Every year, organizations conduct research on a variety of instrumental marketing tactics and strategies including email marketing trends. They release their reports along with a slew of predictions, trends, and best practices for the upcoming year. Email marketing is a steadfast tool for online marketers, yet it’s also facing some big changes as the climate becomes more competitive.

1. Hyper-Personalization

“Dynamic content, personalization and real-time content will be much more prevalent in 2020, along with the next generation of triggered emails that are sent in response to a much wider and more diverse range of behaviors. Traditional data mining and analytics will be paired with machine learning, which will turn the complex patterns in Big Data into actionable insights. While marketers will still send a lot of broadcast messages, the vast majority of their email revenue will come from these much more targeted messages. The hyper-personalization trend within email will dovetail with the ‘Internet of Me’ trend, where consumers are increasingly expecting to see content on the web, in their mobile apps and elsewhere that speaks to their unique usage and needs.” (Source – 5 Predictions for Email Marketing in 2020)  Read More at: http://marketingland.com/5-predictions-email-marketing-2020-163489

2. More Emphasis on Video and Animation Content

“Video and animation in email content will continue to garner more importance and find wider application in the months to come. Besides attracting subscribers’ attention at a glance, the moving and dynamic elements can also intuitively deliver suggestions and guide recipients towards certain actions. Use of moving materials like timer also can enhance the click through rate tremendously. Making users respond to graphic and moving elements is crucial rather than just adding such elements because they look cool.” (Source 10 Killer Email Marketing Trends to Watch in 2016) Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/10-killer-email-marketing-trends-watch-2016-01467087#1wKG8st430fXXqPG.97

3. Email Marketing May Not Be Enough

“You Need Recipients. The first reason you should not isolate email marketing is relatively simple. If all you do online is send emails, where will you get the recipients? The best email lists will always be the ones you generate organically. In fact, many email clients actually forbid marketers to send messages to recipients who have not actively opted in, removing that option as a possibility. And regardless of how good your emails are, or how receptive your list is, you’re always going to have to deal with people unsubscribing with every email you send. Thus, if you only send outbound emails and don’t think of organic ways to refill the list, it will eventually disappear due to opt-outs. So if email marketing is your only online activity, and you don’t purchase list (again, I would recommend you don’t), chances are your email lists will be small.” (Source: 3 Reasons Email Marketing Is Not Enough) Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/miketempleman/2016/02/11/why-email-marketing-is-not-enough/#4f632e0b256f

4. Email Marketing Trends Show It’s Still a Powerful Tool for B2B Companies

“Email marketing has been a dependable channel for many companies. And according to June 2015 research, it continues to be a top tactic used by business-to-business (B2B) companies to promote eCommerce activities. Accenture and Blackstone Group polled 50 digital and ecommerce professionals from US-based B2B companies with at least $500 million in annual revenue were surveyed during June 2015. More than nine in 10 respondents said that email marketing was the tactic they used to promote ecommerce activities.” (Source: Email-Marketing-Helps-B2B-Companies-Boost-Ecommerce-Activities) Read More at: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Email-Marketing-Helps-B2B-Companies-Boost-Ecommerce-Activities/1013529#sthash.CVGNzxdH.dpuf

5. Email Is Still Dramatically Underused by Most Industries

“Which industries have the highest open, click-to-open, and click-through email rates? How does the use of tactics such as tracking, targeting, and subject line testing vary by vertical? To find out, GetResponse, Holistic Email Marketing, and Smart Insights surveyed 1,831 global email marketers who work for companies in 15 major industries; most (68%) respondents have senior roles within their organization, holding titles such as CEO, director, owner, department head, or manager of marketing, digital marketing, or e-commerce.”

Some of the findings include:

• Email Frequency – Marketers across all industries send five emails per month to consumers, on average. Finance, banking, and insurance marketers send the most emails per month (12.2 on average) of the industries examined.
• Evaluation and Tracking – Some 15% of marketers surveyed say their company still does not regularly review email opens and clicks; only 23% say they have integrated their website and emails to track what happens after a click. (Source: State of Email Marketing by Industry)

Read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2016/29374/the-state-of-email-marketing-by-industry#ixzz41c2uTV8I

The bottom line is that email marketing trends show us that email marketing is still a viable and quite powerful tactic for marketers of all shapes and sizes and across all industries. However, changes may need to be made both to strategy and implementation to make the most of this marketing tactic.