A lot of folks believe that email is dead. With the increased use of chatbots, social media platforms, etc., the assumption is that email's place has been overtaken. However, this assertion, and the assumption it is based on, is wrong. Truly, the idea and process of emailing have existed for a long time, predating even the internet. Also, email marketing is not without its challenges. For instance, new norms and trends keep evolving, replacing old methods quickly.
Furthermore, there are such challenges as insufficient tools for creating emails, bad email marketing techniques, and lack of data and integration. Nonetheless, email marketing still remains one of the surest ways of reaching out to customers. There are several key advantages to email marketing, which are unavailable to other marketing strategies.
This article will be looking at emails trends to watch out for in email marketing in 2021 and beyond.
Table of Contents
Artificial Intelligence
AI is taking the world by storm. From the legal space to medicine, and even business, including gambling platforms, we are increasingly finding uses for Artificial Intelligence. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the use of AI is a trend in email marketing also.
The use of AI is for the collation of user information. Customer data keeps growing by the day. At any moment, there are millions of customer-related data that a marketer has to sift through. This is an uphill task for any one person. More so, the fact that these pieces of information are not readily available to marketers when they need them impacts the marketing process’s efficacy.
However, AI can make a marketer's work infinitely easier. Robots can sift through millions of data at a rate no human can match. More so, AI can predict trends, user patterns, and even suggest ways of improving email marketing. In some spaces, AI is being automated to carry out simple tasks such as SEO article writing. Little wonder, 61% of marketers consider AI as a crucial part of their data strategy.
You should bear this in mind as 2020 has come to a close, and we have entered 2021, AI will soon become the new normal. You will do well to get on board.
Personalization
Undoubtedly, personalization is a marketing trend that will hardly ever go out of style. The more personalized an email is, the higher the chances of response from the target audience. Recent statistics show that more than 62% of email marketers believe personalized emails yield the best results, while 17% believe that plain text emails are the least effective.
However, the need for personalized emails has heightened, and the tools employed for that will keep increasing in the coming years. One of such tools is Artificial Intelligence. We've had instances where robots compose emails based on the browsing history of users. This process is getting more seamless by the day. In the future, the expectation is that marketers can employ the information provided by AI to compose compelling personal messages to users.
The typical problems with personalized emails include the fact that it takes a lot of effort to gather information about users. AI, as explained in the previous point, eliminates the time lags. The marketer can then channel the spare time and energy into composing the emails.
In all, personalization may just be the key to improving your click-through rates. This is no hoax. 82% of email marketers reported an increase in their click-through rates when they personalized their emails. There’s no reason why that wouldn't work for you.
Simplistic Design
In the marketing world, more and more individuals are opting for simplistic and minimalistic designs over others. This trend has extended into the field of email marketing. More so, it looks like a sure gamechanger for 2021 and beyond.
Some of the key elements of a minimalist design include the use of muted colors. This is in acknowledgment of the fact that dark modes put less strain on the eyes than the alternative.
Another element is a simple typography. The font size used in an email may not seem like a big deal until it is. Generally, although people are attracted to decorative fonts, they are harder to read and distinguish. The average reader spends almost twice the time they spend on reading regular fonts on decorative fonts. Thus, the use of clear, legible fonts could scale up your readership.
Finally, a simplistic design involves the maximization of white space. White spaces give the brain room to breathe. It aids readability, helping readers immediately identify the most important parts of an email, and working with it.
You should add this to your email marketing strategies for 2021 and beyond.
Dark Mode Emails
You must have noticed that the dark mode is becoming a fad these days. This popularity stems from the fact that dark mode makes it easier to read, especially for mobile users. With a lot more folks spending time on their mobile devices, dark mode is the way to go.
Dark mode removes blue light. This eliminates the problems connected with the brightness of most mobile devices. For instance, people with astigmatism have a 50% chance of having an eye strain with white texts against a black background. Also, a lot more people just prefer it to the regular mode. You may want to implement this to reach out to the demographic who likes it.
Concise and Interactive Emails
Again, this is a well-worn marketing strategy. However, it is one that has come to stay. With the evolution of technology and several self-help applications, the attention span of people keeps dwindling. Also, the average person gets slammed with tons of emails on any given day. Hence, no one now has the time or patience to read long emails. Furthermore, people can better detect lies and call the bluff of people than at any other time before.
Hence, for 2021 and beyond, you may want to go back to writing short and concise emails. In a recent research of the trends employed by emailing experts, AWeber confirmed that 82% of experts sent emails with a subject line of 60 characters or less. This makes sure that you better capture the reader's attention, ensuring that the desired outcome is achieved.
Additionally, storytelling is a strategy you may want to employ. The use of stories better attracts people. Stories connect with readers faster because it humanizes you. The reader is able to "see" you and not just the fact that you are promoting your brand. It is important to make sure that you stay consistent and on track the entire time. You do not want a situation where your project differs from your brand identity.
Finally, on this point, you should try to encourage interactivity. The truth is that static emails are fading out. Readers anticipate and engage more with interactive emails. As a result of this, a lot of email marketing companies are taking a cue from this to make their emails as interactive as possible. This trend will continue even beyond 2021.
To enhance interactivity, you ought to give room for the reader to interact with your email directly. This move could be the one factor that actually convinces the reader. It may not seem like much, but a reader may be disincentivized from following through if they have to leave their inbox or open another webpage.
Interactivity is anything that causes the reader to act on the email. It could be as simple as clicking and reading the email or performing some other action on the email. Thus, you can input images, clickable items, or menus to increase your emails’ interactivity. You can also decide to just add a feedback form to the email, allowing readers to get in touch with you directly using that means. This also allows you to know how your email is received by your audience.
Make no mistake; interactivity is as relevant now more than ever.
Mobile First
Almost every person has a mobile device. They are easily accessible, and so are the most common medium used by readers. Generally, more than 85% of users access their emails with a smartphone, with over 29% of those emails read on iPhones. Apart from reading emails, people carry out a lot of transactions with their mobile devices. Hence, if you are looking for engagement, and for readers to become paying customers, you ought to optimize your emails for mobile devices.
Mobile email marketing provides a clean interface. Users are able to make use of their phones to access, read, and carry any actions required by the email. This is one sure way of increasing the readership of your emails and improving the click rates.
As 2021 draws closer, more phones are pumped into the market. Optimizing your email marketing for mobile makes sure you can reach this new demographic. This is a trend that is already picking up. You may just want to jump on it.
Make Use of User-generated content
This practice is rife among social media marketers. However, it appears to be making a crossover to email marketing. In the coming years, it would definitely become mainstream, turning into standard practice for email marketing. You would take advantage of the opportunity to get started beforehand.
User-generated content offers legitimacy to your business. It shows that there are people interested enough to make use of your product/service. Which is why close to half of marketers believe user-generated content humanizes their business.
To begin, first make use of user-generated content for your emails. Hence, you should share videos, pictures, etc., from past customers. This could be in the form of reviews and testimonials.
Furthermore, your emails could be avenues to collate user data, too. You could ask users to send in reviews and testimonials. Also, you can create polls on your email and have readers react or respond to the emails. You could then collate the information to have a comprehensive view of consumer attitude regarding the point in question.
If you offer an incentive, users would even be further inclined to send you some content. This is because 85% of email subscribers hope for a reward. You can cash in on this huge demographic.
Conclusion
Trends will constantly change as the world evolves. Email marketing trends will not be an exception. To get ahead, you may want to identify these trends and engage them. Being quick and responsive will help you maximize the benefits attached to each trend.
FAQs
1) What is the future of email marketing?
Email marketing is not going anywhere and here are a couple of statistics to prove that email marketing is only going to get more popular:
- There were an around 3.9 billion email users in the world in 2019 and this number is expected to grow to 4.3 billion by 2024.
- 102.6 trillion emails are sent and received each year, and that number is still rising.
2) What are the latest trends in email marketing?
Some of the latest trends in email marketing are, the AI revolution, laser focused personalization, dark-mode emails, interactive email campaigns, preference to mobiles for checking emails, and making use of user-generated content. There are more, but these are the key email Marketing trends that are most popular.
3) What is the role of AI in email marketing?
The use of AI is for the collation of user information. Customer data keeps growing by the day, and there are millions of customer-related data that a marketer has to sift through. Robots can sift through millions of data at a rate no human can match. More so, AI can predict trends, user patterns, and even suggest ways of improving email marketing.
4) Why is dark-mode in emails so popular nowadays?
Dark mode makes it easier to read, especially for mobile users as it removes blue light, and this eliminates the problems connected with the brightness of most mobile devices. With a lot more readers spending time on their mobile devices, dark mode has gained popularity.
