In 2017, I wrote an article for MarTech called “A Message to Email Marketers: Show Me Something Different in 2018.” I saw this message again while preparing a presentation, so I scrolled through to see if what I put forward at the time had become standard practice.
The answer, unfortunately, is not very much.
What I was looking for is:
- Stop relying on batch and blast.
- Use incremental innovation to create change.
- Use customer data to notify email programs.
- Instead of using the same handbook every year, look for things to fix.
- Engage your vendors and technology partners to help you succeed.
Almost seven years later, we still have a long way to go in terms of complexity.
Yes, we have made incremental gains and made dramatic leaps in innovation. That's what we should do (see his second point above). But now we need a lightning bolt to propel us down the path of innovation.
I thought that's what the coronavirus would do. During the first few years of this third decade of the 21st century, email became the savior for many large and midsize companies.
Email has been a quick pivot, messaging, and low-cost way to bring businesses into the inbox customer experience. Email was one action he took that helped him maintain and increase revenue, protect jobs, and secure his financial future.
Fast forward to 2024. We are at a tipping point in our industry. We need to innovate and accelerate our path to greatness. Over the past 25 years, we've been using email to connect with our customers, and it's not that email isn't great. But we are still struggling.
The list of changes that marketers must now respond to is never getting shorter. It's been a long time coming, but we're still fighting for every little bit of profit, with time, money and resources in short supply as usual. How can we recognize and prepare for this moment of supercharging? We see three areas where this acceleration is happening:
1. Increasing data proximity
Marketers like to debate whether they are better served by a wheel-and-spoke technology model or an integrated platform model.
In this approach, data is the hub of the wheel, and vendors like email and marketing automation platforms are the spokes. We also select each vendor individually and focus on integrating all platforms, what we call a “best of breed” model.
An integrated platform is an “all-in-one” model that provides all the platforms you use in your marketing program and, in theory, allows you to easily access data from all of them.
Previously, the argument against integrated platforms was that they were often built on technology acquired by the vendor by acquiring the company that developed the platform, stifling subsequent innovation. did.
But in recent years, as I've talked to customers and vendors, I've found that this big downside is disappearing. Technology companies continue to invest in acquisitions and make the most of them.
I've seen this change at companies like Zeta Global and Marigold. These companies acquired disparate technology vendors and integrated them to create a unified platform. But proximity to data is the critical gateway needed to tackle all the innovations of the past two decades.
One-to-one messaging gives you real-time access to data so you can make changes to your messages. Marketers, if you look across your martech stack, how close are you to data overload?
How frictionless is your relationship with your complete data set? You don't always need all the data, but you do want the option and access. Additionally, tools are needed to collect data that differs in location and uniform identification.
You need the power to select data that will power different segmentations, models, and ways to render messages according to the information available, not just in the ESP.
This data proximity is the key to sending the right message. This is a central focus for enterprise companies. They want to know how close they can get their data together and how reliable and accurate that data is so they can use it across channels.
To answer questions like these, explore your martech stack to see how easily you can capture data and how you can scale it. When purchasing a new vendor, discover not only the capabilities of the platform, but also how it can help you access all relevant data.
Dig Deeper: Marketing Technology Optimization: A Path to Peak Martech Stack Performance
2. Generative AI
Generative AI is still in its infancy, but it can help companies understand what it can do and where it will go. In addition to incorporating language models like ChatGPT into content creation, many email platforms are also working on using AI to bring users closer to their data. Getting the most out of AI depends on the proximity of your data, as discussed in the previous section.
After seeing the product demo in the RFP and talking with the client, we started to see some promise. It's about improving the way companies access data to gain insights. These can be proactive in the form of predictive segments or have the ability to quickly assemble new customer segments based on current needs. They are moving beyond basic language models to pragmatic language models.
Yes, everything is still in its early stages. But vendors are delivering on what we've been promised since I wrote his MarTech article in 2018.
For marketers, it's time to move beyond just making fun of yourself with prompt engineering in ChatGPT. This highlights one of my firm beliefs about email marketers. “Good marketers know how to code and market.”
Learning to code will change your way of thinking. You have to inject strategy and structure into your plan, thinking about how to set up A, then why B, C and D are important all the way to Z.
That mindset carries over to how you plan and execute your marketing strategy. The work you do to learn about AI and generation engines is learning the muscle memory that will be needed as AI evolves.
It also gives you a wider perspective. What we accomplished today will help us understand the next iterations of ChatGPT, Google's Gemini (formerly Bard), or his DALL-E for images.
Understanding this rapid development will help you understand what to look for when evaluating your own technology stocks and searching for new vendors. We know what it takes to be more innovative to create more relevant messages.
Learn more: New report shows enterprise email marketers are embracing AI
3. Innovation
Data proximity and AI can drive innovation, but only if you know what that innovation should look like. By following my mantra of “strategy first, tactics second,” you can more effectively leverage your proximity to data and a broader view of AI’s potential to plan and guide your innovation path. You can involve other members of your company to reach this goal.
Knowing how generative AI works, how the platforms that use GenAI work, and how GenAI will exceed your current mission will give you a goal to work toward. Just having a program is not enough to be successful. A program without a goal or a plan to achieve it is just a push of a button.
Success is not just about reaching the end. It's about charting a sustainable path to success and being open to technology from ESPs and niche vendors that offer unique solutions to your challenges.
It's important to know where you want to go and how to get there. Creating an innovation map shows you where you can free up your time from repetitive, mundane tasks and spend it creating strategy and delivering innovation.
Dig deeper: From campaigns to conversations: The future of email marketing
summary
With the time, resources, funds, and desire to launch the next campaign, still challenged by the seasonal frenzy derived from the channels we profess to love, it's time to jump into the future. I know it's difficult.
But as I learned while teaching the master class, we are trying to achieve what we wrote about in 2017. At the time, we were still lamenting that we had already been talking about these fundamental changes for 15 to 20 years.
If email is to survive as more than a cheap channel to drive discounts and generate ancillary revenue, major changes are needed in the industry. We have to rely on technology to get there.
This should show you where to focus your efforts now, how to raise your standards, and how to look at the broader field and become more than just a marketer pumping out 20% discount after 20% discount. is. It’s hard to do all the other things you’re tasked with accomplishing. But if not you, then who?
Don't settle for the materials your company is given when making technology decisions. Instead, let's step up. Ask your company or technology vendor about the technology, proximity to data, time and resources to plan what you need and how to get there.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.
