“People don’t read emails anymore.”

“Email marketing is dead.”

Email Marketing is Shaking the Marketing Grounds of Multiple Industries

Simultaneously, a few new trends also began to pick up or instead amplify what marketers have been noticing in the past few years. These trends include:

• Increased engagement with emails

• Growing preference for customized content

• Consumer expectations for discounts when they check mails

• The rise of email marketing in the B2B world

• Increased acceptance of marketing emails among consumers across demographics

Therefore, leveraging email marketing with incentives in a personalized tone will be key to continued growth for many companies as we begin the last quarter of 2020.

Consumers Prefer Customized Emails

Batch emails work to a certain degree. However, today’s consumers, especially smaller companies, are well-educated that they can easily distinguish a batch email.

According to an infographic published by Smarter HQ, 72% of consumers prefer to receive email communications over any other channels. In the meantime, an average person receives 97 emails per day and 416 commercial emails per month. 

At least 33% of consumers admit that email personalization causes them to click on a link inside, and people sent personalized emails are 87% more likely to become a return customer.

B2B Companies Will Rely on Email Marketing More as They Move Events Online

In a recent poll, 61% of B2B decision-makers interviewed agree that their companies have dramatically increased the use of virtual events. Among these, webinars ranked Top.1 as the preferred virtual event format (85%), followed by online courses (69%).

In return, email marketing becomes the primary method to reach prospects directly and follow through as they move down the pipeline. In Q2 2020, businesses found a 29.37% improvement in automated email open rate compared to Q2 of 2019.

As brick and mortar interactions moved out of the picture, even industry leaders in more traditional niches began to adapt to the ways of online communications.

Thus, if you are a B2B company, now is the best time to rethink your email marketing strategy.

Email Marketing ROI Continues to Increase for eCommerce

On the other hand, email marketing continues to be one of the most powerful marketing tools used by eCommerce companies. A recent study published by Bluecore found email to rank the third among channels affecting consumers’ purchase decisions.

In response to the pandemic, most major retailers and distributors are starting their holiday season campaigns early. On the other hand, consumers expect more during the current landscape to receive incentives, promos, and discounts when they open a marketing email.

Consumers Are More Acceptive With Email Communications

With the CCPA rolling into effect officially this month, you would expect consumers to be more sensitive with data security than ever. Surprisingly, consumers in the United States care significantly less about email data security, according to a recent survey from NordLocker.

For example:

• Consumers have lower expectations for data encryption when it comes to emails.

• The idea of receiving promotional emails in their mailboxes has become prevalent and widely accepted by most consumers.

This tendency opens up more opportunities for smaller businesses, startups, and nonprofit organizations that may not have the funding to roll out more massive campaigns. In the meantime, it also makes email marketing less intrusive compared to other personalized advertising methods.