Email Marketing Trends in 20232 You Need to Know

Now in mid-2022, email marketing remains as strong as ever. Despite the latest technological advancements and changing consumer behavior, email continues to be one of the most powerful tools used by marketers.

Why is email marketing is still so powerful? Simply because it’s affordable, simple to implement, measurable and most importantly provides the highest ROI (Return On Investment) compared to other marketing channels. What’s more email readership continues to grow year after year. That is why you need to pay attention to current trends in email marketing.

Here are a few email usage statistics to consider:

• There are approximately 3.9 billion email users as of this year.
• The average American worker may receive around 126 interactive emails per day by the end of the year.
• The amount of junk mail has increased, too—nearly 60 billion will be sent out each day in the next four years.
• 87% of marketers use email campaigns to nurture audiences.

Further Reading: 70 Email Marketing Stats Every Marketer Should Know (Source: Campaignmonitor.com)

Email marketing continues to be an effective marketing tool, but the playing field is becoming more saturated and highly competitive. As a result, it’s becoming harder to stand out and succeed in reaching potential consumers. Due to the increase in email usage, coupled with the prevalence of junk mail, marketers have to stay proactive and keep up with the latest email marketing trends in order to combat inbox saturation.

This year and in the foreseeable future, email marketing will continue to be a powerful tool for lead generation and marketing, but it will also be more personalized and automated than ever before.

Because of technology and human behavior, keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of email marketing can be difficult. That’s why we’ve put together this list of email marketing trends that you need to know in order to maximize your efforts in the months and years to come.

Below are four current email marketing trends you need to know if you want to succeed.

Mobile-first Email Experiences

73% of brand marketers optimize emails for mobile devices to accommodate email users and the ways in which they access their inboxes. Users are getting comfortable with spending more on mobile, as well. Due to improvements in user experience on mobile, there has been significant growth in the average order value of items bought using a mobile device. In the past, users refrained from purchasing more expensive items through mobile devices and would, instead, use desktops for bigger purchases. However, in Q3 of 2018, mobile AOV was $66.40, just $20 behind desktop AOV.

What this means for marketers: create email content with mobile in mind from the get-go. The smaller the screen, the more constrained space is, so email tools that offer mobile responsiveness are essential. Additionally, creating easy-to-navigate content with clear calls to action and simpler layouts go a long way with mobile audiences.

Interactive Content

According to a report by Content Marketing Institute, the use of interactive content in all areas of digital marketing is on the rise—and it’s getting results. 81% of respondents agreed that interactive elements content was more effective at grabbing audience attention than static or read-only content. 79% also agree that interactive content has significant repurpose value.

Interactive content can run the gamut from simple clickables such as videos, gifs, and layout changes, to more elaborate types like quizzes, subject line, and calculators. Putting these into your emails not only drives engagement but also encourages open rates higher click-through rates as well.

The interactivity boosts your relationship by letting subscribers take active participation in what you send. You can create emails that combine personalization, helpful and valuable information, and interactivity to give your subscribers what they want.

Email Marketing Automation

What is considered an automated email campaign as compared to using email marketing strategy software to organize them? The main difference is that while regular email campaigns may be created and sent manually or scheduled at a specific time, services that offer email automation work on a basic trigger and action system. This means marketers only need to set up the content of the email targeted as well as any other pertinent details one time. Activation then gets attached to specific consumer behavior.

According to the Data and Marketing Association, nearly 75% of email revenue is generated by triggered campaigns rather than one-size-fits-all blasts, and automated campaigns account for 21% of email marketing revenue—and that was back in 2013.

Now, automated email campaigns are no longer limited to the basic trigger and action system. The software has grown to include features such as:

• Automated list pruning
• Visual email builders
• Pre-mapped customer journey templates
• Integration with CRM and other marketing software

Privacy and Data Security

Online privacy is an ongoing conversation, with social media channels scrutinized more closely and the ethical and responsible collection of user data thrown into the spotlight. This plays into transactional emails marketing because of how platforms use data protection for content personalization.

While basic personalization helps to spruce up a targeted emails campaign, on the surface level it fails to engage in a real way. Luckily, brands can avoid being labeled overbearing by carefully choosing how they use data. Research on personalized online shopping experiences show:

• 52% of consumers would share personal data for product recommendations.
• 62% of consumers expect companies to send personalized offers based on items they already purchased.
• Personalized CTAs converted 202% better than default ones.
• 60% of marketers say real-time data in email addresses are either ‘effective’ or ‘highly effective.’

People who subscribe don’t mind marketers using some of their personal data, as long as they receive something of clear value in exchange. The privacy rules continue to evolve as consumers are growing wary of companies obtaining and using too much of their personal information.

Wrapping Up

Email marketing is one of the most affordable, efficient, and effective methods of marketing and communication. It’s a direct connection between the company and its customers. Despite many changes, email will continue to play a major role and will be a dominant tool when it comes to marketing.

Responsible data collection, personalization, and the use of artificial intelligence can present a variety of challenges. Despite this, once applied measured, and adjusted, applying these email marketing and marketing strategy design trends will lead to more accurate results and improved subscriber engagement.

Tying in these email strategies and integrating them with other digital channels makes for an overall healthy digital marketing campaign—which will help your business grow and stay relevant each year.