By Tom Wozniak, Head of Marketing – published on OnlyInfluencers.com on 5/28/21

Here we are in 2021, getting ready to celebrate the 43rd birthday of email marketing. Who would have guessed back in 1978 that email would become the first digital marketing channel, helping to pave the way for every other digital channel in the next four decades? Maybe even more impressive is email’s staying power. Despite the constant rise of shiny new marketing channels and tactics over the years, email marketing just keeps on producing. Every year, there are sure to be numerous articles published with headlines involving the death of email marketing. And yet, here we are.

While we take a minute to appreciate the marketing powerhouse that email has become, it’s also important to remember one reason why the email channel continues to be successful – it has adapted time and time again to meet the changing needs of both consumers and marketers. The future success of the channel will continue to rely on that adaptability in the face of a constantly evolving landscape.

While you could write a book (or at least a really long article) discussing all of the likely developments in technology, society, consumer behavior, legislation, and other areas that could impact digital marketing in general and email marketing specifically, here are three particular themes to keep an eye on in 2021 and beyond. Each has the potential to change the email marketing landscape.

1. Changing Consumer Engagement

For this one, you just need to take a step back and look at the bigger marketing and communication picture that surrounds consumers every day. We are all inundated with marketing messaging through most of our waking moments. From the moment we pick up our cell phones to turn off our alarms in the morning to when we go to bed the next night, most of us spend a lot of our days being exposed to marketing messages through traditional channels like TV, radio, billboards, print, telemarketing, and direct mail, and digital channels like streaming, banner and video ads, native ads, in-app, podcasts,  social, SMS, and of course, email. With messages coming at us from every direction, it’s no wonder that consumer attention and engagement are a bit fractured.

Read the rest at OnlyInfluencers.com.

Tom Wozniak heads up Marketing and Communications for OPTIZMO Technologies.