Capitalize on These 5 Communication Trends to Boost Email Marketing Effectiveness

Capitalize on These 5 Communication
Trends to Boost Email Marketing
Effectiveness
The constantly evolving media landscape looks nothing like it did
just a few years ago. Consumers interact with a myriad of channels
and devices—from email to Snapchat, Apple to Android—leading
to a volume of messaging that can take some time to wrap your
head around. For instance, in 2013, 182.9 billion emails were sent/
received per day worldwide. That number is projected to grow by
5% by the end of 2014. Another interesting figure: more than 500
million tweets are sent each day. Something else to keep in mind is
that messages like emails and tweets can now be relayed via mobile
devices.
With so many things vying for consumers’ attention, people have
become more selective and learned how to easily sift through
messages to pinpoint which ones are actually valuable to them
(with “valuable,” of course, being the operative word). As customer
behavior and preferences evolve, marketers need to stay on top of
these trends and employ strategies to stay relevant while conveying
the value of their products and services.
The most successful marketers are nimble and flexible.
They use data-driven insights to deliver relevant, personalized
communications that are seamlessly deployed across channels.
Ideally, those who provide an optimal brand experience will be
rewarded with customer loyalty.
Catering to prospects and customers can be easier said than done,
however. In this whitepaper, we focus on five key communications
trends affecting the way consumers engage with marketers…
1. Evolving relationship with the inbox
2. Relevant, personalized communications
3. Email anytime, anywhere
4. Added-value content
5. Rise of the passive opt-out
pg. 21.877.YESMAIL | marketing@yesmail.com | yesmail.com

Evolving relationship with the inbox
Users’ relationships with the email inbox have drastically changed
and the increased adoption of mobile devices and Gmail updates
have influenced this evolution.
Mobile
The traditional model of companies managing relationships with
customers has been flipped on its head. We’ve entered an age
where companies should no longer employ the traditional CRM
system to manage their customers, but rather employ a system that
addresses CMR: Customer-Managed Relationships. Shoppers are
more empowered than ever and have the freedom to choose where
and when they interact with brands. Today that means via mobile
devices most of the time, at any hour of the day (see point #3).
In the first quarter of 2014, Yesmail found that more than half of
email opens (51.6%) occur on a mobile device. What’s more, hybrid
viewers—people who open the same email on desktops and mobile
devices—dropped 12% between Q4 2013 and Q1. Now, consumers
are showing a preference for a specific device: 46.8% of consumers
open marketing emails exclusively on a mobile device versus 45.7%
solely on a desktop.
Many email marketers are employing responsive design in their
campaigns to eliminate the need for subscribers to pinch and zoom
a message just to read it on various devices. Responsive emails
automatically adapt to the size of the screen they’re opened on and
the results of this adjustment are promising: responsive emails
have a 21% higher click-to-open rate than status quo (read: non-
responsive) emails. Despite the increased usage of smartphones
and tablets and greater engagement with mobile-friendly
email, marketers have been slow to adapt. Just 1% of marketers
incorporate responsive design in all their emails.

What it all means:
Mobile devices are becoming the primary means for consumers
to access the email inbox, so marketers need to monitor platform
and device usage for their specific audience in order to plan and
measure the success of their marketing efforts. Following mobile
email best practices will be beneficial regardless. For instance:
• Be a recognized sender by having an easily identifiable “from”
name
• Incorporate personalization in subject lines and test these to
optimize open rates
• Use pre-header text that complements the subject line to
enhance relevance
• Employ tight character counts to cater to mobile readers: about
30 for subject lines, 65 for pre-header text
• Even if responsive design isn’t an option yet for your brand,
consider implementing scalable design to help optimize the
email-viewing experience across devices

Gmail
Gmail, which celebrated its 10th birthday this year, is relatively new
to the email space but has shown a commitment to innovation time
and time again through regular product updates. In addition, Gmail
accounts for almost 15% of all marketing database subscribers and
boasts the most engaged user base out of the other major freemail
services, including Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL.
These figures from Q4 2013 showcase Gmail’s strong user
engagement and presence:
• 11% of Gmail users were active in the past 90 days (compared to
8% of Yahoo users, 7% of Hotmail users, and 6% of AOL users)
• Nearly a third (32%) of Gmail users opted into marketing
databases in the past year (versus 21% of Hotmail users, 17% of
Yahoo users, and 11% of AOL users)
• Gmail users made up almost half (43%) of all new subscribers
Due to the growing influence of Gmail, its commitment to
innovating the user experience can have significant influence on
users’ email experience and creates opportunities for marketers.
Features that were recently added to Gmail have enabled users to
have even more control over their inbox, enabling them to filter
their emails and increase the frequency of their interactions in
the inbox…meanwhile, it has become easier to unsubscribe from
marketing messages.

What updates did Gmail make?
Tabs
During the summer of 2013, Gmail introduced a feature that
automatically filters incoming emails into separate tabs based on
categories such as Primary (for important communications with
people like friends and family), Social (for social network updates),
and Promotions (for marketing messages).
In an interview with DMNews, Brad Van der Woerd, Yesmail’s
Director of Deliverability, noted that the new categorizations
organized the inbox experience for users; the positive findings on
Q4 Gmail engagement showed that marketers’ initial concerns
about the update were unwarranted.
Not too long after launching the Tabs feature, Gmail started a trial-
run for grid view. This Pinterest-like format allows users to view
emails from the Promotions tab in a visually appealing way and
quickly scroll through the messages. Marketing emails are often
image-heavy by nature and with grid view, brands can prominently
display creative from their message plus their logo and subject
line. Grid view hasn’t rolled out universally yet since Gmail is still
experimenting, but marketers are hopeful the feature will translate
into higher open and subsequently, conversion rates.
Prominent “Unsubscribe” Button
In February 2014, Gmail added a new “unsubscribe” button to the
top of emails. This prominent button allows consumers to quickly
remove themselves from marketing lists instead of searching at the
bottom of messages for a way to opt-out.

The implications of Gmail’s updates:
Gmail’s new Tabs and “unsubscribe” button puts more power in users’ hands, so marketers have to work harder to
generate engagement. This shouldn’t be discouraging though. These updates should incentivize you to make your
messaging as valuable as possible and enable consumers to easily filter through emails and select yours because of
relevant, enticing copy and creative. Although we have not yet seen Gmail’s changes have a measureable impact on
email campaign metrics, they are changing the inbox experience for end users and marketers need to pay attention
so that they can adapt their inbox best practices and email design to capitalize on new opportunities.
Note: As Gmail continues to
release new products/issue
product updates, be sure to
monitor ongoing changes
to identify potential shifts in
customer behavior and thus
opportunities for innovation
and leadership.

Consumers know companies are
collecting data and expect relevant,
personalized communications.
88% of marketers believe they produce effective customer
communications, but 86% admit they could do a better job of
engaging people if they had access to more robust customer data.
Prospects and customers will have a better brand experience
if marketers use metrics and other insights to tailor content
and creative to their target audience’s wants and needs. By
implementing a data-driven marketing strategy, companies can
drive brand interactions and, ultimately, revenue.
Since consumers expect brands to know them, brands are now
auditing and analyzing key insights to deliver on these high
expectations with personalized communications. Here are a few
ways marketers are doing that:
• Collecting data from communication touch points and
appending customer information from third-party providers
• Creating detailed subscriber profiles based on audience
segments and incorporating lifecycle marketing strategies to
move subscribers from one engagement stage to the next—
whether it’s from inactive to active, non-purchaser to frequent
purchaser, and so on
• Planning relevant messaging, creative, campaign frequency,
and timing based on unique identifiers in each subscriber
segment
41% of consumers buy more from retailers who send them
personalized emails

78%Email
Most Popular Activities
on Smartphones
Web Browsing
Facebook
Maps/Directions
Games
General Search
Share/Post Photos
Local Search
Read News, Sports
TV/Video
Source: IDC and Facebook: “Always Connected”, Aug. 2013
73%
70%
64%
60%
57%
53%
46%
44%
37%
Consumers are accessing email anytime,
anywhere.
In 2013, about 150 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones
and nearly 4 in 5 checked their phone within the first 15 minutes of
waking up. Smartphone users check their devices 150 times per day,
with 15% of checks related to text messaging or email, and the latter
being the most commonly used smartphone app. These figures
shed light on how consumers seem to be obsessed with mobile
devices.
Now that mobile usage has reached critical mass and consumers
are engaging with email more than any other application on their
device, brands have more opportunities to engage customers. At
the same time, however, this increases the complexity of delivering
timely and relevant messages. It also makes the user experience and
design crucial, especially since 70% of consumers will immediately
delete emails that don’t render well on their mobile device.
Marketers should think mobile-first when it comes to planning
their campaign strategy:
• Optimize layouts, creative, and calls-to-action (CTAs) for
different devices
• Coordinate online and offline experiences to ensure
communications reach customers at the right time and place
e.g. encourage social check-ins and deliver electronic receipts
• Identify patterns in user behavior to develop audience profiles/
segments and leverage mobile functionality accordingly.
Capitalize on maps, calendar, click-to-call, and so on
• Don’t use email solely to promote, promote, promote.
Communicate and connect with your audience

Added-value content really is king
Consumers are flooded with marketing communications each
day, especially in their inbox. It takes more than just promotions
and offers to grab their attention and keep them engaged. Many
marketers are turning to storytelling and content marketing to add
value to their messages and maintain customer engagement.
Ensure your content actually gets read by learning subscribers’
preferences (email preference centers are one way to do that). Align
internal resources—including employees—to establish an editorial
calendar and identify thought leadership or content that can be
repurposed for blog posts, checklists, how-to guides, and more.
Build out a content library to share your brand’s point-of-view
but also take a customer-centric approach. That could mean
incorporating user-generated content via blogs and social media
or added-value messaging—basically anything that’s meaningful,
inspirational, entertaining, or educational will do. Though it may
seem counter-intuitive, keeping the focus on customers keeps
your brand top-of-mind and drives website traffic when people
aren’t ready to convert to purchase yet. This can, in turn, improve
customer lifetime value and drive participation in loyalty programs.
Once your brand has loyal fans, they’re far more willing to be your
advocates.
27 MILLIONpieces of content are shared every day
of consumers say they feel better about, and
are more likely to buy from, a company that
delivers custom content
believe that organizations providing custom
content are interested in building good
relationships
ﬁnd custom content useful
are more likely to be on the lookout for
products when looking at content marketing
feel more positive about a company after
reading custom content on its site60%
60%
90%
78%
61%

Rise of the passive opt-out
With the ascent of mobile and proliferation of messages in the
inbox, it has become easy for consumers to simply ignore your
email versus explicitly unsubscribing. The key is to maintain
engagement by adding value to communications with relevant
content while maintaining inbox best practices.
Actively engaging subscribers is key to having solid inboxing rates.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) heavily weigh user engagement
stats in algorithms used to get emails into the inbox. Employ
activation campaigns to catch subscribers who may be passively
opting out before they lapse or to retire those who are no longer
interested. Email marketers need to formulate active/inactive
segmentation plans to provide customers with the right message
at the right frequency based on their interactions with a brand
throughout the purchase lifecycle. Generally:
• Early activation campaigns are designed to engage subscribers
who joined your database 0-90 days ago and are usually the
top-performing segment. Some examples include an offer for a
discount on their next purchase or a reward for their loyalty.
• Mid-activation campaigns are meant to engage subscribers who
have been inactive between 3 and 12 months. For these, you
could ask customers to update their email preferences so you
can provide relevant communications or send them a “We miss
you” message by providing a special incentive offer.
• Late-activation campaigns are intended to engage subscribers
who have been inactive more than a year. Put out feelers to
see who responds and determine if you should continue your
reactivation attempts or just remove these subscribers from
your list.

Another take on activation campaigns is as follows:
The key here: Understand your audience’s preferences and interests so you can provide timely, targeted campaigns based
on seasonality, affinities/interests, past purchase history including specific brands and product categories.
Non-Engaged: New
Frequency: All
PromoTouches
Buyer: Highly Engaged
Frequency: All
PromoTouches
Email: Highly Engaged
Frequency: All
PromoTouches
2 3 4
New to Program
0-x Days
1
Non-Engaged: Old
Frequency: 1x Monthly
&Target Cycles
Buyer: Less Engaged
Frequency: 1xWeekly
&Target Cycles
Email: Less Engaged
Frequency: 2xWeekly
&Target Cycles
5 6 7
Non-Engaged: Inactive
Frequency: Ready
for Retirement
Buyer: Inactive
&Target Cycles
Email: Inactive
&Target Cycles
8 9 10
Non-Engaged: Inactive
Frequency: Retired
Buyer: Inactive
Frequency: Ready
for Retirement
Email: Inactive
Frequency: Ready
for Retirement
11 12 13
Active:
0-120 Days
Active:
Last 5-11 Months
Active:
Last 12-13 Months
Active:
Last 14+ Months
Buyers/Non-buyers
w/ Email Activity
Buyers w/ No
Email Activity
Non-buyers w/
No Email Activity

To recap
Follow these five communication trends to help boost email marketing effectiveness:

marketing@yesmail.com877.YESMAIL yesmail.com
About Yesmail Interactive
As the email marketing solutions provider within Yes Lifecycle Marketing, we power
intelligent customer interactions. We give you the insights to recognize and understand
your customer to deliver contextually relevant digital communications- while
respecting their preferences and privacy. We help marketers evolve their customer
relationships through intelligent interactions via technology, insights and services in
a near real time multi-channel environment. We help you compete in the age of the
customer.
For more information, visit www.yesmail.com.
About Yes Lifecycle Marketing
Yes Lifecycle Marketing is a solution provider that brings together multichannel
marketing platforms and data, with creative and strategy services honed on the
optimization of delivering relevant marketing messages. This gives marketers the
ability to source best-of-breed technology and creative and strategy services from a
single vendor at a cost-effective price point.
For more information, visit www.yeslifecyclemarketing.com.

Capitalize on These 5 Communication Trends to Boost Email Marketing Effectiveness

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