Digital marketing is ever changing. New platforms come (and go) but email seems to be the stalwart.  78% of marketers say that email is important to their overall company success.  It’s no wonder with such an incredible ROI – $1 spent on email marketing can return a staggering $42 according to Campaign Monitor.

Email marketing also sees changes and none more so than during the pandemic.  As we move into 2022, this article looks at some of the trends being seen that will help give a boost to your own email marketing.

Making emails more personal

Personalisation has always been a big plus point for email marketing. This goes way beyond simply addressing a subscriber by their first name. 

With the use of segmentation and automation, we can email the right people with information about their favourite products and services at the right time. 

Going into 2022, the use of segmentation will increase as email marketers understand how segmentation can help build a greater relationship with their customer.  With the phasing out of third party cookies, zero party data, where consumers actively give a brand their preferences, is becoming very important to brands particularly in the light of GDPR regulations. Using this zero party data will further develop the relationship with the consumer

 

Make your emails interactive

With so many emails coming into our inboxes, businesses have a very short time to capture the attention of the readers.  It is essential to make it very clear to the reader what the email is about and what you want the reader to do to keep them engaged.

But that’s probably what you are doing anyway if you are on top of your email marketing.  This is where interactivity will start to play a greater role. 

Rather than being a static read, emails will now offer the subscriber a way to interact straight from the inbox.  Emails are going to get fun!

We’ll start to see an increase in features such as videos that play within the email (rather than taking people to an external site such as YouTube) or asking a consumer for a review without them having to click through to the website. 

We can invite readers to complete a survey directly in the email (Mailerlite has a great survey option) and this is incredibly useful for collecting that zero party data mentioned above.  

Subscribers love to be entertained and using gamification is a great way to capture their attention. This could be as simple as a quiz or include a spin the wheel option, allowing people to win prizes.

Royal Caribbean recently sent out an email with an interactive map with seven different places highlighted.  When you clicked on these spots, a short 6 second video played about that place.

Courtesy:Really Good Emails

Making emails more accessible

Making your digital marketing activities accessible for everyone is essential but sadly many brands are falling short. 

In the UK alone, the number of people with a visual impairment is 2 million yet online activities often exclude them, along with those with other disabilities.  Thankfully more and more businesses are putting inclusivity at the heart of their work. 

In terms of email marketing, the use of alt text is essential so those using screen readers can receive the descriptions.  Brands who make up their entire email using images, with text as part of the image, will need to be more creative with their design and use of alt text if they are to be inclusive.  And if you include video in your emails, ensure that captions are available for the hard of hearing.

 

Ditch the open rate

With the last year’s Apple iOS 15 update, the open rate become rather redundant.  It was never a great metric anyway because it didn’t really tell us a great deal.  An open doesn’t necessarily mean someone is reading.  

Two metrics that are far more important are click rates and revenue.  If people are clicking on your email to interact, or clicking through to your blog, video or your ecommerce site then that indicates a level of interest.  Better still if they are actually buying.  Read this article if you need some more ideas on how to increase clicks.

 

For support with your email marketing, I offer full service email marketing packages.  Get in touch and let’s arrange a chat about how I can help.