But it would be a mistake to confuse email reliability with seriousness. As marketers grapple with technological change and changing customer expectations, email marketing can adapt by becoming more personalized, more timely and better suited to what consumers want.
In 2023, no technological development will be more important than artificial intelligence (AI). As generative AI platforms have become mainstream over the past year, marketers and customers alike have expressed interest in the technology's potential to improve the shopping experience.
Shoppers are particularly interested in AI's ability to help them manage purchases and returns, better understand products, and benefit from personalized recommendations and promotions. What is the best channel to showcase the benefits of AI while building on the reliability and accessibility that email already offers?
The power of artificial intelligence to optimize news
The transformative power of artificial intelligence in e-marketing is undeniable. In the digital age, effective emails are essential to capture attention and drive engagement. This is where artificial intelligence comes into play, revolutionizing the way we interact with customers.
Today's consumers want personalization and richer experiences. In fact, more than 70% of global consumers believe that AI can improve their customer journey, with Millennials and Gen Z even more enthusiastic (80% and 83%, respectively). Generative AI is the answer, allowing marketers to create emails with each person in mind. And the results speak for themselves: nearly all (95%) of marketers who have adopted Gen AI consider it "effective," with more than half saying it's "very effective."
The magic of AI is hyper-personalization and relevance. Imagine emails that address each subscriber directly with their individual needs and interests. This laser focus results in faster opening and tapping speeds.Gen AI supports marketing teams by:
- Prepare first drafts of headlines and emails for marketers to edit and refine.
- Facilitate better interaction testing with quickly built theme variants.
- Provide alt text in different colors to better reflect your brand message and campaign goals.
- Make suggestions for improving your copywriting to be more effective with clients. I
- Translate text into multiple languages to increase engagement with your posts.
While affordable and accessible consumer-centric models have captured the attention of the AI generation, its potential to transform the email experience for marketers and consumers goes far beyond content creation. Predictive models will go beyond simply analyzing marketing data to generate insights: they will proactively suggest ways to improve your email marketing strategy and tactics. Possible applications of artificial intelligence in the near future include:
- Custom email templates for specific audiences and campaigns with the ability to offer images, layouts and calls to action for the best possible performance;
- Subscriber groups based on activity and attributes to dynamically segment subscribers to improve the impact of email campaigns;
- Analyze customer feedback, identify pain points, and highlight subscriber sentiment to make messages more relevant; I
- Predictive data based on past email performance and engagement rates to help marketers know when and how often to send.
Other new technologies
While AI is certainly making waves in improving email marketing, it's not the only player in the game. For example, email clients are constantly evolving, often without warning. These updates can damage carefully designed emails and templates, leading to unpleasant experiences.
Consider this: As the volume of email has increased in recent years, marketers are spending more and more time testing email to identify problems and manage (often expensive) solutions. At the same time, email remains the most important channel for delivering a positive brand experience, and customer expectations are higher than ever.
About 85% of customers said that just two negative experiences can make them abandon a brand, even if they have a brand they like. The potential loss of subscribers (and lost revenue) due to the wrong emails or ineffective personalization is no small matter.
The right technology automatically monitors emails to alert marketers to unexpected changes. By reviewing frequently used templates and automated sends, marketers can reduce problems and re-validate emails quickly and efficiently to maintain a high quality experience.
Brands must reinvent their approach to email marketing and recognize email as a comprehensive driver for delivering a unified brand experience enhanced by ever-increasing personalization and interactivity. Brands that ignore these technological advances – and the important customer experience improvements that come with them – do so at their peril.
Cynthia Price is SVP of Marketing at e-marketing platform Litmus. His team is growing and supporting the Litmus community and email through content marketing, demand generation and events. She has worked in the e-marketing industry for over 10 years and was previously the VP of Marketing at Emma, an e-mail service provider. Her passion lies in creating authentic communication and harnessing the power of email as the foundation of your marketing mix.
