• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 26, 2005

Predicted E-Mailing Trends for E-Mail Marketing Improvements

ExactTarget, in a recent release, predicts some significant shifts in the way email marketing is conducted in 2005. They find that the top trends are:

The number one email trend in 2005 will be relevanceÑsending unique messages based on individual attributes. Chris Baggott, chief marketing officer of ExactTarget, says "In 2005 we will see the demise of batch-and-blast emailing. Marketers are beginning to appreciate the unique value of email in building person-to-person relationships." Actual behaviors will dictate how often marketers reach out to customers.

As marketers desire to do more with their email, the ease of use of their tools becomes very important. "Batch & Blast has been the default because marketers haven't had easy tools to do sophisticated email marketing," says Baggott

In 2005, email marketers will move towards complete access to marketing data with stronger and more invisible integration between their email systems and their other marketing technology solutions, such as point of sale and marketing resource management.

Automated or event-driven email will get a lot of attention in 2005. Marketers can utilize customer data with automated email triggers to deliver relevant one-to-one communications with subscribers.

Email will become the marketing equalizer in 2005. Smaller businesses have the tools to compete with their larger counterparts.

The "From" Address will become the most important factor in determining the initial success of an email program in 2005. In terms of relevancy and growing relationships, the "From" Address should reflect a person, not an institution.

Organizations are faced with three significant drivers that are forcing consistent control and compliance in 2005:

• One central view of the customer to cut down on the number of emails sent to customers from various departments throughout the organization through batching.
• Integrated content management systems will become critical to minimize content liability.
• It will become critical that systems monitor compliance with lists, bounces, filters and everything else associated with managing blacklists complying with the rules of various ISP white lists.

Because most organizations don't have the resources in house to manage the constantly changing complexities of email marketing software, they will begin to outsource their email to professional email service providers.

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