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Email Becoming the New Customer Destination

The relentless pace of innovation is resulting in email quickly becoming a destination for individuals rather than an entryway into the overall customer journey.

New technologies that are enabling the considerable change include kinetic images, email-based check out services, geo data, and artificial intelligence.

Email campaigns routinely get high ratings by marketers for being affordable and effective. Nevertheless, capturing individuals’ attention with email is challenging simply because of the large volume of content that is pushed out each day. Indeed, the Radicati Group estimates that an average of 269 billion emails are sent every day, reports Lifewire.

Brands have traditionally used email to direct consumers and potential clients to their webpages and social media pages with the goal of providing compelling content that can build loyalty and drive sales. In most instances, email campaigns still focus on that process, but newer technologies are revamping the thinking behind such strategies. Many brands now seek to engage customers with videos and other content embedded in emails. By engaging individuals or simply by offering convenient services via email, brands are more likely to attract individuals to their websites over the long term.

Kinetic images refers to providing interactive content within emails. Such emails can allow readers to view videos or browse through different images or product discussions without having to visit webpages. The technology prevents individuals from having to wait for webpages to download. While the concept isn’t extremely new, technology advances are increasing the use of kinetic emails. In one example, Email on Acid late last year launched its “Filmstrip Interactive Email Technique” which makes interactive emails compatible with Gmail on Android phones, according to MediaPost.

Email on Acid maintains that prior to offering the technology, interactive emails were mostly limited to iPhone devices. Android has a larger market share than Apple, so Email on Acid maintains that the new technology will broaden the use of interactive emails.

The company’s website shows an example of a “tabbed” interactive email. When users click on the names of different cities, an image from the corresponding city appears. In another example, an Adidas email lets readers scroll through categories such as “All Deals,” “Outerwear,” and “Fleece” to view different products, reports Creative Blog.

The same article notes that B&Q also provides technology that expands upon the types of email clients, such as AOL or Microsoft, that can process carousel features. Meanwhile, Litmus provides technology that lets email viewers have shopping baskets. To complete the customer journey, Rebel is offering technology that allows individuals to perform the entire checkout process within email. The only use of a webpage is for providing a final purchase confirmation.

Geodata is also likely to enhance emails. Outdoor recreation gear retailer REI, for example, uses mobile phone location data to send customers information on hiking trails and other outdoor points of interest, reports MarketingLand. REI clients can receive updates as they travel to different locations. By making content more relevant, REI customers will be more likely to view emails.

The growing use of beacons, which are typically Bluetooth devices that can identify the location of smarthones, furthermore, is expected to allow marketers to push promotional content to individuals who are visiting stores or shopping malls. With brands locked in intense competition for customers and technology vendors constantly seeking to enhance their services to gain a competitive edge, innovation with email marketing is likely to continue at an accelerating pace.

Marketers, however, will still need to provide creative content, either through artificial intelligence or through more traditional means if they want to maximize the success of implementing new technologies.

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