Email marketing trends constantly evolve, so it's important to always stay ahead of the game. Whether email marketing is a key part of your marketing strategy or you're looking to invest in developing trends to boost your marketing campaign - there's always something new to learn.
So now is the time to streamline your email marketing efforts and make the most of your email subscribers and their data. Read this blog post to discover the biggest and fastest-growing email marketing trends and how to utilize them in your business.
Why is email marketing important?
The cost of acquiring new customers has skyrocketed in the last ten years. One study found that the cost rose from $9 per customer in 2013 to $29 in 2022. High churn rates and increased product returns are credited as the main reason for these growing costs proving the need to nurture your current customer relationships and improve customer loyalty.
In 2013, repeat sales generated an average of $28, today, this has increased to $39 — a rise of 36%. Repeat sales are driven through targeted marketing and utilizing data to maximize lifetime value.
This is due to a renewed focus on first-party data and the methods used to collect it. This has become increasingly important as brands struggle to remain profitable in an increasingly volatile economic climate.
The top email marketing trends to implement in 2024
Work smarter, not harder
We all know the phrase 'why work hard when you can work smart'. It seems that 2024 is about more than just new technology, there's a cultural shift on the horizon, one that values taking a streamlined approach to marketing strategies.
When marketing teams work smarter they can serve potential customers and long-term clients better. Instead of sending out a large number of communications, email marketers can focus on crafting more targeted, relevant, and data-driven messages to cut through the noise and improve email performance..
It's not just about building trust, marketers need to prove to subscribers and prospects that their emails are inbox-worthy. This way they can collect more data without overwhelming the recipient.
Increased data protection
In 2023, Gmail and Yahoo brought in a fresh set of requirements for bulk email senders aimed at improving people’s inbox experience.. When consumers trust brands they're more likely to engage and fortunately there are tools to help with this.
BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) are tools that help build email authority. Email fraud is on the rise for businesses and customers, so people are more wary than ever of random emails arriving in their inboxes. 3.4 billion phishing emails are sent daily and an average of $181 of personal information is stolen each time.
Consumers are more cautious than ever about falling victim to fraud, and they are more likely to report or delete genuine and important emails without even opening them. BIMI acts as a trust signal helping to improve the customer experience by ensuring that only important information reaches the end user.
BIMI improves trust by:
- Standardizing logo display across mailbox providers
- Requiring the sender to verify that is authorized to send an email with a particular logo
- Assures subscribers that a message is from an authentic sender
If a brand is unable to verify their authenticity then they may struggle to bypass spam filters as they won't be able to utilize the BIMI logo. Instead, email providers will display a default image which may make an email seem unauthentic.
Mature AI integration
Artificial intelligence (AI) was all anyone could talk about in 2023 and it seems that this year is no different. AI tools have already helped email marketers automate a range of email marketing processes but this is only the beginning.
Generative AI (GenAI) has developed into a valued business asset in just a few years. One in six businesses have used AI for content creation in the last year.
Tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT have changed the way that marketers approach content with its ability to write subject lines, social media posts, and other short-form content.
Other platforms like DALL-E can be used to create and optimize images from text prompts helping you to structure everything from emails to a new landing page. But in 2024, AI will take on a new role in email marketing, with content personalization, email retargeting and subject line optimization all high on the agenda.
Trend spotting and data analysis
Data analysis has been top of the list of email trends for a few years. But in 2023 we saw AI tools become both cheaper and more accessible for businesses of all sizes. 30% of employees are already using AI for data analysis, and 62% want to implement the process themselves.
Machine learning, improved algorithms, and AI-driven data models are helping marketers to better understand their target audience. Better insight and data analysis can help businesses to:
- Optimize their budgets with more targeted advertisements
- Use data to create a better plan with accurate trend-spotting
- Understand buyer behavior
- Improve customer loyalty and retention with targeted content
Streamline and automate tasks
Not all tasks need to be done manually. Repetitive and monotonous tasks take up valuable time and workforce power. This can limit your team's productivity, limiting both sales and revenue.
Automated emails are an ideal solution for this problem. Scheduling routine tasks like renewal reminders and confirmation emails can free up administrative time. 25% of workers currently use AI for routine tasks and more than double want to implement AI automation in the next 12 months.
AI automation can help by:
- Assisting marketing teams to kick off, assign, and delegate work
- Providing virtual assistants that can craft messages, manage project status, and collate information on marketing campaigns
- Drafting, summarizing, and creating both written and visual content for automated emails.
Building AI into your marketing tech stack can help you make the most out of your automation. In-depth training is crucial to ensure that staff make the most of these tools to improve their email marketing campaign and strategies.
Interactive emails
Whether it's a questionnaire, links to a third-party site, or user-generated content, interactive elements are becoming one of the top ways to collect customer data and boost engagement.
Interactive content marks a shift towards gamified content that is redefining email marketing trends.
In 2024, businesses are seeking new ways to add interactive elements that will actively engage users, and increase readership and click-through rates. Interactive content creates a lasting impression on audiences as it requires them to actively engage with your content and encourage conversion.
Integrating interactive content into your email campaigns can also help you to track user behavior. It allows you to monitor the latest trends in how your email recipients react to your messaging.
Hyper personalized emails
Email personalization will be instrumental in 2024, but users will expect more than just a personalized subject line on a welcome email. Email marketers need to create content that speaks directly to the end user, this is what makes all the difference.
All email marketing campaigns want to generate more revenue - that is their ultimate end goal. Over the last couple of years, marketers have recognized that complete personalization of user experience can lead to improved ROI.
Tracking data like purchase history and web content can help improve your customer engagement by helping to completely understand the user experience from start to end.
It's not just that personalization helps convert, an impersonal email marketing strategy can have a real detrimental effect on email campaigns. 94% of customers will take one of the following actions after receiving non-personalised or mistargeted emails:
- 68% will automatically delete emails
- 54% will unsubscribe from all communications
- 29% will become less willing to buy products
- 10% will never visit the website again.
To make the most of your email marketing strategies, email marketers must:
- tailor messages and promotions by audience segment or tech stack
- recommend products or content by audience segment
- send triggered emails based on visitor behavior
- recommended products or content per individual.
Final thoughts
Email marketing trends are constantly evolving, which is why it's so important to keep track of the new updates. Whether it's new technology, better data protection, or unique ways of analyzing and developing customer information it all comes down to growing and developing a better email campaign.
Customer engagement is the key to ensuring loyalty and repeat business. Marketing automation makes things simple and easy so that you can focus on the real challenge - building customer relationships.
Discover more about Transpond and how it can help you and your business today.
