Email marketing is evolving, and marketers must adapt. Although email marketing is still considered “old school,” the tactic is forever changing as consumers increasingly use the platform for its simplicity and ease of use. Marketers should not fear email marketing; instead, they should embrace the change and use the advantages that the platform provides.
1. Higher ROI
The return on investment (ROI) of email marketing is increasing because consumers tend to click on links and engage with offers in their email. Marketers can measure the success of their email marketing campaigns through engagement and click rates. These metrics are used to calculate the cost per conversion or sale, where the cost is defined as the value of the lead gained from the campaign. The higher the click rate and conversion rate, the greater the ROI. Furthermore, with the right email marketing software, marketers can segment their email lists and track the performance of each segment of their audience. This allows them to identify which emails work best with various groups of people and retarget those individuals accordingly. The data can also be used to determine the delivery mechanism that receives the best response from an audience.
2. Influencer Marketing
In 2016, celebrities and popular YouTubers launched their own standalone influencer marketing programs to reach consumers on a deeper level than traditional advertisements. Influencer marketing takes the form of sponsorships and endorsements for content creators who have an established audience. Some of the world’s most famous and beloved creators have become overnight celebrities, gaining millions of fans and gaining unprecedented control over their audience. To gain popularity and influence, creators will undertake sponsored campaigns that are associated with a brand or product. As the name suggests, an influencer’s content is often used to promote a brand or product, but the content can be used for any purpose.
Influencers emerged out of the YouTube universe but have since extended their reach to other platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, which have hundreds of millions of monthly active users. On these platforms, influencers can gain even more influence and authority over their audience than they already have on YouTube. With so much power comes great responsibility, as influencers must maintain healthy and objective opinions about brands and products that they promote.
3. Video Content is King
People are spending more time on social media and less time on traditional media, particularly when it comes to video content. According to HubSpot Blogs research, people increasingly prefer to watch videos compared to read articles or follow Twitter conversations. In fact, people spend three times more time on video content than they do on text articles.
Although video content isn’t replacing text content entirely, it is becoming more important as consumers have less time to focus on individual articles. Moreover, people are more likely to learn about brands and products from short-form videos compared to long-form articles. In particular, video content is ideal for SEO as it can be shared across different platforms and embedded within other content, such as blog posts.
4. Email Newsletters Become Increasingly Popular
With people switching to video content and social media, newsletters have become a popular way to stay in touch with consumers. Thanks to platforms like MailChimp and HubSpot, which make it easy to create and send email newsletters, the popularity of the tactic is increasing.
Whether it’s an annual email to keep up with the trends or a weekly newsletter to get the latest news on brands and products, email newsletters provide an easy way to stay in touch with consumers. Moreover, the content doesn’t have to be tied to a particular platform like Twitter or Facebook as the audience receives the content via email.
5. Personal Branding Is the Key to Success
The most successful digital marketers in the future will have a personalized approach to marketing that is unique to them. Personal branding is different from traditional marketing; it focuses on developing a unique identity that is entirely controlled by the marketer. When done right, personal branding can help marketers connect with consumers on a more intimate level. For example, Zuora brand manager Nicole Arrott advises marketers to think of personal branding as a form of “marketing self-expression,” which she describes as “coming from a place of authenticity and transparency, and being true to your values and unique selling proposition. Personal branding gives you the chance to show the world who you really are, and being yourself is one of the best ways to connect with consumers on a more personal level.”
To succeed as a digital marketer, you will need to develop a unique selling proposition (USP), a unique identity that sets you apart from competitors and makes you memorable to consumers. Personal branding can help you do this. When used properly, personal branding can also be a good lead generation tool, as it gives consumers a glimpse into your values, expertise, and most importantly, your identity. This helps build credibility and trust, which in turn, can lead to increased sales.
6. Video Content is More Effective Than Still Images
When it comes to digital marketing, the effectiveness of video content is growing, as 62% of adults in the United States are watching video content on their smartphones daily.
The rise of video content is being fueled by a shift to online marketing, where consumers have more choices and can find what they want faster than ever before. Thanks to the power of video content, marketers can now reach a large audience through a variety of media platforms, including websites, blogs, and social media.
Videos can be used in many different ways, from explaining a product to detailing the history of a particular brand. Moreover, videos can be more effective than other types of content when it comes to marketing plans as they allow for more engaging perspectives and interactive experiences. Consumers can choose to watch a video and listen to the voiceover, or they can choose to interact with the content directly through social media campaigns or email campaigns.
7. Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is the future of marketing, as it relies on gathering valuable information through human-to-human interaction rather than through the traditional marketing approach of marketing inputs (such as mass emails or billboards). Inbound marketing encourages marketers to focus on creating content that is useful and provides legitimate value to the target audience. This content can be anything from a white paper or an e-book to an online class or a webinar.
To succeed as a marketer in the digital world, you will need to learn how to adapt and embrace change. Traditional marketing methods such as television advertising and magazine articles are not going away, but they are evolving to fit the times.