The Top 10 Email Marketing Trends to Look Out for in 2022

In today’s competitive digital marketplace, companies must find ways to keep potential and existing customers engaged. Email marketing is an excellent tool for doing this. The problem is many companies either aren’t using email or are not using it well.

You can’t influence customers if you’re not reaching them, and even if customers do come across your message, how successful are you at influencing their behavior? To get the most out of your email marketing campaign, you need to make sure your strategies are up to date. Here are the top 10 email marketing trends to look out for in 2022.

1. Personalization

List segmentation — separate lists for customers, hot prospects, former customers, etc. — is a given, but will not be enough in 2022. Personalized emails, in terms of subject lines, body content, timing, and even the types of offers presented can and should be developed to make each customer or prospect feel like your only customer or prospect. 

2. Privacy

Does it seem contradictory that recipients crave personalization (which comes from sharing personal data) — and simultaneously demand privacy of information? Contradictory or not, recipients must be informed that their shared personal information is secure and won’t be hacked or sold to the highest bidder. Without strong privacy statements, click-throughs and conversions will disappoint. 

3. AI

Email marketing services and management platforms will be leveraging AI like never before in 2022. The ability of AI to analyze data and interpret split tests helps companies manage lists, find the most effective subject lines and offers, and identify the best sending times in a fraction of the time it would have taken a few years ago. In short, AI accelerates ramp-ups and ROI.

4. Interactive Emails

Engaging recipients with surveys, polls, gamification, rollover imagery, and other content and design techniques turns passive readers into active and interested prospects. In addition, survey and poll results create social proof and provide messaging insights for use in future emails to improve open rates, CTR, and conversions.

5. Plain Text Emails

While interactivity and dazzling design work for some email campaigns, going to the other extreme with plain text has proven highly effective for others. Minimalism is a growing design trend for 2022 because it helps readers focus on the message. If you haven’t tested plain text in your campaign, and/or have a very limited budget, the timing is right to give it a try.

6. User-Generated Content

User-generated content has been a staple of social media marketing for years and can be equally or more effective in email. When recipients see customers using your product or service, or read customer reviews, they may be much more influenced to buy than by reading your own marketing copy. Social proof can improve CTR and have a very strong influence on conversions.

7. Mobile Optimization

In the world of web development, mobile-first design figures to become the standard in 2022, since more people use mobile devices than desktop computers to access the Internet. If your email offers a positive mobile user experience, you’ll capture the interest of prospects and customers who would otherwise ignore your email or even form a negative opinion of your brand because of all the pinching and zooming you’re forcing them to do. 

8. Accessibility

Can your recipients view your email in dark mode? If not, consider adding this feature in 2022. Dark mode is catching on to reduce eye strain — and it is one of just many ways to make your content more accessible to more readers. Larger fonts, simpler fonts, good contrast, and simple layouts are other important ways to improve accessibility. 

9. Short Form Emails 

With some exceptions, short emails work better than long ones. We all know attention spans are getting shorter, and that people are inundated with digital information. Even for complex products and services, a hard-hitting email linking to, say, a 2,000-word white paper will prove more effective than sending a 2,000-word email. 

10. Landing Page Quality

Many email campaigns make the mistake of pulling out all the stops to reach their CTR goal — but then dropping the ball on conversions. The result — minimal or nonexistent ROI. It’s crucial for recipients not merely to click-through, but also to convert when they reach the landing page. Landing page design takes substantial copywriting skill and CRO (conversion rate optimization) knowledge, as well as technology platforms that support granular split testing and personalization. Landing page development should be a primary goal in 2022 to boost email campaign results.