The marketing platform company emfluence held their annual conference Friday, Sept. 25. The event had plenty of speakers and there were tons of people there to learn from. If you are involved with digital marketing in anyway I highly suggest you attend. The session I got the most out of was a panel discussion about trends in email marketing and automation. Here are some of the trends they highlighted:

• Web-based email account for 31 percent of all opens. Gmail claims 21 percent market share.
  – The big news this year is the increased ability in adding creative elements to emails. Gmail now allows for responsive designs, improved font styling and better support for many CSS properties.
•  HTML5 Video is now supported in iOS 10.
  – Apple supporting HTML5 allows video to be embedded in emails. This allows for a more interactive experience right in the email instead of having to go to a website.
• Interactive emails
  – More things are able to be done right in the email than ever before. This lowers the barriers for engagement and makes clickers have an even higher intent. Add-to-cart functionality is the most interesting item that I saw mentioned. Stores that offer online shopping could allow customers to add items straight to their carts instead of following a link to the item page.
• List quality and personalization
  – Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to email lists. The chances of your whole list being interested in every email you send is low. Segment the your lists so the correct messages go to the correct people. This will increase engagement
• Consistent customer interactions across all channels
  – It is important all of your communication with customers is consistent. Whether that is email, social, print, radio etc your customers not only expect the same look but the same tone as well. Be sure to set up a style guide. emfluence allows you set type faces and color pallets to keep things consistent.
• Automation
  – If you don’t have automated emails set up you are either missing out on important communication or don’t have time to do anything else. Created automated emails for a chain of events. “Thanks for signing up!” “How did you enjoy your purchase?” “It’s been a while since you ordered…” Messages such as these are just some of the possibilities of automated emails you can create. They build customer engagement without you having to be constantly checking lists and sending things out.