As a project manager at email marketing platform AWeber, Dave Stys spends every day figuring out how to transform email marketing from a reliable but fairly static marketing platform into something dynamic. It’s something Dave will talk about at the upcoming Localogy 20/20 event in San Antonio.
Achieving this shift to a more dynamic form of email marketing rests largely on AMP for email. This is the email variant of “accelerated mobile pages”, an online publishing format designed by Google to create faster loading mobile web pages.
Dave explains that applying AMP to email transforms the medium. It allows marketers, for example, to insert carousels in email pages, to complete transactions without driving the user to a webpage (cutting steps to conversion), or updating content so that what a user sees when they open an email today could be different than yesterday. Basically AMP allows email campaigns to behave like websites.
“With AMP for email, there is an opportunity for email to become more modern, dynamic and interactive,” Dave said. “It can become much more like a rich experience than a static experience.”
We recently spent some time talking to Dave about trends in email marketing. We share some highlights of our conversation below.
Is email marketing oversaturated?
Dave disagreed we the premise that email marketing is saturated and it’s getting much harder to get people to open and engage with email campaigns. He said this was the difference between perception of saturation and the reality that email marketing still works.
He also argued that email retains major advantages over social media as a marketing channel for SMBs.
“What sets email marketing apart from social media is you actually get to own your own subscribers. They are not just followers,” Dave said. “And you get to control who sees your content.”
What defines “table stakes” in email marketing today?
Dave acknowledged that email is a highly competitive field. What defines having a competitive platform is evolving. He says it’s essential to demonstrate you can help SMBs build and grow a subscriber list and drive open rates and engagement.
The big differentiator is user experience.
“We are trying to make the email marketing process super easy,” Dave said. “When you come into our platform, can we do 90% of the work for you?”
How will email evolve?
We also got into what’s next for email marketing. Dave says the near future will involve making email campaigns ever more dynamic with tools like AMP for email.
Another key area for future development is personalization.
“We are going to use AMP and other customization tools to make sure that email can personalize and customize to the interests of your audience. When a company sends out a campaign, the email you receive could be a lot different than the email I receive,” Dave explains. “This is because the company should understand a lot about you, your interests, and your preferences. So they should be able to tailor that message to you.”
As noted, Dave will speak on Day 2 at Localogy 20/20 on the following topic:
1:50 – 2:10
AMPing Engagement Through Email
Harness the power of advancements in email marketing technology to drive engagement. Learn how marketers can be more impactful in their inbox interactions and reporting.
Dave Stys, AWeber
Dave tells us what he likes about conferences
Finally, Dave shared some thoughts about why events are important for networking and knowledge building.
“What I love about conferences is when there are people on stage educating you and teaching you new things,” Dave said. “You go home and you start digging into those.”
