An ingenious joke repeated ten times is no longer funny. One tactic in mailing lists, applied three times, loses its relevance. In order not to bore your subscribers and keep a slight surprise effect, monitor trends and have time to adapt to them. It will be even better if you start combining traditional methods with new technologies.
In 2019 we too wrote about email marketing trends. In 2020 consideredwhat the design of the letters will be. Let s figure out together what the coming 2021 has in store for us.
Adaptability
42% of users check letters from the phone. Ignoring this fact in 2021 is literally digging your email channel s grave. Your newsletters should be displayed equally clearly both on the desktop Google Chrome and on a Chinese smartphone with a non-standard screen extension. Because people use different devices, and your task is to reach out to everyone. At least to the majority.
Before you send the letter, ALWAYS check if everything is in order with the layout. This can be done in two ways:
- Register with Gmail, Yandex, Mail.ru and other mailers. Send a test message to yourself. Open the newsletter on your phone, laptop, tablet.
- Test the letter in Email on Acid, Litmus or another service with a verification function.
By the way, the lack of responsiveness is one of the seven sins of almost all marketers. The remaining six were disclosed in the article “7 email marketing mistakes that almost everyone makes”.
Personalization
A personal message gets more attention than the standard “Hello”. But in 2021, it s not enough to limit yourself to a greeting by name. People understand that it is not the manager of the company who speaks to them, but the robot. Therefore, you will have to follow the subscribers ?
Check how the user interacts with the brand: what pages they view, what they put in the cart, and what products they buy. Make personalized offers based on this data.
Another way to personalize newsletters is to include information in emails that is relevant only to a specific subscriber. For example, the number of points on a discount card.
The more data you have about users, the more personalized messages you can prepare for them. But in 2021, the personal data of subscribers must be protected even more carefully than their own health. Especially if you work with Europeans. Or you have at least one user from Europe in your database.
In 2018, the European Parliament Regulation 2016/679 on the protection of personal data GDPR entered into force – General Data Protection Regulation… The Regulation does not apply to Russia and other CIS countries, but it works great in Europe. And everyone who violates the GDPR faces a fine up to 20 million euros…
But the law protects not only European users. On the territory of Russia, Federal Law No. 152 “About personal data”. For sending advertisements without consent, you can get a fine of up to 200 thousand rubles and a blocking from Roskomnadzor in addition.
For everything to be legal, you must obtain the consent of people to process and store data. To do this, ask users to:
- read the Privacy Policy and Terms of use;
- put a tick in front of the clause on the agreement to receive mailings;
- confirm consent in the personal account of the site;
- pass a double opt-in subscription – for mailings.
Got consent? That s it, now you can personalize letters until your imagination runs out ?
Dark theme
At the beginning of 2020, we addressed the issue in the article “On the dark side: do you need to typeset a separate template for letters?”And came to the conclusion that there is no need to rush to set up the dark version. Now we boldly declare that the dark theme is needed. Some choose it because the smartphone sits down with it more slowly. Others find it more convenient to read white text on a black background. And the third just like her look.
Like a year ago, we suggest conducting a survey of your audience. If at least 10% use a dark theme, it makes sense to customize it in your emails.
User Content
User Generated Content is comments, reviews, photos and other materials that the company s clients publish on social networks or on the website. Users will be pleased to see their comment on the mailing list. True, personal data should be covered up ?
But it s not just about positive emotions. Here s why it s still worth using user generated content in 2021:
- Saving time. Part of the letter will take up the finished content – this will reduce the load of the marketer, editor, designer, copywriter.
- Unbiased information. People trust user-generated content more than brand emails.
- Increased sales. Subscribers believe the real reviews of other buyers.
- Saving money. More precisely, you won t have to pay at all for comments, photos and reviews on social networks.
User generated content is rarely used in Russian-language mailing lists. Great excuse to start before it gets mainstream.
Availability
Estimated WHO, about 1.3 billion people have vision problems. Of these, 36 million are blind. But these people also want to receive relevant and interesting information on time. One of the challenges for marketers is to make email newsletters available to everyone.
IN Litmus Ultimate Guide noted that 77% of marketers prioritize developing email accessibility. And while only 8% of them strictly follow accessibility practices, it is the future. And the point is not so much to enlarge the text or pictures, but to make the interaction between companies and consumers as simple and enjoyable as possible.
Multichannel
According to CampaignMonitor, the popularity of social media continues to grow. The new generation, especially tik-tok and Instagram fans, are less likely to use mail. They first need it to verify their account. Therefore, it is important to link different channels: email, social networks and instant messengers.
Multichannel is also good because you can mix and match communication methods. A 60-year-old user is more likely to want to talk on the phone, but a 20-year-old buyer will prefer social media. Give the client the opportunity to choose a convenient way of communication even at the stage of acquaintance: messenger, chat bot, mailings, SMS, Web Push, social networks or calls. It is logical that all of these channels should be interconnected.
Conciseness
Litmus found that, on average, a person is ready to give a letter (if, in principle, he opened!) 13.4 seconds. Since the average adult reads between 250 and 300 words per minute, the optimal text size for an email is 50 words.
If you don t want to limit yourself or your team in any way, pay attention to these recommendations:
- Use short sentences. Long people are too lazy to read and harder to understand.
- Avoid professional vocabulary. An exception is if you are an expert in a specific field and write for other professionals.
- Localize your content. What the American audience will like may not go to the Germans, and vice versa. Be culturally aware.
Interactive
Entertainment remains one of the functions of email newsletters. People are social beings, and through letters you can communicate with them. And it is much easier and more pleasant to interact through a game than through official “adult letters”. B2B can also be played.
AMP letters
Whereas Accelerated Mobile Pages seemed like a complex technology in 2019, in 2021 things have become simple. An interactive letter can be assembled in a constructor service, for example, Stripo. Practice shows that mailing lists from AMP involve up to 90% of subscribers – a worthy reason to introduce them into your strategy, if you have not already done so.
And if you still don t like the idea, read our article “Interactive emails: AMP blocks and how to do without them”.
Gif
Animated pictures are engaging and engaging. With their help, you can focus on the discount, show the product from all sides. A countdown timer can also be decorated with GIFs to encourage users to buy. There are a lot of ideas, just have time to implement. For more information on which gifs to use and how to insert them into emails, see the article “GIF animation in emails: pros and cons, functions and features”.
Polls
Response rate for survey emails is on average 33%. Take advantage of this – invite subscribers to share their impressions of your company and products. And if you give a discount, free shipping or other bonus for completing a survey (which, of course, will take no more than three minutes of their time), it will be great. In the article “Why you need polls and how to do them in Mailigen»Examined the issue in detail.
Artificial Intelligence
While AI is more widely used in other fields, it can also help in email marketing. For example, British travel company Virgin Holidays increased sales by a million pounds, embedding in mailings artificial Intelligence. It s worth giving it a try before the technology hits the trend in email marketing as well.
What AI will help with:
- Segment your contact base. The machine collects as much data as possible about subscribers, organizes them, highlights segments and helps to create an offer that will be interesting to specific groups of people.
- Engage even more users. The algorithm generates content and performs A / B testing. Based on this data, the AI determines which information resonates more with subscribers.
- Choose the best time to send. Artificial intelligence collects data about when users are active in mail, breaks down their time zones and calculates the right time to send.
What is the bottom line?
In 2021, email marketing remains an important channel of communication with customers. The technological effectiveness of mailings comes to the fore. If a couple of years ago, catchy text and original design were enough, now they just can t do. Letters need ideas. Technologies. Uniqueness. And humanity – a living author must be “read” behind every message.