Are your emails IOT compatible?

Right from the Paleolithic era to the upgraded Neolithic era, technology has constantly evolved and gathered prolific mass. Did you conceive an idea of wearing a smart watch or watching a 7D television at the comfort of your home back then in early 90’s? We all didn’t!

However, it’s not insane or futuristic if today someone gives a shout out about smart connected home or using Amazon’s echo (a voice command device connecting individual’s demand to an action). IOT makes it extremely possible.

IOT – Heck yes, but what’s in store for email marketers?

Well, a report published by Goldman Sachs suggests that by 2020, over 28 billion devices will be connected to the internet. With that, there will be an internet of everything – from your washing machine to microwave. One another report from Marketo echoes, 51% of top global marketers expect that IOT will revolutionize the marketing landscape by 2020.

Are we still stuck with responsive emails? It might be the time to think beyond!

Managing email campaigns in the age of IOT!

1. Futuristic Design
Of late, most marketers fall prey to some kind of obstruction while designing emails. Some stick to the fold whereas some others optimize it for the small screen audiences. However, thanks in no small part to evolving technology, less isn’t more. The demand for futuristic design is growing and it will further proliferate with the growth of connected smarter internet enabled devices. The key will be keeping the focus on recent trends, but at the same time expanding horizons towards a futuristic design.

2. Connected Checklist
It’s good to see you testing your emails for multiple email clients, but it’s always better to have a beta checklist and compatibility guideline ready for the new devices in vogue. Initially when there were more desktop email viewers, email marketers used to send verbose emails. With more users then migrating to smartphones, marketers started using smart techniques like accordion, menus, flip effects, etc. to provide an impeccable CX & UX for on the go viewers. Keeping in mind the development in IOT space, it will be most crucial to have your compatibility and coding guidelines revamped or at least be prepared to doing so.

3. Consistent Messaging
While we talk about campaign planning centering IOT, consistency in the messaging will be the key. Already, marketers have started exploiting the power of omni-channel mediums in full throttle, but technology advancement will take this to a new chase. With so many connected devices to follow, marketers need to adapt to a cohesive omni-channel messaging using multi-part, plain text only or HTML only emails. There might be new email formats to keep an eye on too.

4. Sophisticated Data science
Data science is all about crunching the convoluted data sets. Marketing is and will be no different. With multitude of data sets coming all the way from various connected devices, marketers will turn data scientists crunching data, running models and sending out utmost relevant and targeted email communication. As of now consumers interact using a couple of devices and hence; sending targeted messages might be easy, but the same will change drastically once the connected devices amplify to a new high. In such a scenario, marketers will need to run analytics model for various devices and also track the propensity of engagement, unsubscribe, etc. for every individual device analyzing the data.

5. Testing investment
With an increase in the devices, there has been a simultaneous increase in the resolutions and browsers. Tools like Litmus and Email on Acid provides a fair understanding of compatibility at this point in time, but could you think about the possible permutations and combinations when there will be an internet of everything? Well, it’s extremely difficult to guess right away, but the math is huge. With so many connected devices, there will be a rise in the testing cost to provide flawless experience across the devices.

Takeaways
• Stay ahead of time and keep researching about the new connected devices.
• Cling to develop futuristic email design.
• Keep a consistent check on the user behavior.
• Focus on data sets and analytics.
• Think holistically from omni-channel standpoint.