7 Email marketing trends for 2011: it's back to basics

I spent some time this past month researching what email marketing and communications trends we can expect to see emerging in 2011. The common theme I found is:

Continued economic pressures, increasing customer demand and advancements in email technology (i.e." Smart" inboxes) means marketers will have to continue to find ways to do more with less, more effectively and more efficiently to produce greater results.

As marketers; what should we be doing in 2011 to overcome these challenges?

My 7 trends to maximise email communication results and efficiencies

Trend 1: Data management - growth, maintenance and hygiene

With international legislation protecting the rights of consumers, you simply have no choice but to ensure your data is well managed and maintained throughout the customer lifecycle.


Your data is the foundation on which your Lifecycle Communication Programme is built and should therefore be the number 1 strategic objective of your marketing strategy and hence a continuing trend into 2011.

Trend 2: Segmentation and relevancy

The more you know about your subscriber base, the easier it is for you to craft content and offers into communications that are relevant to each subscriber. Whether it is preference data captured during the customer's lifecycle, to past behaviours and activity tracked and recorded, you should be profiling each and every customer.


Segmentation and relevancy is important for a number of reasons, but none more so than ensuring your email stands out above the rest – we see this as a key trend gaining more traction in 2011.

Trend 3: Customer lifecycle communications

We predict a shift towards more automated triggered communications in 2011. Companies will attempt to automate as much of their customer communications as possible. Not only does it require minimal effort, but the impact is significantly higher with better response rates.

Trend 4: More social media integration

As marketers begin to understand the symbiotic relationship between email marketing and social media, the trend will move towards more consistently integrated campaigns. For those marketers who have yet to understand and embrace the social media space, 2011 will see those marketers including simple share functionality on their communications at the very least.

Trend 5: Greater mobile integration

It is widely accepted that mobile penetration is significantly high in most countries when compared with the computer and smart phone adoption is climbing rapidly. As a result, a large proportion of mobile web use is spent checking email.

So 2011 will see a greater demand for "mobile friendly" versions of email communications that can be read on mobile devices.

Trend 6: Deliverability and authentication

Proper attention needs to be placed on deliverability because if not managed properly it can do more harm than good.

To achieve successful email delivery, the focus should be on the full scope of an email's journey - from sender to recipient. This will be a key focus area for email marketers in 2011, especially when they see their delivery rates declining.

Trend 7: Testing and analysis

We have covered testing extensively in the Q4 of last year, and see this trend growing as companies start to experiment with their communications to achieve better results within their marketing budgets.

The next step to maximising your email communications in 2011

This blog just briefly touches on the emerging trends; I will continue with a closer look at each trend in some future blogs. Can't wait? Here are some great resources containing tips on how to prepare in advance:

Data - check out Mia Papanicolaou's blog It's all about the data!

Segmentation and Relevancy - Nicola Els says If you're not segmenting, don't bother advertising and Mia asks Is your email marketing relevant enough to make you stand out?

Customer Lifecycle Communications - I covered this topic in my blog Dear Sir. Why have you stopped communicating with me?

Deliverability - Read this edition of eMarketing Insight entitled The importance of deliverability.

Testing - check out our series on Email Testing covering Tips on how to test email subject lines, The Call-to-Action: Email Body Testing and Testing design and layout in email

Haydn James
Head of eMarketing, Striata
striata.com