I think we currently have some glimpses of what the future of email marketing will look like, but certain elements are not yet developed, or too advanced, or not yet sufficiently adapted to the market…
2006-2016: 10 years of digital generation
On the occasion of our 10 years, find a video about the evolutions of digital in the last 10 years.
To make these “predictions” I preferred to base myself on what already exists even in beta testing status.
The future will be defined in 3 words: Anticipation, Adaptability and Hyperconnectivity.
Anticipation
Currently, when an Internet user wants something, information about a product for example, he consults his search engine for the vast majority or better yet, he uses a personal voice assistant such as Siri, Cortana Where google now to help guide you on your quest.
With the emergence of Big Data and the possibility of storing billions of different data, we will be able to know in advance the activity of the Internet user, such as what they are looking for, what interests them or what they are passionate about. All this in order to anticipate his future wishes.
Take the example of predictive shipping. Pioneer in this field, Amazonamong other things, it has launched “the milestones” of a system that could allow in the future to pre-order or even pre-ship products that the Internet user has not yet expressed his desire to buy but that he wants to have made interactions on the network that will activate this predictive shipping system.
To give an example, imagine that you have ordered the latest smartphone fromApple and that it turns out that many owners who have purchased it have investigated an average of two days after their purchase about the possibility of also acquiring wireless headphones compatible with the device and that there are even people who have been asking for these headphones in an average of 5 days.
What will happen is that once your order isiPhone validated, your headphone order will also be on its way and two days after your order you will receive an urgent purchase email with delivery in one hour because your product will already be in stock at a collection point near you.
Satisfy anticipating will undoubtedly be one of the pillars of the coming years.
Adaptability
Let’s stick to the principle of anticipating your customers’ wishes. All of this will be done in an automated system. But often this automation that is commonly called “marketing automation” is scary because it would have an unfortunate tendency, in the minds of many people, to reduce us to simple robots that we are not. And again, I won’t mention the security part for many reasons.
If we happen to go to the movies every Monday night, we’ve set up an automatic email send with crazy, for example, to automatically send us the list of movies, taking care each time to automatically eliminate those that we have already seen.
Of course, the email will be related to my schedule to offer me only the times that suit me (all thanks to a connectivity that we will talk about later). But if this Monday I finally decide to break my habits and go do some shopping for an evening with friends that will be on Wednesday night, what will happen?
Quite simply, my mailbox will adapt to my change of program based on my geolocation, my current activity and my current needs and it will prevent me from being sent my usual cinema email, the one in which I have the advance reservation of my cinema ticket in one. click to skip queue.
On the other hand, I will receive an email with discount coupons for my purchases, reminding me of the different current promotions, especially on drinks.
Note that this will not prevent assigned to automatically send me an email to tell me that if I want to come after my purchases in the 10:00 p.m. session, exceptionally I will be entitled to a free drink and popcorn to recover from my activity without forgetting to put in some great call to action prepare all this before my arrival so that everything is ready as soon as I walk through the door of the cinema.
All of this will of course be done only through your phone because in 10 years everything will be 100% responsive of course!
hyperconnectivity
For all of this to happen, there needs to be full and total interaction. In short, the world must increasingly return to a spirit of excessive association. This is the idea that is found on a small scale, especially with systems like Zapper Where IFTTT that easily connect the elements to each other. In 10 years, I see these systems growing and becoming widespread, which will allow everything to be connected.
To return to our example: If a few days before going to the movies, I did some personal research on weight loss. Most of the proposed answers highlighted sports as the most suitable option for me, except that I don’t have time. This is where the interconnectivity between the elements and Big Data will come together and do the work for me.
When I book my movie ticket, deep down I feel a little guilty about the popcorn and coke and I tell myself that it’s not very reasonable.
At this point, there will be a correlation between the email where the order is and my activity tracker reporting to my email that I haven’t started exercising yet (bad boy!). My geolocation will indicate that there is a sports hall near the house that will be relied on via a system of application of the quartier as there is beaucoup et verra de surcroît automatically that my agenda is free on Tuesday afternoon. Therefore, I will receive a tailored email offering to try the gym below for free on Tuesday afternoon to get in shape. Difficult to reject such a proposal, especially if it comes just after the validation of my cinema!
All this shows above all that in 10 years there will be, by force of circumstances, the obligation to fully automate the course. Brands that have not converted will lose any possibility of being part of the digital market and will become mere spectators of the change.
The goal for brands will be that each acquired customer must consistently stay within their customer journey or risk losing it to the competition. So it will be up to brands to constantly find items to keep their customers on their automation stage indefinitely while offering an endless range of services.