The Biggest Email Marketing Shifts for 2022

We are halfway through 2022, so now is the perfect time to start diving into new trends for this year. The world is changing substantially everyday - and you often have no idea what to expect next. It is essential to keep educating yourself and evolving to remain relevant. 

But what has changed in email marketing? 

Perhaps not anything as crazy as the outfits at the Met Gala - but email marketers will definitely find these shifts substantial. Email marketing is very effective even today, providing the biggest bang-for-the-buck, but the environment is turbulent.

Here is what’s up this year and how you can deal with it as an email marketer:

Apple tightens control

Apple devices are now so widespread that 38% of email users open their messages on iPhones according to Kinsta.

So, obviously, when Apple tightened its privacy protection and masked users’ IP address, information regarding opens and the locations of recipients was not visible any longer. This initially gave email marketers a little heart pain.

How will they track the effectiveness of their emails?

Click-through rate and conversions are better metrics to use to see how your audience engages with your email. 

Find new ways to get audience information

It’s not only celebrities who value their privacy, these days everyone does (as ironic as it sounds with the existence of social media). Privacy controls are increasing and it’s now harder to ethically get customer data to draw conclusions about customer preferences.

You can’t track customer internet activity, force them to provide their email address or answer surveys via email without their consent to receive such messages, etc. 

You can send customers cold emails but if you continue to send them irrelevant and unsolicited content against their will, you might be marked as spam and your email domain reputation can take a hit.  

Hence, email marketers are moving towards making a fair exchange with potential customers/customers in order to ethically get their data and encourage them to provide it themselves. 

This may be in the form of giving coupons or giving access to a certain service/game in return for filling out a survey or taking part in a focus group. 

Lead magnets have often been used in order to encourage people to provide their email addresses in exchange for a resource. Many businesses now provide free courses to get email addresses and ask potential leads to opt-in to receive their emails. 

In 2022, with privacy becoming tighter, you need to find creative ways for potential customers/customers to willingly give you information rather than making guesses yourself or tracking activity unethically. 

AI takes over

Email marketers have always been wary of AI because they thought humans would eventually get replaced by computers. However, that may never be the case - human intelligence does have a quality edge. However, AI is making processes more efficient and is now being accepted as a starting point for email marketers. 

AI can help you write compelling subject lines, even craft your emails and check for consistency in tone and voice, and tell you the best time to send an email. 

You can use Writesonic.com, Conversion.ai, SmartWriter.ai and Snazzy.ai to create punchy opening lines and full-fledged emails targeted at your prospect.

Micro segmentation is the new thing

You know all about market segmentation, but do you know that now you have to segment even further? While everything is getting smaller including attention spans, we need to segment our audience into micro-segments based on personality and preferences. 

Simply segmenting according to gender, age, location, occupation isn’t enough. Everyone is different. Can you group all doctors in the same personality group? What about marketers? The simple answer is no. Everyone is different and has different reactions to content and emails. 

You may have to group according to how they responded to your last email, or whether they are skeptical, enthusiastic, matter-of-fact, etc. You will have to cut through the noise in inboxes by creating an effective email tailored to personality traits. 

You can still segment according to profession, location, etc. initially but then break it down according to how long they spend shopping, do they abandon cart or purchase quickly? What are their travel preferences? Purchasing power? How big of a family do they have? Who else influences their buying decisions?  

Enginemailer has mentioned that micro segmentation can increase your open rate by 203%. That’s immense! 

Emails need to be short and crisp

Yes, crisp applies to chips too but guess what? It also applies to emails and newsletters. As mentioned above, we all have too much to look at and think about. In 2022, you need to be short, to-the-point, give the reader a nice feeling and maybe a quick laugh, and tell them what to do. 

Most of the time, unless it is a warm lead, your email marketing efforts should not consist of extra long emails that take more than 3 minutes to read. Avoid redundant words, information, and images. No one has time for those anymore. 

Focus on a simple design that accentuates your message rather than distracting readers. This will significantly improve retention. 

Sender Reputation is now more important than ever

Previously, it may have been easier to get the attention of recipients but now algorithms are working stronger than ever. If your sender reputation is deteriorating, you have higher chances of landing in the spam folder and if you are a new email marketer, your reputation may still need some warming up. 

That’s where GoCustomer can help. GoCustomer warms up your email domain so that you have more chances of landing in the recipient’s Priority Inbox. 

You should also try to maintain your sender reputation by sending relevant emails at a moderate frequency rather than too often. Also, try to avoid sending too many images or visuals in your email. 

Here are some more tips to boost your sender reputation. 

These shifts mean you need to change your strategy a bit and be a little more cautious, but email marketing has so much potential that the work you put in is worth it. Prepare for a productive 2022!