Email marketing isn’t going anywhere. It’s been a great source for reaching your customers and continues to remain a popular avenue of marketing to your clients and target market. Do you know why email marketing is so great though? Do you know the statistics behind it and what the current email marketing trends of 2015 are?

It’s OK if you don’t, just keep on reading…

Most people open and check their e-mail daily, if not hourly. Just think, if you can get your company email into your target markets inbox, you’ve scored! However, you’re not the only business striving for your markets attention. This is the reason why learning the current trends in email marketing are so crucial in giving you a leg up over your competition. We live in an age of adapting technology and smarter, more technically savvy clients. It’s important to ask yourself; are you keeping up?

Before we begin with the current trends I think it’s important we completely understand the statistics behind email marketing. Here is a list of some statistics I think you will find quite interesting;

· 80.8% of users report reading email on mobile devices.

· 12% of people use separate work and personal inboxes.

· Over 50% of respondents say they read most of their emails.

· "Secrets" is the most clicked lead nurturing subject line word.

· "Posts" and "Jobs" are the most clicked subject line words.

· Click through rate (CTR) is higher when using the recipients’ first name in the subject line over no use of the first name.

· CTR is higher when using the recipients’ company name in the subject line over no company mention.

· 88% prefer to receive HTML emails vs. 12% who prefer plain text from companies.

· 65% prefer emails that contain mostly images vs. 35% who prefer mostly text.

· 6 AM has the highest CTR of any hour.

· Most unsubscriptions come on Tuesdays (0.52% unsub rate).

· "Click Here" gets the highest % of clicks over "Go" and "Submit."

· Your most recent subscribers are the most likely to click through.

· Saturday has the highest CTR at over 9% (Sunday is second just under 9%).

And what I believe to be one of the most important statistics:

· In 2014, email marketing was cited as the most effective digital marketing channel for customer retention in the United States.

(Source: http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)

Now that you understand the importance and great effect of email marketing, it’s time we move on to the hottest trends. What should you be doing to ensure your customers are reading your emails?

Top 5 Hottest Email Marketing Trends of 2015

· Mobile Responsiveness

It’s absolutely crucial you ensure your email can be opened from a smart phone. The change to responsive email design has encouraged simpler email designs with an emphasis on context, image and has a lesser focus on text. Ellliot Ross, MD at ActionRocket tells us that 'in 2015 smarter marketers will ensure their copywriters and design teams are focusing on things like content hierarchy and the experience for the inbox user.'

· Including Email Animation

Email Marketers, especially those focused in retail, are finding that animated GIF’s are an effective technique as more recipients are downloading images when they open their emails now. Kath Pay from CloudIQ explains that 'animated gifs capture the reader's attention.,, by using animated gifs and cinemagraphs you can now provide a vibrant, live email that engages the audience.' It’s not only GIF’s that are effective, but still pictures as well. People engage better to pictures. S, don’t be afraid to add a pop of colour to your email and add some visuals!

· Including Video

Think of it this way; would you rather read text or watch an interesting and engaging video? Most people are visual learners and enjoy watching over reading. People believe that somehow they can find time to watch a video when they may not be able to provide the same time to reading. It is now so simple to embed videos in your email using HTML5. Compared to what used to be the norm in clicking through from your email to play it. Be careful though, this hasn't been enabled across all email clients just yet.

· Using your Companies Social Media Pages to Increase Email List

Your clients are on social media, let’s face it, almost everyone is! You should use that to your advantage. Different social media platforms attract different customers. Why not reach out to those customers who already have showed an interest in you and offer them the incentive of being kept up to date with your businesses promotions and deals? Invite them to join your email list and promise them something you know they can’t say no to.

· Delivering Exactly what your Subscribers Want

Your customers became subscribers to your email for a reason. They wanted something that could benefit them. If you don’t deliver on that promise you may be in store for an unsubscribe. Avoiding bounces, unsubscribes and complaints can be as easy as knowing what your subscribers want and ensuring you stick to whatever you promised them.

Below is a list of why subscribers first joined email lists:

63% subscribe for discounts

58% subscribe to receive a freebie or enter a contest

48% want to know about the latest products and services

39% want to receive advanced notice of new products or future releases

36% sign up because they deal with the company or brand regularly

34% hand over their Email address to access exclusive content

32% want to receive content about their personal interests

18% want to receive company news

15% prefer Email as a way to “keep my finger on the pulse” of the brand/company

13% subscribed because someone recommended they do so

(Source: http://canadiansinternet.com/2015-north-american-email-marketing-trends/)

Email marketing appeals to marketers because it’s highly measureable. It’s easy to track the return on investment for email; which isn’t always true in other marketing channels. Plus, ROI for email marketing happens to be the highest of all marketing channels and consumers actually convert! In many B2C email scenarios, consumers click on a link that was included in the email they just received from you, get led to your website, and buy something—so it drives revenue.

Consumers like email marketing because it lets brands communicate to them as individuals on their time. The customer chooses when and where they want to open your email. The leading marketers are sending content that’s unique to a consumer based on how they’ve interacted online and offline.

As you can see, email marketing is a powerful tool.

You now have the statistics to back it up and a list of the hottest email marketing trends to get you started. Now go out there, and communicate with your subscribers!