Jed Schneiderman is a proven leader in the traditional and new media space, with expertise in digital marketing, mobile marketing, brand and CRM marketing. He is passionate about building and growing businesses.

We recently sat down with Jed to get his perspective on the state of digital marketing as it pertains to email.

With so many digital touchpoints today, is email marketing still an important channel for business-to-consumer brands?

I think email has become more important than ever. With the growth of digital, more brands are “renting” vs. “owning.”

By that I mean brands are handing relational control over to properties and platforms such as Facebook that own the consumer, therefore “renting” platforms to talk to their consumers. Brands that use social channels as CRM are not in control. Platform companies are constantly changing their algorithms, meaning unsponsored brand posts are not always seen. “Owning” consumer relationships, on the other hand, enables brands to talk directly to their consumers, and often at lower cost. Email is one of the best owned marketing channels.

What are some of the biggest mistakes you’re seeing companies make with their email programs in 2017?

The three biggest mistakes I’m seeing companies making right now are:

1. Not taking the time to understand the consumer. I see brands offering incentives such as contests and discounts to drive sign-ups without carefully evaluating why consumers want to receive emails from them.
2. Over-communicating. Some brands tend over-communicate with consumers (thus annoying them and losing them). Brands must understand consumer preferences for frequency and quantity of communication.
3. Lack of personalization. Many brands fail to personalize their email communications, which annoys the customer and leads to a high rate of unsubscribes.

If you had to make one prediction about email in 2017, what would it be?

Email will drive more mobile transactions in 2017. Mobile email represents a massive opportunity for brands. Today, more than 50 percent of email is opened on the phone. Combined with the adoption of mobile payment methods such PayPal, Interac, Visa Checkout and Masterpass, mobile email will drive more commerce than ever before.

This means direct-to-consumer brands not only need to better understand their customers as I mentioned above, but they also need to be find the right email cadence to avoid losing subscribers. This is where a data-driven approach to email will help increase open rates, engagement and, ultimately, conversions – across all devices.

About Tapped Mobile

Tapped Mobile is a leading Canadian provider of mobile advertising technology solutions. The company offers brands and marketers a completely unique approach to mobile marketing by leveraging its partnerships with the world’s leading mobile ad technology companies to deliver unparalleled ad tech, including: store-level mobile location data, custom video ad units with social sharing, unique in-stream video ad units, mobile retargeting, and mobile media as research – as well as traditional display and video.

Also published on Medium.