2019 has been an eventful year that has gone by in a blur.

At this festive time of year, the team in the studio has been looking back at our suggestions to make 2019 even more successful .

So, were our inboxes filled with interactive,  mobile-friendly emails, personalised just for us? Hmmm read on to find out....

We predict...

a riot! This time of year our inboxes are filled with predictions everywhere.

We've been vocal about our concern with these.

It's great to look to future trends when planning but adding yearly predictions to this mix leaves marketers baffled.

Where do you focus first?Marketers should aim to be better with each week, month, quarter and campaign.

Small improvements frequently lead to a marketing programme which is always evolving.

As our founder said last year....

“ The thing with annual predictions is, the annual bit.

Really, as marketers, we should strive to do better every day, making small steps as often as we can.

Email is a great channel for this, as we send stuff so often.

So every time you send something in 2019, try to make a tweak or try something new, no matter how small, and those gradual improvements will add up.” - Elliot Ross Did your email programmes improve in 2019? We left you with our 2019 email forecast last year, and now we're revisiting to see what has and hasn’t changed in the world of email! Automated journeys being given a bit of love This has partly come true, with modern brands seeing the value in automation we're seeing lovely programmes from the likes of  Bloom & Wild and Bulb to name a few.

Do other brands need to up their game? Yes! A shift from hybrid into responsive With only Gmail app, non-Gmail accounts not working with media queries, the shift towards email clients that do means the majority of emails can now be coded responsively.

Design for mobile as standard Big leaps in design for email in 2019 has seen all of Action Rockets clients and those in the wider email marketing design world shift to designing for mobile as standard - or as we now call it, just designing email.

An increase in personalised tactics within email How many Spotify style year in review emails have you seen this year? A few? Personalised tactics are increasing but still not widespread enough and we fear never will be.

Business needs are always trumping consumer interest, unfortunately.

Gmail’s client share will continue to increase Gmail is currently leading the global email client market share for the first time ever ( ranked no.1 by Litmus in April 2019 ).

Outlook will look to support media queries and interactivity within email Now AMP for email is rolling out live to gmail app users and will be live for outlook.com in 2020, this could be the year for almost 100% interactive email client support! Post GRPR world will stabilize but that leaves educated consumers demanding more The emailgeeks community is calling out bad practices, hidden unsubscribes, login to unsubscribe, and any unsolicited emails getting moved to spam.

The general public are also increasing their awareness.

With raising customer expectations brands need to do better With this evolving power dynamic retailers are panicking leading to overwhelmed disengaged consumers.

A recent study by Ometria found 74% of respondents annoyed with retailers email frequency.

2020:

What's in store? Right quick-fire round, this is by NO means a prediction.

But if you want to know what we're focusing on in 2020 here goes....

Hunting the rising trend of 'Dark Patterns' darkening our doorstep Encouraging brands to give copy some love! Great email narrative can keep your readers engaged We're all about accessibility and small tricks like adding span tags to emoji's will help with growing screen reader tactics Tackling the next focus after accessibility which is creating more inclusive email experiences If we leave you with one thought, 2020 should be about the year of loving your email programmes.

Shout about your brands worth to all your customers.

People want to subscribe to brands that give them interesting content and anticipate their needs but above all that is authentic! Holly Smith Strategist