2022 absolutely flew by! We’re here again to review what’s in store for 2023, and what email-marketing trends you should jump on where possible.
Hyper personalization
This comes up every year, but it now goes way beyond knowing the recipient’s name and using it in the subject line. According to Slideshare, 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company with a tailored experience, and Hubspot states that it can increase revenue by a whopping 760%. With stats like these, there really is no avoiding making that extra effort with personalized content in 2023.
How can you hyper-personalize your email content this year?
- Use the recipient’s name in the subject line and throughout the content where applicable. Avoid the royal you.
- Monitor user behavior, such as the type of products they purchase or the times they make a purchase, and use this to adjust your content/schedule accordingly.
- Segment email content by audience (gender, location, age, preferences).
- Collect their birth date on sign-up/checkout so that you can send birthday emails with discounts they might like.
Data Privacy
Personalization and data privacy come hand-in-hand. When offering a more tailored experience, you’ll naturally need to collect more customer data, which according to Litmus, 75% of users are comfortable with sharing for a more unique experience. However, you’ll need to be careful with how you use that data going forward. Just as we were getting comfortable with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), we need to be ready for further privacy acts being introduced, such as Apple’s mail privacy introduced last year and Google’s plan to phase out third-party cookies (which has luckily been postponed and postponed, but will likely be in effect this year).
Although the real impact of these anticipated changes is not yet fully known, what we can recommend going forward is to concentrate on first-party cookies, collect your own user’s data directly, and keep educating yourself as we advance and as new information is released.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI also goes hand-in-hand with effective email personalization. Most email users are aware of the information being collected about them, but in return, they expect email marketing that better suits their needs – that’s where AI can help. AI can analyze data better than we humans can, and all evidence suggests its abilities will only increase!!
AMP in emails
From AMP forms to AMP accordions, AMP for email is the way to go in 2023. AMP brings an interactive experience without ever having to leave the inbox. This avoids the likelihood of drop-offs after being directed to another webpage for something that can be done directly from the body of the email. AMP for email has been tested over the years and marketers are seeing results and benefits from keeping it in the inbox. A study by Stripo, who included a feedback AMP form in the body of the email saw an increase in participants:
The Results: Of the 12K recipients who saw the HTML version and had to go to an external form to leave their feedback, only 18 left a comment. Of the 10K users who saw the AMP HTML version, 79 left a comment right in our email.
Source: Stripo
Optimize for mobile
If you are still not optimizing for mobile, 2023 is your year, there are no excuses now. Mobile almost surpassed Desktop in 2022, with a whopping 46% of people preferring or just naturally opening their emails on a mobile device first. If your emails are not optimized for mobile, they are going to look unprofessional and lead to unsubscribes. Moreover, according to Truelist, there’s a 65% higher likelihood of driving subscribers to your website via mobile.
Tips for optimizing your emails for mobile
- Keep your email width to under 600 pixels
- Increase front and link size
- Displaying email text in one column rather than multiple
- Test before you send
Send transactional emails to strengthen your marketing efforts
Transactional emails are a powerful tool for any company and they should be sent alongside your email-marketing efforts. Transactional emails are sent after an action has been taken, such as a welcome email after sign-up and abandoned cart emails. They are a great way to draw the recipient’s attention back to you.
Accessibility
According to the World Health Organization, 2.2 billion people have a vision impairment, such as color blindness, and over 7.9 billion people have been officially diagnosed with dyslexia. Therefore, it’s a must to ensure your emails are accessible. The most obvious way to do this would be to use easy-to-read black fonts, avoid colored/highlighted text, such as greens and reds, and use clear and brief sentences throughout your email. You should also put links in bold to help color-blind readers, but do not underline links as this may confuse dyslexic subscribers. You should also ensure that each image has alternative text, this is also something spam triggers look out for.
Gamification
Looking to go viral? Then gamification is the way to go. It increases engagement and allows users to interact and have fun with your brand directly from their inbox. According to Promodo, it can also increase your revenue by 300%.
Here is a great example below by Max Cosmetics for some inspiration.
Social proof
User-generated content in your emails, product/service reviews, and videos of people using or reviewing your product is a great way to honestly represent your product/service and brand directly from your email. It is trusted, and according to Stackla, 79% of people say user-generated content impacts their purchasing decisions.
Have we missed anything? Contact our award-winning support team today if you have any questions.
