require doubly amazing subject lines and killer pre-header text, in order to capture attention and guarantee an open. Email body copy will also need to be more succinct, compelling and—at least for now—limited to plain text enticements.
Are your copywriters up to the challenge? Maybe they don’t have to be…
Here comes Persado, a “persuasion automation solution” for companies seeking the highest-performing marketing language possible. Persado’s copy is machine-generated and derived from “persuasive emotional insights.” Solutions are available to support various channels—including email subject lines, body copy, and landing pages.
The kicker? With Persado, custom content is generated… “with a 99 percent probability of higher performance.”
While we’re on the subject of email marketing technology, are you up to speed on the best tools and practices for sharing suppression lists and managing opt outs? This quick guide is worth sharing with your teams:
