4 ways to win the inbox in 2017

For email marketers, a new year provides a fresh start and an opportunity to outperform the year before. But anyone in the marketing game knows that things move fast: Your tried and true solutions likely aren’t evergreen, and the cutting-edge trends that were all the rage last year are already standard practice.

Marketers always need to look ahead and be prepared for what’s to come, so here are four things you need to know now to win the inbox next year.

1. You’ll start seeing interactive email everywhere

Simple name personalization and catchy subject lines won’t cut it anymore; customers want more from email marketers. That’s where interactive email comes in.

Interactive email means adding things like tabbed menus, collapsible content, image carousels, rollovers and reveals — you name it. Email will behave more like an actual website in the inbox, removing steps that lead to conversion. It lets marketers get to know their prospects better and track their behavior, which provides data that helps move potential buyers down the sales funnel.

It will take some experimenting to get it right, but you can definitely expect to see more of it in the year ahead.

2. Integrated solutions will power more effective campaigns

With the increased demands of consumers, marketers need to see a full picture of audience behavior. It’s crucial for marketers to adopt integrated solutions that not only save time but also allow them to organize all marketing activity under one umbrella.

A comprehensive technology stack lets marketers understand how their prospects are engaging with the brand across channels, providing critical data that informs how and when to communicate.

There are nearly 11 times more B2B organizations using marketing automation now compared with five years ago, according to SiriusDecisions. With more and more integrated solutions, this trend will only continue in 2017.

3. Brands will ditch the email blasts (finally)

It always surprises me when I receive a mass email blast in my inbox that’s completely irrelevant to my interests. They’ve been frowned upon for a while, but in 2017, they’ll finally make their way toward the history books.

With 76 percent of marketers thinking all email mailings will be fully personalized in the next five years, according to Econsultancy, it’s clear the blast days are numbered.

Plus, consumers are smart — they know immediately which emails to delete. There’s no excuse not to know what your subscribers are interested in 2017. Web tracking, data integrations and automation all make it possible to deliver emails tailored to individual subscribers at scale, helping marketers avoid the dreaded trash bin.

4. Concrete ROI will be the golden ticket

In 2017, marketers will look past opens and clicks and focus on concrete results, like conversions and revenue. The alignment between marketing campaigns and business results will be more important than ever as marketers look to see which activities are generating more ROI.

To achieve this, marketers need to pay attention to the entire customer journey and understand its impact. Since it’s one of the most measurable channels, email will remain central to this effort, as marketers try to get a 360-degree view of their customers and campaigns.

And this is likely to continue beyond 2017. According to Litmus, 46 percent of marketers believe the ROI for email marketing will be higher by the year 2020 than it is now.

What are you doing to take your email marketing to the next level in 2017? Share your tips with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Cynthia Price

Cynthia Price is the vice president of marketing at Emma, an email-marketing company. With an extensive background in sales and marketing, Cynthia represents Emma at conferences across the country, where she can be found geeking out about everything from subject lines to audience segmentation.