Email is having a resurgent moment. Landing an impressive $36 for every $1 spent, no matter how trendy it becomes to claim email is dead, it continues to be a critical business tool and something that mobile apps can no longer ignore. There are a surprising number of mobile apps that entirely disregard email. What do those marketers then do if a consumer uninstalls that app? To turn a blind eye to the most ubiquitous form of communication is to leave significant sums of money on the table.

This piece will focus on why integrating email is vital for omnichannel marketing, where its value lies in comparison to push notifications, and how to best balance the use of email with newer tools like Live Activities.

Why integrate email into omnichannel marketing in 2024?

The market size for email marketing is expected to hit $10.8B, which means leveraging email continues to be very lucrative. Marketers must know how time impacts each channel to execute an effective omnichannel strategy. Push notifications are perfect for sharing real-time updates or information that requires immediacy. Something like physical mail requires a substantial lead time and can risk being outdated before it arrives. Email fits perfectly in the middle, allowing for multiple touch points across a longer lead time and an opportunity to share key reminders or create transaction opportunities. In fact, push notifications and email were the most popular combination of channels in 2023, when there was a 140% increase in marketers executing multichannel strategies.

How can email support other channels?

There is a myriad of ways that email can support each channel in a modern marketing campaign, but here are three essential tactics:

Push Notifications and Cart Abandonment Recovery:

Because of their immediate deliverability and visibility, push notifications are ideal for conveying time-sensitive or urgent information, such as cart abandonment recovery, flash sales, breaking news, or appointment reminders. Emails are better suited for detailing the value behind the urgency and using rich media assets (like countdown timers) to drive the point home visually. Using both channels allows you to create a sense of urgency for users while utilizing longer-form content to provide important context for your campaigns.

SMS Notifications:

It is best practice to send SMS notifications before emails. This can often act like a teaser ensuring that consumers are aware of a new deal or opportunity while planting the seed in their mind to keep a close eye on their email for more details.

Online and Physical Retail Shops:

Providing exclusive discounts to customers who sign up for your email list in-store is an excellent way to maintain customer loyalty. By sending these exclusive discounts over email, customers will be inclined to create to return to the store.

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Where does email fit with newer tools like Live Activities?

When Apple introduced Live Activities in October 2022, it was a game-changing moment for marketers. Live Activities are a type of interactive push notification that enables iOS apps to provide real-time updates to their users, visible from the lock screen and the dynamic island. Incorporating Live Activities alongside email in omnichannel solutions only further generates user retention and loyalty.

Email is a pivotal component in the successful use of Live Activities. Let’s examine a food delivery app as an example of how email, push notifications and Live activities can work in harmony:

• Before: The attention-grabbing qualities of push notifications will urgently avoid cart abandonment, with notifications such as “xx, you forgot to check out!” or “xx, you have an order left in your cart!” reminding users to complete their purchase.
• During: Live Activities allows users to track orders in real-time, granting customers increased trust in the business by allowing them to see the order in real-time. This is also valuable in reducing repetitive touchpoints like email and push that become quickly outdated.
• After: Users expect to have transactional messages they can keep, like a receipt. Users typically receive an email after their order has been completed, with email offering the perfect ending to the user’s activity rather than having several messages that clog their inbox.

Email provides a more concrete and long-lasting source of information that partners well with the fleeting nature of time-sensitive updates and push notifications. Again, successful marketing is about timing and having multiple touchpoints without becoming redundant or irritating a customer. Email is perfect for messages with a lengthy message or longer shelf-life as a support system for more time-sensitive touchpoints.

Email is not dead and is, in fact, back in the spotlight. It’s a vital part of the marketer’s toolkit that makes each of the other parts more effective, even the most modern of them, like Live Activities. No matter what kind of app a marketer has or product they’re trying to help sell, the more channels they are effectively using, the more successful they will be.

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