Automated Content and Email Validation Rule at Ad:Tech NY 2015

Of the many trade shows we attend each year, Ad:Tech is among those we look forward to the most. The spirited atmosphere, candid conversations about hot industry topics and opportunity to connect with some of our favorite clients and partners makes these three days highly valuable to our team. This year was no different.

If you weren’t able to make it to last week’s festivities in New York-and even if you were-we wanted to take a moment and recap three of the most buzzed-about themes.

Mobile is Overtaking Desktop

In 2014, many email marketing professionals (myself included) predicted 2015 would be the year of personalization. As I’ve previously noted, our forecast was slightly premature. While we’re certainly trending toward better data-driven personalization, a more accurate descriptor for 2015 is “the year of mobile.”

In other words, while mobile has been a favorite topic and leading trend for a few years, the focus on mobile in the email marketing world, and mobile usage among subscribers, has exploded.

Chatter around Ad:Tech made three things abundantly clear:

• Brands have noticed significant growth in opens via mobile.
• A significant number of businesses reported higher numbers of opens via mobile than desktop.
• Subscribers often open emails via mobile, but still complete transactions (such as form submissions and purchases) via desktop.

What can we do with this information? You can:

• Ensure every email you send utilizes a mobile-friendly design.
• Focus on mobile-ready strategies.
• Work to simplify submission forms and purchasing processes to drive greater mobile conversion.

Data is Driving Automated Content & Decisions

“Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink.” Before 2015, this line from the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner could be used to describe the big data conundrum. Despite its abundance, marketers were unable to determine how to translate data into actionable information. Recently, thanks to improved automation tools, the industry has better means to transform insights into actions.

Now that we’ve discovered how to organize and understand data, we crave more. Data has begun fueling decision engines, helping brands personalize customer experiences through smart content, better suggestions and an all-around more unique experience.

In summation, get all the data you can! Enhance your customer data, utilize hashed emails and get to know your customers. The more data you have, the more fuel you have for improved automation.

Validation is Crucial

Lastly, but certainly not least, we heard a lot about email validation. Thanks to sophisticated email acquisition strategies, data-fueled personalization and multi-channel campaigns, new subscriber growth is coming from a variety of platforms and sources. But businesses are quickly realizing how critical it is to validate new addresses. By keeping a squeaky-clean list, and getting the email activity metrics you need to make better decisions, marketers are improving deliverability and increasing ROI overall.

In many ways, the most popular topics of Ad:Tech were a culmination of the top email marketing trends of 2015. What lies ahead? Stay tuned for our 2016 predictions, coming next month.

Looking to improve deliverability just in time for the holiday rush? Get a free email address validation report now!