"We live in a D-world," stated Thomas Le Thierry d'Ennequin from Vizeum at this year's Golden Hammer conference. While listening to the talks, I counted five D's: disruption, deconstruction, de-planning, de-materialization, and de-creativity.
We are now living in a marketing world characterized by 5 D's. So let's explore those D forces and how they make up new email and marketing trends.
1. Disruption: Unlearn everything you know
These days, it seems that wherever you look, an industry is being disrupted. Established businesses are always looking over their shoulders to make sure some app isn't trying to revolutionize their industries and way of life.
However, not only traditional businesses should be wary—email marketers should, too.
Joanna Bakas, the managing partner of LHBS Consulting in Germany, encourages marketers to "unlearn everything we have learned." Email marketers can't be complacent when people's daily lives online and offline continue to evolve. You won't attract clients' attention by sticking to old methods.
Email marketing (and every other kind of marketing, too) is still adapting to the mobile surge that began a few years ago.
One of the hot email marketing trends at the moment is extreme email personalization. Email marketing is moving away from bulk emails, and so we have to unlearn old strategies of "communicating to the masses" and instead learn the art of having intimate conversations with individuals.
2. De-construction: Find a purpose for your channels
These days, it's not about selling; it's about solving problems.
What is the value that you can deliver and who is interested in it? Bakas suggests we have to "unlearn channel planning."
You need to be where your clients are and use the channels that best serve them. That may mean mixing email with other digital channels or giving up on some channels altogether if they do not serve your problem-solving purposes. It also means combining online communication with offline engagement in new and unexpected ways.
There's no point in creating separate email marketing plans; all plans for all channels should be integrated. Furthermore, email marketers must learn to think beyond sales pitches and learn to educate and mentor clients. Give clients what they want and/or need, and you will make them want what you can offer.
Moreover, Simon Shaw, chief creative officer at Hill+Knowlton Strategies in the UK, states that "there's no B2B and B2C; it's B2H now."
The time and channel restrictions for B2B communication are being deconstructed because people are using the same devices and surfing the same channels in their free time as they do during business hours. That leads to a new email-marketing trend: communicating with the community formerly known as B2B on a 24/7 basis.
3. De-planning: Plan for not being able to plan the future
The good news is that there's no longer any point in preparing those five-year plans. The bad news: this is because we don't know what technological developments and competition to plan for.
Among the many conference speakers who reiterated this point was the chief technology officer at Geometry Global EMEA in Germany, Frank Wolfram, who pointed out that "there is no such thing as a five-year plan. There might be a five-year vision."