4 Email Marketing Trends that Will Win in 2017

4 Email Marketing Trends that Will Win in 2017

I don’t think anyone can argue that 2016 has been an interesting year. What with Donald Trump becoming president and the UK voting Brexit, it’s been a year of surprises. With that said, many of us are looking at 2017 as a new start with new challenges.

Today I want to look at the new email marketing trends that are going to take over 2017.

Email marketing is 40x better at acquiring new customers than social media – McKinsey

Trend 1 – Email Templates

Not that long ago, you would have found all the email marketing advice was pointing towards fancy HTML emails with pictures, professionalism and bold colours. And although those pretty ones look nice, do they reach the intended B2B decision maker?

It’s becoming increasingly apparent to marketers that simplicity is often better and the best way to avoid being labelled as spam.

Lower images = higher deliverability

It’s about getting through to the subscriber and you can’t do that with overly rich emails stuck in the spam folder.

Reducing visual clutter and giving subscribers a more personalised experience. – Smart Passive Income

Trend 2 – Personalisation

Building on Smart Passive Income’s quote above, personalisation is becoming the new forefront of email marketing. When it comes to receiving emails, which are you more likely to take note of, a generic newsletter or one that is specifically addressed to you?

Personalisation increases open rates by 26% – Experian

Personalisation comes in all forms and can incorporate a variety of personal information. The most common use is first name personalisation in subject lines, but emails are in no way limited to this; company name and job title personalisations are fast becoming an effective marketing tactic.

This kind of personalisation has been used for quite some time already, but what’s fast becoming a marketers secret weapon is the behaviour algorithm that predicts what a subscriber will do next. This means that buyer personas can be more individual and can work with geo-targeting or other demographics.

Trend 3 – Mobile Optimisation

The rise of mobile has been a common theme of 2016 but what 2017 will bring is a more mobile-centric world. Google’s mobile-first update will be the first in a chain of events that sees businesses embracing mobile like never before.

People [are] spending more time on their smartphones than ever before. – Insights for Professionals

The promise of mobile growth is everywhere and mobile optimisation is likely to become an important focus for businesses in the future.

Although one third of B2B marketers generate less than 20% of their traffic from mobile, nearly 80% of all respondents have mobile-friendly websites — signaling the promise of growing conversion via mobile. – DemandWave

The fact that people are more active on their mobiles means that website optimisation is paramount, but more importantly, so is email.

90% of internet users in the United States regularly check their emails. – Insights for Professionals

If more emails are being opened on a mobile device than a desktop, it’s time emails become more optimised for just that.

Trend 4 – The Unsubscribe Journey

The unsubscribe journey has been something most companies take on board as a fundamental of email marketing but a lot of the time it goes overlooked. Constructively managing the unsubscribe journey could potentially save a subscriber.

The additional options of managing email frequency, including engagement options and providing a ‘pause’ function are all tactics marketers are beginning to recognise as ways to keep subscribers.

In the ever changing world B2B marketing, these are only 4 trends of many that are bound to make 2017 better than 2016, but how many will truly be successful?

Jennifer Brennand

Jennifer, a highly respected figure in B2B Tech media, offers strategic leadership through data driven and insight led recommendations that deliver better business outcomes. With expertise in both digital and traditional B2B media, she excels at building integrated demand campaigns and driving client growth.
Want access to the latest B2B insights?

Our InboxInsider provides a monthly round-up of the latest whitepapers and reports, trending intent tags, best-performing subject lines, and more.

Latest blogs

Latest blog posts