Have we seen the last of digital letters in 2023… or in other words, ‘lazy marketing’ - where the same approach is taken for designing traditional direct mail packs? Copy that is heavy, long, and ultimately loses our attention.
Studies show that people generally lose concentration after 8 seconds and prefer to the scan than read. In a world of information overload, the only way to grab a reader’s attention is through the clever use of visuals. The human brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than text. Using the following in 2023 can all help increase engagement with emails and deliver the message in a quick and efficient manner:
2023 will see an increase in the use of imagery over copy heavy emails, with marketeers creating an engaging story.
Everyone is talking about using machine learning, artificial intelligence, and automation for email in 2023, but often the tools we use to create and deploy our email campaigns have already got this capability inbuilt…we just need know how to utilise it. You may not be aware, but the following activities can all be automated and already make use of machine learning.
Exploring the capabilities of the powerful email platforms being used can reap rewards, without adding additional cost to your campaigns. Empowering and upskilling teams will not only improve campaign performance but should help staff retention in this ever-increasing competitive marketplace.
When Apple announced the data privacy changes with launch of iOS 15 just over 12 months ago, concerns amongst marketers were natural considering Apple mail and Apple devices make up 35% of the global email market share. 12 months on though, has the impact been as big as we thought? Simply no, rather than radical changes, it’s been about a different perspective when thinking about campaign performance, coupled with tweaks in creative meaning that the impact has been far less than initially anticipated.
The most recent release from Apple - iOS 16 doesn’t have the drastic changes that we saw with iOS 15 and Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), it does have new email related features for the user, but these offer no material bearing on how we as marketers use email. One interesting upgrade with this release is that Apple Mail now supports BIMI (brand indicators for message), which enables a logo to be displayed next to the sender’s name in the recipient’s inbox, not only does this elevate brand recognition it also can help improve deliverability.
A move towards content-driven marketing and relevant clickable links ensuring tracking is applied, allows marketers to measure user engagement not only with the email but the content within it. Ensuring reporting is adjusted to capture this new level of detail combing traditional click stream events with web analytics enables marketers to make truly informed decisions around email content. 2023 will see reporting and how to measure campaign performance mature, with the growth of data democratisation using dashboarding tools.
To increase the level of engagement with your email content in 2023, add interactivity to your template to improve your emails performance. Great examples of this are embedded videos, 'swipe-able' content, and gamification. Consumers want a frictionless experience and expect to see an interactive element in emails.
Interactive emails can include elements that users can manipulate without having to visit another page or leave their inbox. One of the hottest trends for 2023 is AMP (accelerator mobile pages), allowing the user to act from within the email itself, this could be adding events to a calendar, booking tickets, or completing a contact form.
It’s worth noting that this does come with its own challenges as many email providers do not fully support interactive content; therefore, you need to create a fallback that works great across all providers and browsers to ensure a user experience that still holds up.
User-generated content is proven to increase conversion rates; however, brands have traditionally only used user-generated content in social media campaigns but why not use it to boost email campaign performance. Consumers find user-generated content more than twice as authentic than brand content.
Some examples of user-generated content that can easily be incorporated into email design are:
Personalisation has been on the rise for several years, with sophisticated data modelling tools coupled with a focus on data quality, email permutations have become limitless.
In 2023, we will be entering the world of hyper personalisation, allowing brands to deliver more personal and tailored products, services, and information than ever before. With technology no longer constraining when and what to send, customer journeys can be real time, and focus on one-to-one communications, leading to increased customer loyalty and interactions that match customer expectations. When thinking about how to use hyper personalisation look at the following:
With the growing trend of CDPs (customer data platforms) going into 2023, and a drive to consolidate email marketing technology into a single platform, we will only see hyper-personalisation continuing, with email being truly integrated as part of omni channel campaigns.
Data is the key to enable right time, right channel, and right message.
Staying on top of email marketing trends is a great way to make sure you're always working with the best tools and techniques to attract and retain new customers.
The best marketers keep their ear to the ground for what's new in the world of email marketing, from interactive emails and marketing automation supercharged with machine learning, to proper use of imagery and storytelling.
We can help you get on top of the latest trends in email marketing and help you use this channel more effectively to drive a better customer experience.
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