For most of today’s society, emailing is something we do daily. It’s a way of keeping in touch with friends, colleagues, clients, and customers but also a way of staying up to date with your favourite blog, small business, or influential speaker. Email marketing is one of the top forms of content marketing purely because you must be invited into an individual’s inbox, and by making that step to receive emails from a business, an agreement takes place whereby the sender has something to promote or sell and the receiver wants to know about it.
Why Email Marketing is so Effective and Why you Should be Doing it
As with all forms of content marketing, it is important to stay on top of the current trends, to ensure you reach your audience in their most active places. One of the main reasons email marketing is so effective is due to its affordability and effectiveness, it’s also a great way to connect with your customers and drive traffic to your business. As email is used daily, it makes it the most effective way to get targeted information across and potentially turn the recipients into loyal customers for your business.
8 Email Marketing Trends to Take Notice of in 2024
- 1. Shifting Focus on Metrics
Until recently, open rates were one of the main metrics used to see how engaging your email marketing is. However, one of the most recent Apple updates prohibits marketers from seeing when and where users open their emails, the device the email was opened on, and the activity used to open it. Apple’s new Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) hides recipients’ IP addresses so it can’t be linked to other online activity and be used to determine their location. This means that other metrics need to be used as a measure, dependent on your goals. These include:
- Click Rate – the percentage of recipients who click a link in your email.
- List Growth – the rate at which you are gaining or losing subscribers.
- Conversion rate – the percentage of recipients who take action from your email such as making a purchase or signing up for a course.
- ROI – the revenue you generate for every pound you invest in email marketing.
- 2. Niching Down Your Content
Getting specific can create interest, especially if used with the full knowledge of your audience in mind. Instead of trying to appeal to the masses in your area of expertise, by niching down to specific topics, you can desaturate the market and curb the interest of those you may not have thought of otherwise. For example, if you’re a greeting card creator, instead of going through your collection and selling your cards yet again, you could create a campaign showing your customers what they could do with the cards once they’re finished with them. If they’re compostable, the way to compost them, frame them or make a collage for journaling.
3. Data Protection and Privacy
Back in 2018, we saw the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is a legal obligation that emails must comply with and follows guidelines for practices such as cold emails and mailing list building without consent. 86% of consumers believe that businesses collect too much information on them, which makes data protection and privacy incredibly important, in order to give recipients the option to unsubscribe or allow them to change their email preferences.
4. Gamification and Challenges
Game-like experiences are increasing in popularity so far this year, as they create fun and rewarding ways to engage your subscribers. Point systems are a great way to gamify your emails as consumers can redeem rewards and perks for purchasing products through email. Challenges are another great way to increase engagement. They can be used to boost awareness on social media platforms, a way of showcasing your brand tools and features, not to mention create a fun and engaging experience for users that helps to build community.
5. Introduce GIFs and Emojis
GIFS and emojis are a great way to get your message to stand out and bring awareness to the information or product you’re trying to sell. GIFs in the message body can be engaging and attractive and used to emphasise deals or special offers. Emojis are a great tool to use in subject lines when you have to scroll past hundreds of emails that all blur into one. An emoji will always catch your eye among a sea of text.
- 6. Increased Personalisation
Beyond using recipients’ first names, digital marketers are now using advanced data analytics to deliver hyper-personalised content. This includes tailoring emails based on past interactions, preferences, and behaviours to create a more individualised and relevant experience and foster stronger connections with subscribers.
7. FOMO and Exclusivity
No one wants to miss an opportunity, especially one that seems like it was made for them. Saving money, obtaining exclusive products, or being able to have a one-of-a-kind experience can give your customers a little nudge in the right direction by creating urgency. Exclusivity also comes into play here, especially when teamed up with the act of FOMO, as you can sell an exclusive offer specifically tailored to the individual for a limited time only.
- 8. Fun Feedback Surveys
Feedback surveys are rarely interesting, but they are a great way of collecting information on your audience and increasing your ability to tailor your content marketing. The answer to this then would create feedback that is as fun and enticing as possible or involve your audience in shaping your products or services in the future. This helps your audience to feel valuable to you and your business.
What will These Email Marketing Trends Bring to your Business?
Email marketing can benefit businesses of all sizes. Introducing these trends can help to improve your rate of investment (ROI) and generate extra traffic to your website which in turn improves the visibility of your brand. It can strengthen your relationship with customers by building interesting and helpful marketing campaigns and it can also help to increase your engagement on social media.
With email marketing, you own your contact lists, as you have asked permission to contact the individual with information you think they will be interested in. They must give consent to this, which allows you to personalise the information you offer, in turn improving your communication with your audience and giving you a clear channel to promote your products or services.
Need Help with Email Marketing? Run2 is your Unfair Advantage.
We hope this article has sparked your creativity when it comes to email marketing, alongside a robust digital marketing plan, this form of content marketing really can make a difference to your business.
If you would like further help with any form of digital marketing, from SEO through to content marketing, then Run2 are a digital marketing agency that offers effective digital strategies from building brand awareness to conversion-led campaigns. Our in-house team of digital marketing consultants, project managers, designers, and developers can support your brand, defining goals and objectives through to complete campaign execution.
So, if you’re looking to boost your online presence, improve search rankings, and establish authority within your niche then Run2 digital marketing agency in Manchester, can be your partner in business growth. Contact us today.