Steffen Schebesta, CEO and VP of Corporate Development at Sendinblue chats about a few MarTech Predictions that will dominate through 2022 in this Q&A with MarTech Series:

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat Steffen, tell us more about yourself and how your last company’s acquisition led you to Sendinblue?

Thanks! My journey to Sendinblue started in Germany in 2011, where I co-founded and became the CEO of Newsletter2Go, an email marketing provider, which quickly became the leading provider in the German market. Fast forward to 2019, and Newsletter2Go was acquired by email marketing platform, Sendinblue. Since 2020, I’ve been leading the company as Sendinblue’s CEO of North America. In 2021, I expanded this role to also lead Sendinblue’s strategic M&A and growth as VP of Corporate Development, and Sendinblue has evolved to become an all-in-one digital marketing platform with full CRM capabilities.

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What are some of the top trends you’ve been observing and following in email marketing? What are some top predictions you have for 2022?

In 2021, we witnessed more conversations around privacy concerns and cybersecurity issues, and many companies responded, including Apple and Google. In 2022, we expect data privacy to become a priority and brands will face new roadblocks to connect to and engage with customers. In order to maintain customer loyalty and trust, brands must adapt to these new restrictions and maintain data transparency. Email marketing will continue to be a dominant channel for brands to connect to customers, but brands must be transparent with how customer data is being used, or risk losing customers.

How can marketers and salespeople drive better email output in today’s overly crowded marketplace?

Personalization is key. Emails need to be sent at the right time with the right content to the right recipient. Basically, marketers and salespeople should try to aim for a 1-on-1 experience where emails are so personalized that it feels like they were made for each person individually. The best way to get there is to a) know your customers extremely well b) segment them accordingly and c) personalize the content to match their preferences. Then use marketing automation to set up workflows to optimally serve your customers.

What are the kind of email automation features that will grow in demand and popularity as email marketing trends change?

Generally speaking, marketing automation has become more sophisticated and easier-to-use both at the same time. While that might sound counterintuitive at first, it can be easily explained by the advances in technology and user experience. For marketers and salespeople this is good news. Marketing software has become more and more advanced and offers automation scenarios that used to be very hard to set up before.

The most powerful marketing automations combine data from multiple sources, e.g., your webshop, your CRM and the contact’s past and live activity and behaviour and send campaigns based on that. Since this can become quite complex, AI will continue to rise, optimizing the best send time, content and customer segments.

For eCommerce sellers/brands in particular, what are the kind of user experiences they need to be looking at besides email nurture to build better buying experiences online?

Beyond email, e-commerce sellers and brands will leverage conversational marketing through SMS, chatbots or messengers, automation, and push notification tools to capitalize on sales and customer engagement, enhancing the user experience. Marketing tools and channels will be fine-tuned and integrated for brands to reap the maximum amount of benefits.

We’d love a few of your thoughts on how you feel martech as a segment will evolve in 2022?

Martech will continue to evolve across channels, and as more consumers migrate to social platforms to make online purchases, live shopping experiences will emerge. This year, brands will capitalize on this movement, partnering with more creators and influencers to set the e-commerce stage. The market will be primed for shopping from social media in real-time.

A few top email marketing don’ts to always keep in mind?

Don’t let your customers abandon their shopping carts! The average abandonment rate for online shopping carts is nearly 70%, but with a few helpful widgets such as PushOwl, marketers and owners could be cashing in on a lot more sales. Additionally, don’t ignore customer feedback. It’s critical to review what your customers are saying to improve your product or messaging. Lastly, don’t forget a welcome email. It’s the first impression that could solidify a long and healthy relationship.

Some last thoughts, takeaways, digital marketing and martech tips and best practices before we wrap up!

Your customer always comes first. Make sure to keep their needs in the center of your marketing efforts. In particular, with increasing privacy requirements and expectations make sure to communicate transparently and give recipients options to manage their data.

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