The Future of Email Marketing in 2022
What can we expect in the future of email marketing? It’s hard to say for sure. However, it is certain that there will be a shift from traditional tactics such as emails and social media ads towards more personalized strategies such as chatbots and AI-driven campaigns. Here are some of the expected email trends in 2022.
User-Generated Content
Consumers receive emails they didn’t ask for. But the emails with relevant content combined with user-generated content can be a completely different story.
It only makes sense when users are hyper-connected through social media or blogs; they want to share your messages with their connections. To increase the rate consumers open your emails, can teach you how to create user-customized content. The best way to do this is with user-generated content or UGC.
Email marketers will be thinking about how they can include their users in the email experience. It means there will be more competitions, contests, and giveaways, as well as emails that include user contributions such as photos and videos in 2022.
Use AI for Optimization
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken the marketing world by storm, and email is no exception. By using machine learning technologies to automate, marketers can focus on high-level strategies and plans.
Machine learning will help optimize campaigns and provide insights on what works best, to achieve better results at less cost. The key to success is the ability to analyze data in real-time, so it’s crucial to take action immediately when something goes wrong or a new opportunity presents itself. It means automating the processes without the need for a human check.
More Newsletters
According to research by the DMA, 77% of consumers would like brands to send them more emails per month – but how? Since the smartphone became a thing, people are receiving more and more emails.
What used to be a weekly newsletter can now become a daily email, with each email being just as valuable as the next. There is no time limit on how often you should be sending emails, so long as you make them worth it for your audience.
Optimization for All Platforms
In 2022, there will likely be more than just smartphones and tablets being used to check email. Your subscribers may also have smart homes or smartwatch technology by then! This means that you will need to think about optimizing your campaigns across multiple devices.
A recent Gartner report says 80% of CMOs believe digital interactions will become more immersive over the next three years. Marketers embrace augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies faster than other industries. The benefit is that you can create an interactive experience tailored to your customer’s exact needs and preferences.
Hyper-Personalization for Email Campaigns
Pioneered by services such as Netflix, hyper-personalization uses big data to provide customer experiences tailored to individual tastes. The more marketers can understand their customers, the better they will personalize each interaction accordingly. It’s going to be about more than just the time of day for your campaigns.
Email marketers will need to think about putting personalized experiences into their campaigns. The information should be based on more than just time of day, location, or past behavior. For example, what if you could include personalized content suggestions in newsletters based on user interests? With machine learning and AI, it is likely to become a reality.
More Interactive Emails
Email is an incredibly versatile channel with various opportunities for interactivity depending on the message type and brand personality. To capture reader attention in this increasingly-competitive space, brands must find ways to make their emails more engaging to stay ahead of the game.
We don’t mean contact forms or newsletter signups anymore. Think buttons, live chat, quizzes, polls, and even augmented reality is the future. As users become accustomed to rich media experiences, email marketers will have to think beyond simple text emails.
Animations
Animations can be a great way to add a sense of ‘life’ to emails and highlight key messages. With advancements in animation technologies, email animators can create animated sequences. The animation can work seamlessly across different platforms, even when images are turned off by default or when devices with limited memory are used.
When it comes to sharing pictures, you want to make sure they stand out as much as possible. As a result, we’ll see more and more animations being used in email marketing campaigns. This doesn’t mean you have to become a video editing master – animated GIFs can achieve a lot too.
Make sure of privacy
Marketers must make it easy for subscribers to opt-out from receiving future communications or risk losing their audience completely. The European Union’s GDPR legislation has targeted email marketing. The GDPR will likely be enforced even stricter than it is now by 2022. This is the perfect time for marketers across all channels to review their current processes and ensure that they are GDPR compliant.
More Accessible Emails
In recent years, there has been an increase in how many people manage their inboxes on mobile devices. So as more people read emails via smartphones and tablets. Marketers need to ensure that responsive design is at the forefront of every campaign. Email marketers will need to be aware of how their campaigns look through the eyes of users who may not be able to see them correctly or at all.
This means that your email needs to work across multiple browsers (and devices). Also, marketers will be required to enable features like the ability for users to increase the font size, decrease brightness, and other such functions. With more people using mobile phones as their daily driver, this is an important consideration.
Conclusion
Email marketing remains a vital channel for businesses. But with brands across all channels clamouring to capture consumers’ attention, every email must stand out from the crowd. We have a few predictions for the future, but it’s always important to keep an open mind. What do you think will happen in 2022?
