The new year is now in its full swing, so it’s time to take a look and review our email marketing strategies. For sure, some tendencies have been with us for a while now and aren’t going anywhere. Yet, in the constantly changing world and industry, there are some aspects to which you should draw special attention. Let’s discuss what has changed and what email marketing trends in 2022 are.
Table of contents
- Email marketing trends in 2022
- Personalization
- Microsegmentation
- Data privacy
- Email accessibility
- Mobile optimization
- Interactivity
- User-generated content
- A summary of email marketing trends in 2022
Email marketing trends in 2022
Personalization
In this day and age, email personalization does not mean using a user’s first name at the beginning of an email anymore. It’s time to go further in adjusting email marketing to your subscribers’ preferences. You can stand out among your competitors by paying attention to aspects such as optimizing send times based on the user’s previous behavior when it comes to opening emails. You can also regulate the email density according to the level of user engagement. Subscribers also appreciate emails wishing them a Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary of them being a customer of your company or a subscriber of your newsletter, especially with some kind of reward like a special discount. Show your customers you care about them!
Another great example of a personalized email is sending a reminder to customers saying that they may have run out of a product they bought some time ago and they should order it again. For example, printer ink or coffee to their office. Also, don’t forget about saving abandoned carts! Statistically, on average 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned. Sending a follow-up email reminding customers that they have not completed their purchase is a standard, but effective, marketing practice. Cart abandonment emails can have a conversion rate of almost 20%.
Microsegmentation
While segmentation has already been crucial in optimizing email marketing, microsegmentation is the next step you should take. The most frequent criteria that may come to your mind when grouping your customers are surely age group, gender and country. But, you should also take into account more detailed information, such as their buying habits, all frequent locations, profession and preferences. The last one can be the outcome of the customer’s choice of what segment of your offer they were interested in. For example, dog owners buying products for their pets online will be interested only in items dedicated to dogs.
Another microsegmentation practice worth trying is sending follow-up emails to those who clicked on a specific link in your newsletter and, based on that, they receive certain content. It’s crucial to be aware that customers do not always stay permanently in a certain group. Often, the categories they belong to may change, and that’s why your email marketing segmentation should be regularly reviewed and updated.
Data Privacy
These days we are all very much concerned about data privacy and potential dangers lurking for us online. Caring for your customer’s safety and peace of mind and preventing your company’s impersonation, you should clearly inform who the email is coming from and maybe even which domain the company’s official emails come from. Another gold standard is using double opt-in for your subscribers in order to confirm consent for receiving your newsletters, offers, product updates, etc.
By contrast, if a customer decides to unsubscribe from your list, you have to make this option available and easily accessible. You can also consider adding an unsubscribe header to make unsubscription even easier and allow contacts to manage their subscriptions to individual lists via the unsubscribe page. As a result, you are respectful and trustworthy towards your customers.
Email accessibility
Once marketing emails reach the user’s inbox, you have to make sure that their content is accessible to as many people as possible. Be aware that if users cannot load an email easily, it could go straight to trash within a few seconds. The first thing you can take care of is the size of an email because if it’s too big, some email services like Gmail, for instance, may clip your message, ruining your layout at the same time. The maximum recommended email size is 102KB. Also, you may make sure that your emails are optimized for all email services.
Another technical issue for you to consider is to add image alt texts. In case of a poor network connection, even though the images won’t load, the customer will at least see their descriptions. Other email accessibility factors are more visual, including font size, color combinations and clear graphics. All of them have to be readable and pleasant for the eye. Emails should also be accessible on different devices, which leads us to the next trend - mobile optimization.
Mobile optimization
Honestly, mobile optimization should not really be considered a trend since the focus on preparing emails for different devices has been with us for quite a long time, but it’s still a routine practice, so we decided to add it to the list. We continuously use smartphones and tablets to read our emails, so optimizing your marketing emails for mobile devices is simply a must. It’s not only about emails displaying correctly, but also taking into account the mobile-specific elements like dark mode.
More and more users read emails in dark mode as it is more convenient, especially in low-light conditions. What can be problematic is that if emails are not designed to be displayed both in light and dark mode, mobile devices often automatically invert the colors, which may not always look as you planned. That is why it is really essential to design emails in both modes, especially for crucial elements like the company logo. Additionally, you should make sure that the size of both the text and the image in the email is adjusted to the size of the screen so that you avoid displaying items that are too small making it difficult to read. The same principle applies to CTAs (Calls to Action) — they need to be large enough and placed prominently to ensure they are easily tappable on smaller screens. Additionally, ensuring your main CTA is a deep link that directs users to specific, relevant content can further enhance the mobile experience by reducing navigation steps and improving usability.
Interactivity
The popularity of interactive emails has been growing slowly but surely, but definitely not because they don’t convert into profits or are unattractive, but because of the intricacy of the technicalities. Interactive elements in emails can be challenging to develop, so many marketers decide not to use them. Yet, the benefits definitely outweigh the difficulties as entrepreneurs have observed a rise in sales rates of products advertised using AMP technology. And it’s hardly surprising since interactive emails are entertaining and engaging. Also, interactive elements in your emails really increase your click rate, which is essential, especially now since open rates are not that relevant. Thus, you should really consider adding not only interactive graphics, digital catalogs, links or CTAs into your email design but also surveys, forms and even email gamification.
User-generated content
User-generated content is a great way to advertise your company and build its reputation. In promoting your business, nothing seems more powerful than content made for social proof. If you decide to include customer’s product reviews, images or videos in your email content, you have a chance to make a good impression on your subscribers and present yourself as a trustworthy, well-known and reliable brand.
A summary of email marketing trends in 2022
The email marketing tendencies for the forthcoming months show that you should have an even more personalized approach towards your customers, adjust your marketing content to their preferences, respect their data and privacy even more and more. You should also make sure that your customer’s experience is pleasant, both for their minds and eyes. This can be obtained by focusing not only on the content but also on email accessibility, optimization for mobile devices and interactive elements in your emails. Now that you know what email marketing trends in 2022 are, you can confidently move into action and enjoy the results. Good luck!
Ula Chwesiuk
Ula is a content creator at Elastic Email. She is passionate about marketing, creative writing and language learning. Outside of work, Ula likes to travel, try new recipes and go to concerts.
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