Gert Svaiko, freelance copywriter based in Tallinn, Estonia.
Email marketing is a lifeline for many businesses and ecommerce sites. Following the global pandemic, digital marketing channels have become the most sought-after means to promote and increase an online store’s revenue.
Furthermore, according to DMA’s 2019 Email Tracker report, the return on investment (ROI) from email marketing has risen around $14 compared to the previous year. It stands at just over $58 for every $1 spent.
Like other marketing channels, email marketing is also ever-changing with more recent trends that make emails more efficient in converting and serving customers. Furthermore, even though email technology is over a decade old, there are constant advances that take email marketing to the next level for both business and consumer sides.
Let’s look at some trends that you can leverage for your email marketing campaigns this year.
Interactive email design
One of the email’s components is a call to action (CTA), which leads the user to a website to start interacting and browsing the online store. While the CTA remains a central part of any email campaign, the technological advancement also allows you to add interactive features. This leads to the user being able to interact with the email before going to your site.
The most straightforward examples of interactive emails are Google’s products Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc. Whenever a person leaves a comment or a suggestion in one of those documents, the owner receives an email and can add their response or accept a change from the same email.
However, these interactive features don’t necessarily have to be related to documents. You can also add crafty features to your ecommerce email campaign, such as:
- Animations and interactive images.
- Product carousels and rollover effects.
- Animated CTAs.
- Interactive surveys and polls.
- Minimized long-form emails.
Thanks to the accelerated mobile pages (AMP), this technology is possible, allowing programmers to create website-like features in the email messages. The core functionality will enable you to enrich the inbox experience, complete actions, and serve dynamic and real-time updated content to your customers.
Email marketing automation
A State of Automation survey conducted by SocialMediaToday tells us that 75% of marketers use at least one automation tool for email marketing. Furthermore, a study by Omnisend shows that custom automation workflows receive a 17.27% higher click-through rate (CTR) compared to the one-size-fits-all solution.
Building on those two facts, it’s clear that email automation is a trending subject, and modern solutions are helping with bringing in more revenue for businesses and online stores alike. Therefore, to make the most out of an email marketing campaign, it’s wise to look at some software solutions that aid you in this endeavor.
There are numerous applications for creating email campaigns. It also isn’t unheard of to combine various apps to meet your campaign needs. An analysis of email marketing services lists some key features you should consider when opting for a modern software solution:
- Adding email contacts in bulk.
- Email automation features.
- SMS sending.
- Detailed reporting.
- High deliverability rates.
- Customer segmentation options.
- Campaign management tools.
Mobile design
The latest trends in site design aren’t just for the sake of it. Most of these all-around features, such as minimalism, mobile-first approach, and dark mode, are included based on data that increases user experience.
Research shows that 62% of people open their emails on a mobile phone. Furthermore, a survey conducted by Android Authority found that nearly 82% of the respondents use dark mode whenever they can. These are some on-point indicators of how people prefer to consume their information.
Following these facts, you can also use these design features when creating your email campaigns. First, build an email using the mobile-first approach, which ensures that it’s easily accessible from a smartphone. Then, you can consider preparing your color scheme with dark mode usage in mind.
Privacy mindedness
Multiple attack vectors threaten sites and online stores each day, from cross-site scripting to phishing attempts. Furthermore, data privacy is becoming a hot topic globally due to the increase in breaches that have left millions of sensitive data bits on the internet.
NTT Data conducted a study that found that only 8% of the respondents trust brands to keep their information safe. This means that not only are people skeptical about inserting their data on sites, it also applies to any private information shared or asked for over the email.
To further create trust with your email recipients, you can adopt brand indicators for message information (BIMI). Despite it being a small addition to the receiver’s email client, it tells them that the email comes from a legit brand that they can trust. Furthermore, any sensitive information you gather from your customers should remain in a separate secure database that’s difficult to breach by cybercriminals.
Highly personalized emails
Creating trust in your customers that their data is kept safe leads to a valuable email marketing technique of personalized emails. According to Campaign Monitor, segmented email campaigns can increase your revenue by 760%, making them more efficient than the generic one-size-fits-all solutions.
Furthermore, a study by Statista back in 2016 found that the open rate for personalized messages was close to 1.5 times higher than for non-personalized messages (18.8% and 13.1%, respectively). Interestingly, if both the subject line and the message were personalized, the open rate dropped to 5.9%.
Furthermore, a study by Statista back in 2016 found that the open rate for personalized messages was close to 1.5 times higher than for non-personalized messages.
While it’s clear that personalized emails increase your email campaigns’ success, there’s also room for experimentation to see what works best for your online store. Segmenting your customers into specific groups interested in certain items is much more efficient than creating a universal offer that might not be relevant to a particular user.
Most email software solutions allow you to quickly filter your email list into different segments to create parallel email campaigns based on their interests.
Emotional connection
In the digital world, we’re used to feeling anonymous and aren’t expecting an emotional connection. While your online store’s primary goal is transactions, you can further build your business by creating an emotional connection with the user.
Studies show that people are more willing to spend their money with companies they feel an emotional connection. The difference in spending can be as much as 2.5 times compared to companies where the customers are just satisfied.
You can achieve this by going beyond the transactional messages and general promotions with your email campaigns. Send birthday wishes, personal promotions, named discount codes, feedback requests, and so on. If your ecommerce site uses social commerce principles, it creates more trust. It increases your chances of a returning customer or even a word-of-mouth advertisement to bring in new customers.
There you have it, six email marketing trends that you should consider implementing into your online store’s marketing arsenal. While some of these trends are purely tech-related, such as interactivity, automation, and design, there are also psychological components, such as privacy, personalization, and emotional connection. To create an effective email marketing campaign in 2021, you should use a combination of both aspects.
Gert Svaiko is a freelance copywriter based in Tallinn, Estonia. He works mainly with digital marketing companies in the United States and European Union.