I believe we’re going to see 3 things:

1. Increasing sophistication. That means more people will be segmenting better and basing the emails they get on who they are, what they’re interested in and what they do – rather than just blasting out the same email to everyone.
2. There’ll be a big emphasis on deliverability. The best written, most sophisticated email campaigns in the world won’t work if they don’t get through to the inbox. And these days that means understanding and optimizing for deliverability on Gmail. According to tests done by deliverability expert Chris Lang, 70% of personal emails are managed by Gmail and about 50% of corporate email. If you don’t understand how to ensure your emails get to the primary tab and not promotions or spam, you’re going to have problems making an impact in 2020.
3. We’ll see the early stages of convergence between email platforms and messaging platforms. Messenger bot platforms like Manychat have duplicated lots of the functionality of email marketing automation tools. That will continue, and we’ll see similar things being done on other platforms like WhatsApp. Eventually these tools are going to converge.

An email marketing list, and the marketing that follows, is not simply about numbers… it’s about adding value to both your brand AND the consumer. Unfortunately, too many are simply banging away at the numbers.

Consumers do not owe you their attention, and they certainly do not owe you their “permission.” We need to EARN it… permission is earned through quality content and offers, genuine interest in and deep understanding of consumer preferences/needs, and a consistent track record that builds trust. Keep the trust, keep the permission, keep the customer.

It’s not just the volume or brilliance of content that matters, it’s how that content relates to them. If content is not relevant, it’s nothing more than a waste of your time and a reason for the consumer to take away permission for ongoing interaction with you.

People must come first – in your growth strategies, in your marketing plans, and in every interaction that you have. Brands are running headlong into brand equity destruction through incessant overuse of their email list and “permission,” and incessant digital spamming. This is killing brands, and brand equity for the long-term. How many brand managers, and more importantly CMOs, bother signing up for their own email distribution lists…? I would venture a guess close to zero. The thought process around Customer Experience must start including the Customer’s Experience with your Marketing…. especially your Email Marketing.

Email marketing will be evolving day after day creating a truly integrated experiences, we are talking about highly dynamics emails which will drive interaction & have a high ROI for businesses. On the other hand, Mobile email clients are now the most popular; this shift from reading emails on laptops, to reading them on mobile has changed the way most emails are designed. Email copy will be shorter, and more focused.

In 2020 I believe (Email) Marketers are going to have to (re)learn how to market the traditional way, which is based on maximizing Reach and Frequency rather than using algorithms to target people based on their previous behavior.

The impact of GDPR – which gives individuals “the right NOT be targeted solely based on automated processing” [that] “significantly affects him or her”, as well as the right to have those decisions explained, and to challenge them – will begin to bite. Responding to these requests is very expensive and will tip the balance back in favor of marketing to personas rather than individuals.

The future of email is more personalized, more automated, and more interactive. Email is improving the subscriber experience by getting closer to 1:1 personalization. Emails will also become more automated as brands move towards email marketing that responds to user behaviors and interests. Artificial Intelligence will continue to improve and will provide marketers with an easy way to create or improve communications. And interactive emails should start showing up more frequently in the inbox as marketers evolve their message with the goal of improving engagement and standing out in the inbox.

The future of email marketing is incredibly bright. Email is one of the few marketing channels that spans the full customer funnel. From awareness to acquisition to keeping customers engaged to nurturing to upselling & cross selling to preventing churn. But its strengths don’t stop there.

Due to the email address being a unique ID, email has always led the way in personalization and I believe that 2020 will be a year where, not just large brands with large budgets will be enhancing their personalization strategy but smaller brands with more humble budgets will be doing so as well.

Machine Learning is being implemented into email technology faster than a speeding ticket. And when you combine this innovative technology with email marketing being a push channel that uses automation to drive incredible results – well, you have a winning channel at personalization. One that brings not only delight to the brand but also to the customer with their personalized offers being delivered into their inboxes.

There is a relatively new development in the email marketing world that adds a fancy layer of interactivity to subscriber communications.

I’m talking: AMP for Gmail.

It’s a way for businesses to encourage deeper engagement by offering audiences the ability to explore and penetrate content right from the comfort of their Gmail inbox (and Gmail only, **for now**).

This reduces friction because subscribers don’t need to wait for a browser to open and different content to load — it’s all instant on the email message itself!

You can imagine how this creates vast potential for in-email purchases etc. in 2020 onwards.

I believe B2C eCommerce brands will experiment and gain best results from this strategy as it becomes more widespread, due to the brisk nature of consumer conversions (perfectly suited to AMP tech).

I believe the pressure from the industry will force email clients to start incorporating rich snippets in their results. The simple premise that your email campaign – no matter how awesome and personalized it may be on the inside – still depends on one line of text (and the pre-header, if you’re lucky) simply doesn’t cut it. Even search ads include rich snippets, and I believe that may be the next step for email. It may not be THE step, but it would be substantial to have even more people turn to email marketing as a viable revenue source.