Why email marketers need to stop neglecting email in 2018

Why you need an email strategy for 2018 - the best behavioural email marketing predictions for the coming year

It’s that time of the year when you’ll see a wave of marketing predictions for the forthcoming year. While they may seem ubiquitous, predictions do play an important role. They act as a reset button in the mind of the marketer. They allow us to reflect on the year that’s passed and contemplate whether we managed to achieve what we set out to do at the beginning of the year.

Join Komal Helyer, Marketing Director of Pure360, one of eight speakers, for a practical webinar on Behavioural Email Marketing predictions for 2018. Learn the strategies brands will execute to recover lost revenue and increase sales uplift online, using behavioral email marketing.

They also - importantly -give us a rare chance to look further into the future than we normally afford ourselves. Marketers often get bogged down in the day-to-day. We’re constantly switching between planning and executing. We plan for the quarter ahead while still executing our campaigns for the current quarter.

In between, we’re expected to keep up with the latest trends, explore new initiatives, and adopt new technology. There often isn’t enough time to try anything new once we’re deep into the year. Predictions allow us to take a step back. They help us benchmark where we currently are and inform us where we want to be while alerting us to the trends we need to act on.

Having all the necessary information available is vital for effective planning. And marketing predictions are great for gathering information and sourcing ideas.

But planning never gets easier

Our budgets are highly scrutinized. Prioritise quickly change. Researching what technology we’ll need is time-consuming.

The marketing technology landscape is massive. And it’s only getting broader and more saturated with each passing year.

Marketing technology can often be seen as the silver bullet that will improve everything it’s pointed at. Our processes. Our results. Our ability to prove ROI. And it can.

But it can also come with unfulfilled promises and false starts. The gulf between our expectations and the reality of what’s possible is huge.

For technology to deliver it needs to be attached to a larger vision, and in most instances, this vision should start with serving your customers better.

The same is true for predictions. To have meaning they need to be attached to a bigger, long-term vision, and not just a bunny hop onto the latest tech trend or the flavour of the moment strategic approach.

Thinking ahead should be paired with thinking deeper:

• What are the big changes in consumer behaviour that we need to adapt to?
• Which technology can help us deliver innovative customer experiences?
• How can we manage the customer lifecycle more effectively?

What should marketers expect in 2018?

2018 will undoubtedly be dominated by GDPR. It would be silly to ignore it. AI and machine learning continue to grab more of the collective marketing mindshare.

Marketers have been patiently waiting to AI to go from visionary to necessary. From nice-to-muse-about to impossible-to-live-without. It’ll be on the technology providers to ensure that AI starts to real problems for marketers.

Stop neglecting email

As part of Smart Insights Digital Marketing Priorities Summit, Pure360 will be hosting a webinar on Behavioural Email Marketing predictions for 2018.

You may think that a tried-and-tested channel like email can’t offer anything new to the marketing mix. And you’d be wrong.

The issue with email is that we’ve gotten used to it.

We know it performs well and in most cases delivers the best ROI of any marketing channel. But it’s rarely given the attention it deserves.

Email is thought of as a channel that matured to the point of diminished returns. That thinking couldn’t be further from the truth.

Email is still an untapped opportunity for nearly every business. From supporting customer experience programs, to automating customer lifecycle management, to delivering omnichannel personalisation. Email is the glue that connects most businesses to the vast majority of their customers. But our own research showed that only 1% of brands are using email to it’s full potential.

Customer relationships and email

The email address is still our primary digital fingerprint. And as consumers, we’re comfortable with this.

Some aspects of personalisation and predictive targeting can creep us out. Highly targeted Facebook ads can leave us questioning how we’re being monitored, how much information we’re giving away, and who our data is being passed on to.

Not with email. We expect personalised messages. We delight when brands seem to know us and treat us as an individual.

Smart Insights are holding their fourth digital marketing Summit on the 12th December, where they will explore the key digital trends for 2018. Join Komal Helyer, Marketing Director of Pure360 for a practical webinar on Behavioural Email Marketing predictions for 2018.

In this webinar, Pure360 will be giving their predictions on how behavioural email marketing will help deliver better results across the customer lifecycle.

By watching this webinar you’ll learn:

Which technologies will change the way consumers shop

Why GDPR presents great opportunities for marketers

How predictive marketing will be easier to execute

How to move beyond the basics of personalization

And more.

It’s time to give email the room it needs to transform your marketing.

Sign up for your FREE  place today! 

Thanks to Komal Helyer for sharing their advice and opinion in this post. Komal is Marketing Director at Pure360, and has more than 18 years of experience in email and digital marketing, leading the focus on market positioning, market growth strategies and customer lifecycle marketing. She has worked with brands as varied as HSBC, Carphone Warehouse and Black & Decker, helping them get the best results from their email and digital marketing.