Email Marketing Rules10 Years of Email Marketing Rules: What’s Changed & What’s Next
Posted on May 5, 2023
Anytime I see someone complain that email marketing is old and hasn’t changed in decades, it just confirms for me that they don’t know anything about email marketing. The truth is that the channel has changed dramatically.
These changes are top of mind for me personally as I just marked the 10-year anniversary of releasing the 1st edition of Email Marketing Rules by releasing an updated and greatly expanded two-volume 4th edition. As I note in the Preface of the 4th edition, the last 10 years have seen many changes, including:
- CASL, GDPR, and CCPA have all gone into effect
- Email can be read on smart watches or be read aloud by voice assistants
- Tabbed inboxes were introduced by Google, Microsoft, and others
- Marketers gained the ability to create interactive emails using CSS and AMP for email
- Rich preview content can be created using schema and Email Annotations
- Emails can be designed using modular email architecture
- Dark mode is an option in most inboxes
- New privacy features, such as Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection and the sunsetting of third-party cookies
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning have gained roles in selecting audiences, determining email content, picking send times, writing copy, and more
- Orchestration of email with other channels has become much easier and increasingly vital in order to deliver great customer experiences
- Cross-channel customer data can be centralized in customer data platforms (CDPs) and other systems
That’s a lot of change! And, frankly, much of that has transpired since the 3rd edition was published in 2017. More importantly, several of those changes are major contributors to three trends that be major drivers of the next 10 years of email marketing:
- Tighter privacy restrictions
- Better omnichannel orchestration
- More machine learning and AI
For a full discussion of each of those trends…
>> Watch this on-demand webinar on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
Generative AI for Email Personalization: A Hallucination Wrapped in Confusion
Posted on May 4, 2023
Let me be blunt: We are so far away from generative AI writing personalized emails in any meaningful way. So very far. Yet, I keep hearing people suggest that generative AI will be writing highly personalized emails to individuals in the not-too-distant future.
I don’t think this is a realistic expectation at any significant scale, with any degree of automation, and with a reliable expectation of increased performance—much less a positive return on investment. Let me explain why.
The Last Word on April 2023
Posted on May 2, 2023
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and social buzz you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
When Cold Email Ices Your Marketing Program (Only Influencers)
AI-Generated Content Is the New Floor (SparkToro)
You Are Not a Parrot (New York Magazine)
Guess Which Device Has Supplanted Computers As the Go-To For Email? (MediaPost)
The Revenge of the Pop-Up (The Verge)
Insightful & entertaining social posts
One thing is for sure at this point, AI doesn’t even know where to start with email code
— Alex Williams (@alexcwilliams) April 26, 2023
Noteworthy subject lines
Vuori, 4/21 – Today and every day 🌎
Newbury Comics, 4/21 – Record Store Day – TOMORROW 4/22 🎵
West Elm, 4/28 – It’s Arbor Day & we’re planning trees 🌲
Overstock Home | Spring into Savings, 4/5 – 10% off to Shop Spring Patio Prep for Your Outdoor Living Room
Big Lots, 4/26 – Refresh your patio for LESS with up to 30% off outdoor essentials!
West Elm, 4/29 – Summer entertaining, but make it colorful
REI, 4/10 – Lace Up 🥾 & Hit the Trails ⛰️
Camping World, 4/1 – Kick off Camping Season with up to 45% off
Fanatics.com, 4/9 – It’s Road Trippin’ Season…
AutoZone, 4/21 – Batteries for: mowers ✅ boats ✅ motorcycles ✅
Cuisinart, 4/5 – Pollen, dust, pet dander? No problem.
Target, 4/6 – 20% off twirl-ready girls’ dresses.
J.Crew, 4/26 – The 100% linen collection: fresh shirts, slip dresses & more…
Abercrombie & Fitch, 4/29 – That carefree summer feeling, in outfit form.
Wayfair | WAY DAY, 4/26 – 🟣🟡🟣 WAY DAY IS FINALLY HERE 🟣🟡🟣
Williams Sonoma, 4/11 – Gifts on your wish list | To: You, From: You
MoMA Design Store, 4/8 – 🍸 Your Cocktail Party Perfected
Crate & Barrel Design Desk, 4/27 – Inspo drop: Our Design Pros talk outdoors →
LEGO Family, 4/21 – 15-minute robot play ideas for free
Peloton, 4/8 – Cycling 🆚 Running: Which One’s Right For You?
The North Face, 4/1 – Record-breaking trail runs. 2023 Explore Fund Council. And more…
Goldbelly, 4/8 – The Originals: Cakes That Changed History 🍰
Inside CNN, 4/12 – Meet the new faces of CNN afternoons
ECCO USA, 4/1 – Celebrating 60 years of ECCO
Harley-Davidson, 4/8 – It’s a big one 🎂 120 years of H-D
Quiksilver, 4/12 – Introducing Made Better with Recycled Textile Waste
The North Face, 4/8 – Introducing Trail Lite: Our latest (and lightest) backpacking gear.
Zara, 4/3 – ZARA X WALLPAPER
West Elm, 4/30 – Only here! Sarah Sherman Samuel’s best-selling kids’ collab
lululemon, 4/3 – Not a member? Let’s change that.
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Validity’s Email After Hours Podcast: Why We’re Still Mad About Apple’s MPP
Email & Coffee Podcast: ‘The Strategy Comes First’
Digital Marketing Redesigns: Our Process for Success
How Much Harder Has Email Marketing Become?
6 Loyalty Program Trends to Watch
AI-Generated Text: Generative AI Concerns & Opportunities for Marketers
The 5 Biggest Changes from a Decade of Email Marketing Change
Validity’s Email After Hours Podcast: Why We’re Still Mad About Apple’s MPP
Posted on April 28, 2023
Since Apple introduced it in 2021, Mail Privacy Protection has had a profound impact on how email marketers operate and many are still struggling with how to adapt. I join Validity’s Guy Hanson and Danielle Gallant on the Email After Hours podcast to discuss everything MPP. We tackle the following questions:
- How did MPP upend the status quo and who has been impacted most?
- What other email marketing challenges and opportunities lie ahead?
- What are some of the positives of MPP?
- Was Apple trying to solve a problem that most consumers didn’t know existed?
- How have marketers responded to MPP?
- What are some useful ways of using auto-generated opens?
- How should senders be measuring engagement post-MPP?
- How have subscribers been affected by MPP?
- Has MPP actually spurred unethical sender behavior?
Or wherever you get your podcasts.
Email & Coffee Podcast: ‘The Strategy Comes First’
Posted on April 27, 2023
I join Joi Brooks, the host of the Email & Coffee Podcast, to chat about email marketing strategy. During our conversation, we talk about…
- Email marketing education
- The biggest design tip to drive results
- Building interest and nurturing B2B leads
- Desiloing marketing and omnichannel customer behavior
- The critical zero stage of email interactions
- How to create great customers
- Focusing your email content on the HOW, not the WHAT
- How too many marketers settle for “good enough” results
- The need for a broad understanding of email marketing, even among specialists
- The evolution and expansion of email marketing
- Generative AI
- The tension between personalization and privacy
- Data collection, behavioral signal strength, and avoiding creepiness
- Return on touch
- And much more!
Or get Email & Coffee wherever you get your podcasts.
Digital Marketing Redesigns: Our Process for Success
Posted on April 26, 2023
No brand is static. Its business priorities and goals are always evolving. Its technological and channel capabilities are evolving. And its audience and competitors are evolving. One of the ways to stay appropriately positioned in the midst of all of those evolving factors is to do regular digital marketing redesigns.
But what does a good redesign process look like, and who should be involved? We’ll answer those questions and more…
How Much Harder Has Email Marketing Become?
Posted on April 24, 2023
I celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the 1st edition of my book, Email Marketing Rules, last month by releasing an updated and greatly expanded 4th edition. A few stats:
- The 4th edition has 53% more must-follow and recommended rules than the 1st edition (184 vs. 120)
- The 4th edition’s glossary contains 143% more terms (282 vs. 116)
- The 4th edition is more than three times longer (677 pages vs. 214), and broken out into two volumes—one focused on the 184 rules and the other focused on strategic frameworks and checklists
That begs the question: Has email marketing become 50% more difficult? Or, heaven forbid, 200% more difficult?
The answer to that second question, thankfully, is a resounding No. However, the answer to that first question is absolutely Yes.
6 Loyalty Program Trends to Watch
Posted on April 14, 2023
To stay aligned with consumer wants and needs, loyalty programs must constantly be evolving. That’s never been more true than now, which loyalty programs are experiencing nothing short of a renaissance.
Here are the six biggest trends that we’re seeing in the loyalty space.
AI-Generated Text: Generative AI Concerns & Opportunities for Marketers
Posted on April 10, 2023
Ready or not, we’re rapidly heading into a world where generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Dall-E, and others do more of marketers’ day-to-day work. That transition is not much in question. The only question is how well your organization makes that transition.
To make that transition as smoothly as possible, we recommend taking a cautious and realistic approach toward the here-and-now of these technologies, while keeping an optimistic long-term view. That starts with having a solid understanding of how these technologies work, including what they’re capable of and what they’re not.
Having that understanding will help you deploy generative AI in ways that will help your business grow, and either avoid or safeguard against situations where AI leads to costly errors or embarrassing customer experiences.
Because the issues and use cases around AI-generated text and images are different, we’ll address generative AI for images separately and focus this post on generative AI for text. Let’s start by explaining…
The 5 Biggest Changes from a Decade of Email Marketing Change
Posted on April 7, 2023
Anytime I see someone complaining about how email marketing is old and hasn’t changed in decades, it just confirms for me that they don’t know anything about email marketing. The truth is that email marketing has undergone tremendous changes, even just in the past 10 years.
This has been top of mind for me personally as last month was the 10th anniversary of the release of the first edition of my book, Email Marketing Rules. To mark the occasion, I’ve released an updated and greatly expanded 4th edition, which includes a Preface that recounts 11 major changes that have happened just since 2013.
Here, I’d like to focus in on five of those changes…
Welcome! Email Marketing Rules is your guide to understanding the best practices of this complex, often misunderstood channel as you craft the best executions for your brand. Every week, we’ll explore strategies and tactics, discuss tips and inspiration, and dig into industry news and trends.
Chad S. White
Head of Research
Oracle Digital Experience Agency
Author of Email Marketing Rules and nearly 4,000 articles about digital and email marketing
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