Summary
Have you noticed a shift in the email marketing landscape? As the lines blur between digital channels, channel experts are being asked to deliver more than just great email campaigns — they’re now expected to create unified, seamless experiences across web, social, SMS, and more. This blog dives into the driving forces behind this change, from evolving consumer expectations to advancements in marketing technology, and explores what it means for email specialists like us.
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When I first started out in email marketing (over 12 years ago and yes, the maths stings), the goal was fairly straightforward: build lists, craft engaging campaigns, test for deliverability, and watch the clicks roll in. Back then, email was the undisputed powerhouse of digital marketing—direct, measurable, and cost-effective.
Email marketing was one part of the broader marketing puzzle, with different teams handling social media, web, and mobile. But that landscape has shifted significantly. More and more, email channel specialists like me are being asked to deliver across multiple channels, rather than just collaborating with other specialists. This isn’t just a trend. It’s a fundamental change in how we deploy marketing.
As an independent consultant, I began noticing this shift in client briefs. Where once I’d be asked to focus solely on email optimisation, clients were now seeking more holistic, cross-channel strategies. It led me to shift the position of my business from purely email to a more engagement-based solution. Those that follow me on LinkedIn will have noticed this.
At the same time (and giving me some confidence that this shift was being shared by the industry) Oracle's Consultancy repositioned themselves as a "Digital Experience Agency," moving beyond their origins in email marketing to offer a suite of services across web, SMS, social, and more.
In their ‘Our story’ they explain
“Since the mid-2000s, we’ve offered deep expertise in email marketing, including design, copywriting, coding, deployment, strategy, and deliverability. However, over the past decade, we've done more and more work for our customers in other channels, including web, loyalty, SMS, mobile push, browser push, social, and even direct mail. Today, all this channel work is increasingly being unified, coordinated, and orchestrated together to create both a critical mass of messaging across channels and coordinated omnichannel journeys.”
So, why is this change happening? And more importantly, what does it mean for those of us who’ve spent years honing our expertise in email marketing? Let’s jump into this evolution and explore what the future holds.
Why is this shift happening?
The move from email-centric marketing to omnichannel experiences is driven by two forces: evolving consumer behaviour and technology advancements. It’s a push-and-pull dynamic, with both parties shaping the future of marketing.
Consumer Behaviour: The demand for seamless experiences
Today’s consumers no longer see marketing in terms of distinct channels. They move seamlessly between email, social media, mobile apps, and even in-store experiences. The expectation? That brands will follow their lead, providing consistent, relevant experiences regardless of how or where they interact.
The Salesforce report ‘State of the Connected Customer 2023’ found 71% of customers prefer different channels depending on context. The same survey also confirmed that consumers’ #1 frustration with organisations is disconnected experiences. The days of siloed, channel-specific campaigns are over. Consumers want to be recognised as the same person, no matter where they are in the customer journey and no matter how they are interacting with the brand.
Technology: The rise of unified platforms
Simultaneously, marketing technology vendors have responded by developing platforms that enable marketers to manage multiple channels from a single system, think Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Oracle and HubSpot. These platforms unify web, email, SMS, mobile push, and even direct mail, allowing marketers to create a true omnichannel strategy.
As some extra reading on how platforms are incorporating AI have a look at this blog from TIS AI in Email Marketing and Top 10 Best AI marketing tools from eLink.
This convergence means we’re no longer just specialists in one channel. Instead, we’re being asked to orchestrate a symphony of touchpoints, ensuring a seamless customer journey across all devices and platforms.
The implications for channel experts like us
For those of us who’ve built careers as email specialists, this shift can feel daunting. However, I see it as an opportunity rather than a threat. Here’s why:
1. Expanding Our Toolkit
It’s no longer enough to be a master of open rates and click-throughs. As email specialists, we need to expand our toolkit to understand how email fits within the larger digital experience. How can SMS complement our email strategy? How can social media amplify our reach? And how can web experiences tie everything together?
Take Heathrow Airport, for example. By integrating email with social and web channels, they saw a 30% boost in digital revenue. By personalising messaging across all channels, they achieved a level of engagement that email alone couldn’t deliver.
2. Data is Our New Best Friend
Email marketers have always been data-driven, but now the scope has expanded. It’s not just about email open rates or clicks anymore. It’s about how customer data flows between channels, and how we can use that data to create unified customer profiles.
As privacy laws tighten, and third-party cookies remain uncertain, first-party data is becoming more valuable than ever. We need to be thinking about how to collect, manage, and use this data responsibly, while still delivering the personalised experiences that consumers expect.
3. Mastering Journey Orchestration
The days of one-off email campaigns are gone. Today’s marketers need to master customer journey orchestration, understanding how different channels contribute at each stage of the customer lifecycle. This means knowing when to send an SMS, when to trigger an email, and how to use social media to maintain engagement between interactions.
As a first step to move beyond pure email here’s a couple of ideas:
- Experiment with other channels
Start small by layering SMS into your campaigns. For example, send an SMS follow-up to cart abandoners who don’t engage with your email. It’s a straightforward way to see how the two channels can complement each other. Editor’s Note: Elizabeth Jacobi, MochaBear Marketing, recently wrote about this for the OI blog.
- Leverage cross-channel data
Think of your email data as a goldmine of insights that can inform strategies on other channels. For example, use your email engagement data to create profiled retargeting campaigns on social media.
We’re no longer just campaign managers. We’re architects of customer journeys, tasked with creating seamless, relevant experiences across every touchpoint.
Challenges in the new omnichannel world
Moving to an omnichannel strategy is exciting, but it’s not without its challenges. Here are a few key hurdles we’ll need to navigate:
1. Managing Complexity
Omnichannel marketing introduces a new level of complexity. Imagine this: a customer opens your email, clicks through to your website, abandons their shopping cart, and later receives an SMS reminder. That’s a lot of moving parts to coordinate. Add in the pressure of GDPR and data privacy regulations, and the task becomes even more daunting.
Fortunately, tools like Salesforce and HubSpot are designed to handle this complexity. With their help, we can automate much of the journey orchestration process, freeing up time to focus on strategy rather than execution.
2. Navigating Data Privacy
In this new landscape, data privacy is a major concern. Laws like GDPR in Europe and the CCPA in California are changing how we collect and use data. The days of easy third-party cookie tracking are at risk, but this presents an opportunity to build trust with our audience.
By focusing on first-party data and being transparent about how we collect and use customer information, we can build deeper, more meaningful relationships with our customers. This isn’t just a compliance issue—it’s a chance to differentiate ourselves through trust and transparency.
What does the future hold?
Looking ahead, the future of marketing lies in AI-driven omnichannel strategies. As platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot continue to integrate AI, marketers will be able to deliver real-time personalisation across multiple channels with minimal manual intervention. The role of the email marketer is evolving—those of us who can embrace these changes will move from being tactical campaign managers to strategic journey planners.
In time, unified customer profiles will become the norm, giving us a complete view of our audience across every touchpoint. And as first-party data becomes increasingly valuable, we’ll have more control over the customer journey than ever before.
Conclusion: Are you ready for the next evolution?
The shift from channel-specific to omnichannel marketing is already underway, and email marketers are right in the middle of it. This is both a challenge and an opportunity. Yes, we need to expand our skill set, but the core principles we’ve always relied on—relevance, engagement, and data-driven decision-making—still apply. The difference is that we’re applying these principles across a broader, more integrated canvas.
The future is bright for marketers who can embrace this change, adopt new technologies, and focus on creating seamless customer experiences. So, the real question is: are you ready to move from being a channel expert to becoming a journey orchestrator?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Are you already working on omnichannel strategies? What’s been your biggest challenge(s)?
Photo by Bill Craighead on Unsplash