Bear with me here. In 1959 the US Navy attempted to reinvent the postal delivery service by dispatching batches of letters in a missile. As mad as this sounds, an initial test was actually successful. This led the US Postmaster General to declare that the world was on the threshold of rocket-delivered mail.

Unless you've lived in a cave since then, you'll know that this didn't really take off (excuse the pun). But, we did get email. And with that, email marketing. And much like the rocket, this has advanced at lightning speed. Now we are at the start of 2020, where will it go next? What should email marketers be aiming to do in 2020 to ensure that they stay ahead in this ultra-competitive landscape. We asked some of the team at Taxi for Email and Action Rocket for their opinions on how email marketers can put their stamp on 2020 (sorry).

Privacy and Information Security will be more important than ever 

— Will Lahr, CTO Taxi for Email 

Information security and trust were important in 2019, and will only become more so. A well thought-out message sent to an audience who have opted in enthusiastically will present much larger opportunities than the old practice of buying lists and spamming. Marketers who clue themselves up on information security best practices will make the most waves in 2020. 

We'll go beyond the basics of Accessibility

— Elliot Ross, CEO Taxi for Email 

We've known and adapted for the basics of accessibility for a few years now: adding code that helps email work better with screen readers for example. In 2020 and beyond, marketers and designers should consider accessibility more broadly — does the language of your copy trigger anxiety? Do the colours in your design have enough contrast? Is your content easy to understand?

We'll find better ways to measure success

— Paris Fisher, Technical Success, Taxi for Email 

 We use data as a way of gauging whether our emails were successful or not. But this isn't necessarily the only way we should measure success. Evaluating the previous year at the beginning of the new year (whilst it's quiet?) can give a fresh perspective and highlight things that you may not have seen before. Finding any areas of improvement is priceless. Is the way you work efficient enough? Could you use personalisation in a new way? Is there a better way to populate copy into your emails? Is your ESP offering everything you need? Questions like this are integral to ask yourself, as these impact the success of your email, way before it's sent.

Marketing teams will find better ways to collaborate

— Ben Hubbard, Customer Success, Taxi for Email 

Well-planned campaigns are better executed campaigns. Marketers in 2020 should aim for maximum efficiency, and to achieve this they need bullet-proof processes to create the best emails. Look at embracing the agile working methodology as a way of streamlining antiquated planning processes whilst also ensuring you can stay flexible. 

Improving workflow and process is the key to success

— Jay Oram, Design & Development, ActionRocket 

There are so many things being done well; using data, segmenting lists, personalisation, making sure emails are mobile friendly etc. In 2020 email marketers should aim to improve workflow processes. So when Dark Mode, Gmail updates or the next unforeseen email obstacle appears, they have time set aside to investigate and implement a solution, hopefully quickly across emails! 

Can they automate content creation with live feeds? Automate testing by integrating with Litmus or other testing tools? Create a robust design system with Figma and the HTML templates behind an email build with Taxi, then create a seamless review process and reporting to make their lives easier?