If you think the future of email has some serious challenges, you are not alone.
Social media, video sharing platforms, instant messaging solutions, …. All these make people re-examine email marketing trends. Everyone seems to be trying to figure out if any of the alternative channels might replace email. In other words, they’d like to learn what’s the future of email.
Not surprisingly, email is going strong and the future of email marketing is secure. Organizations are building new tools around email. Marketers are swiftly deploying artificial intelligence in email marketing. Using ChatGPT for email copy, for instance, is becoming normal.
Check out the figures below:
Source: Radicati
You’ll see the number of email users has been rising. In 2021, there were 4,147 million users. In 2023 the same is 4,371 million, clocking around 3% growth per year.
That means email marketing is growing. Predictions on how email will shape new age marketing may vary slightly. However, there’s no disagreement over the fact that emails will play a pivotal role.
How email has evolved
To understand the future of email, let’s take a quick look at how email has evolved over time.
New technology and tools supporting and enhancing email are constantly being introduced. Lawmakers are introducing detailed regulations and laws. Bodies, both government and private, are monitoring how email is being used.
The user base of emails has constantly grown since email was born. Email marketing ROI continues to remain high.
All these clearly point to one thing: email is growing, not dead.
What makes email future proof
Here are 5 features of email that make it resilient and secure a strong future for emails.
1. Emails are resilient
Multiple communication tools and mediums have evolved since email started. Many of them have survived and flourished.
Email marketing trends show that email has thrived, despite all these tools. In fact, email has complemented many emerging tools that were sometimes touted as the death knell of email.
As low-budget marketing ideas continue evolving, email figures on the marketing strategies of small businesses as well.
2. Emails are focused communication
Above is the screenshot of a typical Facebook account. There are so many distractions you will likely get lost (Of course, that model works fine for Facebook).
Now check the screenshot of an email below: The layout is clean and minimalistic – there’s no way for you to be distracted. You have the undivided attention of your subscribers.
This means that with emails, you can deliver the message effectively and drive conversions. When you look at email vs. other communication tools, emails have a huge lead.
3. Emails are getting smarter
If you use Gmail, you’ve probably noticed that Gmail predicts what you might reply.
You can send personalized emails and make the recipient feel the email was written specifically for them. You can integrate emails with different tools and save you long hours of human work.
Interactive emails are making communication more meaningful, more fruitful for both the sender and the recipient.
You’ve already been using email automation. Now you may leverage user data in order to create hyper-targeted emails. Behavioral targeting in email marketing is easier than ever.
4. Emails are marketer-friendly
No prizes for guessing that emails are marketer-friendly.
That’s because you have all kinds of email services available to support your sales and marketing functions.
A customer made a purchase? A subscriber requested a password reset link? Transactional email service providers can take care of that.
Want to send marketing emails? Wish to offer special discounts to loyal customers? Email service providers (ESPs) can help you there.
What’s more, you can leverage behavioural data. In email marketing, you can choose when to trigger what messages. These triggers can be based on what actions your subscribers have taken.
5. Emails are cost effective
You already know this, but this is so important it bears repetition. Emails are very cost-effective: For every $1 you spend, you get upto $38 in revenue (Source). And email marketing automation keeps driving your costs down.
What’s more, email analytics will tell you everything you need to know. Using those insights and data, you’ll easily figure out where to put in more effort.
Email is hardy. Like a cockroach
Slack, founded in 2013, was once believed to be a tool that’d kill email. However, Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield (who also co-founded Flickr) likened email to a cockroach (one of the hardiest and most tenacious organisms). He said email is not dying anytime soon, at least not for the next 30-40 years.
The figures given earlier vindicate Butterfield: email is growing, not dying.
Today, email is almost omnipresent.
Email experts on the future of email marketing
Here are five expert opinions to help you better understand the future of email and also how it’s most likely to evolve.
- Emails will be more visual and interactive (Erik Lukas, founder Jumpin Labs)
- Chatbots will be complementary to email. (Expert Sender Email Marketing Handbook)
- Email will leverage every interaction from the Internet of Things, location, behavioral data, and customer preferences to deliver messages to the customer in exactly the right context. (Eric Stahl, Litmus)
- More permutations and combinations …in emails can soon transform emails into microsites. So the end-user can complete a task right within the email without depending on any supporting applications. (Email Monks)
- Email segmentation will take another leap forward to become even more personalized. It provides users with tailored content that perfectly matches their personal needs. (Digital Doughnut)
Concluding remarks on the future of email marketing
Email is going strong. And will likely remain strong.
New age tools make sharing and scheduling of emails easier and faster. On the side of measurement metrics, you have tools like SalesHandy that help you track the open rates and timings of the emails you sent or help mail merge campaigns. Email verification services help you maintain a clean mailing list so that you have practically no email bounces.
Well, that’s why everyone’s betting heavily in favor of email.
Long live email marketing!
(Last updated 26 Dec 2018)
