mail has become the preferred way for people to stay informed about the brands and products they care about. However, the most successful email marketers are the ones who move with the times.
Email marketing strategies are always changing. 2021 saw many developments, some unexpected. Let’s take a look at five industry changes to check out before 2022 kicks off. Adapting to these changes and trends can be a huge boost for your email campaigns.
Email marketing will become even more relevant
In most areas, the closures have slowed consumers’ in-store buying habits. McKinsey & Company found that 75% of people have tried new buying behaviors as a result of the restrictions. With online shopping and home delivery becoming more popular, email has never been so relied on.
The number of emails overall (sent and received) has increased every year since 2017. The projected number of emails to be sent every day in 2022 is estimated to be a staggering 333.2 billion.
For email marketers who want to get the most out of their campaigns, this means they have a lot of inbox competition. So what can you do to stand out? It’s as simple as planning and sending emails that people want to open. Customers will want to open emails that have real value.
For those who haven’t yet jumped on the email marketing bandwagon, it can feel like too little is too late. It’s not like that. Even brands launching a newsletter in 2022 could enjoy huge benefits and communicate all the right things to their customers.
Open rates are no longer the “end of everything”
Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) went into effect in September 2021. Citing privacy concerns, Apple prevented senders from tracking open rates using invisible pixels. Chad S. White, director of research at Oracle Marketing Consulting, noted that this will lead to false opens, noting that “all Apple openings will be hugely inflated in the future.” The problem, in a nutshell, is that unengaged subscribers will appear to be active.
So open rates are pretty much dead. This does not mean that they are useless metrics, but it does mean that they are less reliable. Instead, we’ll see a greater focus on click-through rates and overall email engagement.
In 2022, the key will be more personalized communication with readers and customers. Next year, try to reframe the mindset that email marketing is a form of one-way communication. Encourage replies, and when a reader sends you a message, by all means, write it down. Interactivity is likely to increase like never before, and you can be ahead of the game by adopting earlier than your competitors.
Data deterioration has accelerated
On average, about a quarter of an email list goes bad in a year. In 2020 and 2021, email lists have been churning even faster. For example, at ZeroBounce, we discovered that 30% of our email database became out of date in the past year, so we had to drop those contacts.
Why did this happen?
For many people, their work situation has changed. The blockades caused the bankruptcy of thousands of companies. Some people were laid off and many changed jobs. In what is known as ” The Great Resignation,” millions of workers left their jobs, with some taking early retirement. The result is a considerable acceleration in data deterioration.
With all the competition in the inbox, marketers can’t risk falling into the spam folder due to bad data. Regular email list cleanup is one of the best email marketing practices that will only intensify in 2022. Keep an eye on the quality of your list and weed out stale contacts by using an email verifier. If you have a dynamic list and you get a lot of records, you may need to validate them monthly.
Some additional email marketing tips to conquer 2022
The email has changed dramatically in the last five years, but last year saw some real transformations. The email marketing expert stays on top of trends, adapting to regulations and practices.
With a little brainstorming and trial and error, there’s no reason you can’t be a trendsetter instead of a follower. Whether you’re a beginner or expert level email marketer, here are some additional tips to conquer 2022:
- Focus on click through rates and conversions. After all, this is the name of the game. What content generates higher click-through rates and better conversions?
- Keep spam complaints at bay. You shouldn’t get more than one complaint for every 1,000 emails you send. Delete those contacts immediately.
- Try plain text vs. HTML emails. Switching to plain text or sending a more elaborate HTML email could make a big difference. Some audiences respond much better to one.
- Experiment with a shorter or longer copy. This depends on your company, products, and most of all, your audience. Try different lengths until you find your sweet spot.
- Let people have a way to sign up. What’s the point of having a list if people have to fight to sign up? Have multiple signup forms and talk about your newsletter on all your other channels.
A spirit of experimentation can spark innovative email ideas.
Marketers can learn a lot from all the changes in email marketing and strategize how to stay ahead in 2022. Remember that trends start with someone. When you develop an idea, the fact that it is very different and is not practiced does not mean that you should not try it. A spirit of experimentation, curiosity, and entrepreneurship is the right frame of mind when you want to use emails to their full potential.
Read More:
