Top Email Trends of 2010: What to Watch and Why

Email is still hot. But if you ignore the trends, youll get burned.
Its hard to believe, but the email marketing that seemed so new just fifteen years ago has become a staple of just about any marketing communications plan. In fact, according to a BtoB Magazine Outlook survey of online media spends1, 68.6% of respondents indicated that they would increase their email efforts in 2010, placing email in the top three online marketing categories, along with search and websites. Just as were beginning to get comfortable with email however, were facing new realities that mean change. The following tip sheet reviews the top trends every email marketer must understand in order to remain effective and relevant in 2010 and the years to come.

Trend #2: Social media matters What it is:

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube it seems as if every year theres a new social networking sensation that claims another chunk of your audiences time. Unlike the one-way media of yesteryear (print, radio, TV), todays social media upstarts encourage people to create and/or share content of their own liking. Although social media is the Wild West of marketing still too pioneering for clear rules or boundaries one thing is clear: people are talking. The question is, are they talking about your brand? And if so, what are they saying?

What you should do:

Social media opens a new distribution channel for your e-mail communications: you can invite recipients to share your messages with friends, family, and colleagues. But gaining traction demands more work on your part. People cant share e-mail they havent received, so your in-box delivery stats must be high, and people wont share e-mail they dont like, so your content must be relevant. A successful joint email/ social media strategy needs: Measuring methods and benchmarks to identify tactics that work A plan for acquiring followers: statistics show that the average social media consumer follows five brands you have to move fast to get one of the top slots! A commitment to creating relevant content recipients want and are willing to share An approach that places the user at the center of the conversation and leverages the one-to-one power of social sharing

Trend #1: Mobile is on the move What it is:

Thanks to widespread wireless connectivity and sexy new phones, mobile devices are absorbing a greater share of email traffic. Recent studies indicate that mobile phone email use
2

grew from 139 million users in 2009 to 234 million in 2010. By 2013, that number is expected to cross the billion mark! Mobile affects the nature, as well as the number, of emails. By leveraging LBS (Location Based Services) technology in many smart phones, retailers like Starbucks are using timely email messaging, triggered by location proximity, to send coupon offers to their customers. As mobile use grows, and messaging technologies become more sophisticated, mobile email will emerge as the dominant tool for precision-targeted, right message, right time marketing.

What you should do:

Get ready to mobilize your marketing. For starters, it means ensuring that your emails can be received and rendered on a plethora of mobile devices. But it will also require you to: Create mobile-ready websites and landing pages Craft concise messages with short URLs Design single column layouts for cross-platform optimization Ensure consistency across multiple operating systems and devices Measure and monitor mobile penetration and engagement

Trend #3: Survival of the fittest emails What it is:

Its always been a dog-eats-email world out there. In recent years however, email deliverability has become even more complex. As mentioned earlier, there are mobile devices to worry about. But the greater threat comes from spam-filtering.

Dont be misled: the real challenge comes not from the filter on the end-user side, but from the algorithms ISPs use to determine which emails are legitimate or not. Today, many ISPs make delivery judgments based on: Spam complaints from recipients A surplus of bad addresses within a given bulk mailing Lack of engagement: a history of low opens and clicks statistics Spam traps: the presence of the senders emails in dead or otherwise unused accounts

Whats next?
Email excellence is a moving target. Improve your aim and stay on top of the trends by learning more about Unica Pivotal Veracity. The worlds leading brands rely on Pivotal Veracity solutions to optimize email delivery rates, ensure message integrity and readability, and to protect their online reputations in a rapidly evolving and complex email marketing landscape. Businesses may purchase Pivotal Veracity solutions directly from Unica as well as through a global network of leading email service providers and agencies.
The Four Email Trends of 2010 - Mobile is on the Move - Social Media Matters - Survival of the Fittest Emails - Rich Email Gains Ground

About Unica
Unica Corporation (NASDAQ: UNCA) is the recognized leader in marketing software solutions. Unicas advanced set of enterprise marketing management and on-demand marketing solutions empowers organizations and individuals to turn their passion for marketing into valuable customer relationships and more profitable, timely, and measurable business outcomes. These solutions integrate and streamline all aspects of online and offline marketing. Unicas unique interactive marketing approach incorporates customer analytics and web analytics, centralized decisioning, crosschannel execution, and integrated marketing operations. More than 1,500 organizations worldwide depend on Unica for their marketing management solutions. Unica is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts with offices around the globe. For more information, visit www.unica.com

What you should do:

Think of a scale with reputation boosters on one side and reputation spoilers on the other. You want to tilt the scale favorably by increasing opens and clicks by: Developing relevant content that engages your audience Ensuring rendering regardless of interface Managing frequency in line with customer needs Conversely, you want to avoid spoilers (complaints, traps) by: Staying clear of bounce blocks and blacklists Applying permission tools scrupulously Resisting excessive mailing frequency Across a large spectrum of B2C and B2B marketing organizations in a wide range of industries, benchmarking studies reveal average inbox rates for tens of thousands of email campaigns is 85%, with the remainder landing in spam folders or blocked by the ISP. Marketers sending email through Unicas products achieve inbox rates 5-10% above these industry averages.

1 BtoB Outlook 2010, January 14, 2010 2 The Radicati Group, Wireless Email Market, 2009 2013, October 12, 2009

Unica Corporation Worldwide Headquarters Reservoir Place North 170 Tracer Lane Waltham, MA 02451 USA T +1.781.839.8000 F +1.781.890.0012 E unica@unica.com www.unica.com

Trend #4: Rich email gains ground

Finally, a look into the future. A next-generation of rich emails is emerging with streaming video, animated GIFs, shopping carts, and tools for bill presentment and payment. Each of these can be a way to increase the relevance of your communications. But watch carefully to be sure your infrastructure can support the technological demands of these new features and functions.

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