To those who don’t routinely use email as part of their regular marketing mix, it can sometimes feel like email hasn’t changed that much since it was created. Maybe this is why some are so persistent in predicting its death every time a new flashy communications platform comes around. How many times have we heard the “it’s the end of email” mantra?
The truth is, while the digital marketing landscape changes dramatically every year, email has continued to be one of the most effective channels for ecommerce marketers.In fact, recent data indicates that each dollar spent on email can lead to an average of 4200% ROI if you’re using the right email strategy.
Whether you’re a fledgling startup or a major enterprise, regular email marketing endeavors should be a major part of how you stay in touch with leads and move them through your sales funnel.In this article, we uncover some new email marketing trends that will help you set your email program apart in 2022 and build stronger relationships with your customers.
Capture Zero Party Data
Zero-party data—sometimes referred to as self-declared data—is data that a customer voluntarily provides. This is data that marketers can’t infer, buy or collect elsewhere. It’s exclusively provided by the consumer and can be used to help build out future marketing experiences.
For example, Valvoline recently created an interactive and gamified experience to capture more zero-party data. Throughout this quiz, the customer learns about Valvoline’s product—but Valvoline in turn learns about the customer and their driving habits, which they can use for future personalization and product positioning. There is also a clear value exchange: the customer receives a $7 off oil change coupon at the end as a thank you for their participation.
Another way to utilize zero party data in your email marketing is by utilizing a tool like FiO’s Insight Marketing Platform, giving you access to countless zero and first party data points that allow you to target your audience with an unmatched level of personalization.
Why it will be relevant in 2022:
- Capturing zero-party data is a great opportunity for brands to build more first-party data and can be executed easily through templated experiences
- Voluntary experiences see high customer engagement: Up to 85% of people are considerably more willing to provide personal information in exchange for something that benefits them
- This valuable data can extend beyond email and inform business decisions across the marketing landscape
Map Your Customer Journey
Journey mapping is a way that brands can understand every stage of the customer experience and accelerate the customer journey. Journey mapping quite literally starts by mapping the unique customer journeys for each program. Sometimes, it’s easier to do this with pen and paper first—identify the gaps, opportunities, redundancies and then map out your new ideal journey for all stages of the customer lifecycle.
You may wonder why a customer spends so long browsing your selection and adding products to their cart just to close the tab, or why it’s taking your customer’s several steps to get from point A to point B when it should only take one, a step which you’re UX manager has assured you are clearly established and vetted.
Defining customer needs, problems, and interactions with your company may seem overwhelming and at times. However, understanding every customer’s experience at each stage of your brand’s customer journey is crucial for turning data insights into long-term improvement strategies.
Creating a customer journey map is one of the most concrete methods to help your brand visualize how customers feel and what they experience at all brand touchpoints so you can avoid potential issues ahead of time, thus increasing customer retention, and discovering key information to make the best decisions for your business.If you need more help to get started, check out our blog on customer journey mapping. Or contact FiO to discover how a robust tool like FiO’s Customer Loyalty Platform can help you create customer journey maps that inform you on how to best meet and exceed your customers needs and expectations.
Why it will be relevant in 2022:
- Journey mapping leads to tailored and seamless customer experiences that elevate your brand
- Understanding your customers and how they behave, what channels they prefer, when they interact with your brand the most (or fall out of the funnel) is often more important than what content you send
- Customer Mapping drives loyalty and retention
Enhance Customer Experience with Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence (AI) provides the foundation to learn from every single interaction and adjust your response in near real-time, while machine learning (ML) is a real time decision management framework and middleware software solution that easily connects to various platforms, providing an omnichannel structure and removes the need for many point applications. A modern machine learning and AI component optimizes personalized experiences to improve business results. The same way self-driving cars learn and predict about the environment around them, ML for marketing learns about customer behaviors and predicts future events.
Augmented and virtual reality are two of the most exciting emerging technologies in 2022, with myriad applications for both personal and business settings. While many brands find there are still barriers that make it more difficult for marketers to leverage this content in emails, brands who have partnered with advanced tech companies like FiO have been able to discover new and inventive ways to utilize advanced AI tech in their email campaigns and overall customer experience strategy.
Why it will be relevant in 2022:
- AI/ML helps teach marketers what content customers like to see and engage with, or what resonates the most with everyone
- Machine learning will help marketers process volume of data a human just simply can’t, and can quickly lead to improving opens, clicks, conversions across your brand programs and solutions
- Better personalization capabilities at scale
- Real-time personalization as a customer moves through the lifecycle
Know more please visit our blog here : https://www.groupfio.com/6-major-email-marketing-trends-for-2022/
