Email may not get as much attention as social media but it remains the most important communication tool for marketers. This is especially true when you consider email users are expected to hit 3.9 billion by the end of this year and 4.4 billion by 2023 (Statista, 2019). Email marketing has significantly evolved in the past four decades and it is still going strong with persistent advancements in the field.
Emails in 2020 will be accessible for all users, as well as machines, easy to scan & digest and customized for each individual subscriber. This will enable you to reach, connect and stay relevant with your audience.
Here are nine trends to keep in mind while you plan your 2020 email marketing strategy.
Responsiveness
2020 will be the year when more emails are opened on a mobile device than on a desktop or laptop. Make it a priority to ensure email campaigns are responsive and optimized to work well on a mobile device.
Accessibility
Focus on building accessible emails that will work for every user, especially the special abled ones. Use Alt-text for every image to help visually impaired subscribers read emails through screen-readers and understand what the email is all about.
Concise email copy
Keep email copy focused and succinct. Litmus’ research suggests that the average attention span in an email is just 13.4 seconds. The average adult reader can read between 250 and 300 words per minute. This means the ideal length of copy in an email calculates out to around 50 words.
Simple email design
Increase ease of readability by reducing all-image email templates and emphasize real text in HTML. Create a robust visual hierarchy within your email and utilize high contrasting colors.
Interactive design
Surveys, polls, animated call-to-action buttons, interactive image carousels controlled by the user and accordion features designed to make long-form emails more compact allow users to interact with the brand without leaving the email itself. Such interactive content promotes awareness and increases open and click through rates.
User generated content
Featuring content (such as images, video, reviews, testimonials, and audio) created by product end-users in emails drives engagement with influencers and prospects, supports authenticity and increases conversion. Encourage subscribers to share content on social media channels by creating contests, offering incentives and using hashtags.
Artificial Intelligence and Personalization
AI helps to create emails that are tailored to each individual subscriber based on their demographics and past behaviors. AI can do “tailoring” by way of predictive personalization, dynamic audience segmentation, the optimization of subject lines, email content, send times and email frequency, multivariate testing and analytics. This can improve both email open and click through rates as well as your conversion rates.
Consumer Data Privacy
EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) will have an impact on email marketing programs in 2020. Build trust with subscribers – make cybersecurity a priority, adopt a strict subscription process and explain to subscribers what data is being collecting and how it will be used.
Voice technology
With the increasing use of voice assistants, marketers need to remember their content will not always be traditionally read by their audience. Copy read out loud by Alexa or Siri to users may not deliver the message that was originally intended by the writer. Email copy should be conversational and keep in mind the words to emphasize and which tone to use. Stick with a single call to action and keep important messages within the text to prevent confusion.
With technology in a state of constant evolution, it is important to keep up with the trends and stay relevant to audiences. Email marketing remains one of the most effective marketing channels. Stay ahead of your competition by implementing these email marketing trends.
Interested in learning more about email marketing? Contact Anvil today!