• by Eric Wanta , February 5, 2019

For email marketers, the future is bright -- if you take advantage of the following tactics.

Embrace mobile, but don’t abandon the desktop. More than half of emails are now read on mobile, but desktop email is far from dead. While 59% of people check personal email on a smartphone, only 35% check work email on mobile devices, according to Adobe’s Consumer Email Survey Report,

Mobile is best for things that can be dealt with in real time. If a message requires more thought, most people will open it again later on their desktop to write a longer reply.

For email marketers, this means embracing a multi-device approach using calls to action that carefully take into account how audiences behave.

Keep it simple. Most things work best if kept simple. Email marketing campaigns are no different.  

Many users actually prefer plain text over graphic-heavy emails because they feel more like personal messages and are less sales-oriented.

Plain text messages have also been found to have higher delivery and open rates. This is great for event- and transaction-triggered emails, where clear messages are important.

Engage more with interactivity. Interactive content provides value and can significantly increase engagement. A Zembula survey found that 82% percent of participants were more likely to respond to interactive emails than traditional static campaigns.

Try creating app-like or microsite-inspired experiences inside your emails. Entice viewers and encourage involvement through quizzes, surveys, or contests. Include call-to-action messaging where people can do things like shop, edit an order, or update a wish list from within the email itself.

Send fewer — but smarter — emails. Email will remain a valuable marketing tool -- as long as you develop smart campaigns.  This year, smarter means emails that are more relevant and engaging.

This requires not only leveraging better segmentation and targeting, but also sending timely, non-intrusive emails that keep your business top-of-mind.

One approach is to leverage stories. Personal stories feel genuine and can engage with people on an emotional level. They are also memorable, which is key as people tend to forget facts but remember them in the context of stories.

Get real with artificial intelligence. Many organizations lack the knowledge and experience to fully understand, evaluate and act on all of their available marketing and customer data.

The tipping point is here when technology can reduce these bottlenecks by making sophisticated analytics capabilities more accessible and providing actionable recommendations to help teams execute.

Companies are now using artificial intelligence to strengthen their email marketing strategies and make them both more personalized and more effective. Marketers can now use AI to create more effective subject lines and images and predict how audiences will respond to each email.

Best of all, AI is only getting better. As it does, the door opens for more personalized content at the right times to the right people.

By understanding less is sometimes more, offering more ways to engage audiences, and using AI to make your team smarter, you too can improve email marketing performance in 2019.