7 email marketing trends to know for 2023

1. Omnichannel communications

With the rise of social media, mobile devices, and oth­er dig­i­tal plat­forms, cus­tomers are inter­act­ing with brands through a large vari­ety of chan­nels. Sur­pris­ing­ly, many busi­ness­es haven’t yet adapt­ed to this trend, but they’ll need to if they want to keep up.

Brands can remain com­pet­i­tive by pro­vid­ing a con­sis­tent and per­son­alised expe­ri­ence across all touchpoints.

More­over, in a post-pan­dem­ic world, cus­tomers are seek­ing more flex­i­bil­i­ty and con­ve­nience in their shop­ping expe­ri­ences. They may pre­fer to inter­act with brands through dif­fer­ent chan­nels at dif­fer­ent times, depend­ing on their pref­er­ences and needs. By pro­vid­ing an omnichan­nel expe­ri­ence, busi­ness­es can meet these chang­ing expec­ta­tions and stay rel­e­vant in a com­pet­i­tive marketplace.

Omnichan­nel com­mu­ni­ca­tion in email mar­ket­ing refers to the prac­tice of using mul­ti­ple com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels along­side email, such as social media, SMS, push noti­fi­ca­tions, apps, and oth­ers, to deliv­er a con­sis­tent and cohe­sive mes­sage to customers.

The goal is to pro­vide a seam­less and per­son­alised expe­ri­ence across all touch­points, which can improve cus­tomer engage­ment, expe­ri­ence, and loy­al­ty and achieve a greater return on invest­ment (ROI) for email campaigns.

H&M’s app is an exam­ple of an omnichan­nel approach. Through the app, H&M can send push noti­fi­ca­tions, deliv­er per­son­alised offers and pro­mo­tions, and allow cus­tomers to shop on their mobile devices.

By inte­grat­ing the app with oth­er com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels, such as email and social media, H&M can cre­ate a con­sis­tent mes­sage across all its touch­points and gain access to valu­able data on cus­tomer behav­iour and pref­er­ences. The busi­ness can har­ness this data to cre­ate more tar­get­ed and rel­e­vant mes­sag­ing in email campaigns.

An omnichan­nel approach will be essen­tial in 2023 to meet evolv­ing cus­tomer needs, stay com­pet­i­tive, and under­stand audi­ences more deeply. Busi­ness­es might opt to devel­op an app this year or cre­ate social media cam­paigns that com­ple­ment their email efforts, both of which will be valu­able prac­tices.

2. Improved accessibility

Cur­rent­ly, 90% of web­sites are inac­ces­si­ble to peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties who rely on assis­tive tech­nolo­gies. It’s unsur­pris­ing, then, that email mar­ket­ing cam­paigns are, more often than not, inac­ces­si­ble too.

For opti­mised acces­si­bil­i­ty, emails should be designed and struc­tured to make them easy to read and under­stand for all recip­i­ents, whether they have visu­al, hear­ing, motor, or cog­ni­tive impairments.

There are sev­er­al things to keep in mind when design­ing acces­si­ble emails:

• Use a sim­ple lay­out with clear head­ings, bul­let points, and short paragraphs.
• Avoid using too many images and ani­ma­tions that may dis­tract or con­fuse the reader.
• Avoid using fonts that are too small, dec­o­ra­tive, or dif­fi­cult to read.
• Include alter­na­tive text for images that can be read by screen readers.
• Pro­vide accu­rate tran­scripts or cap­tions for videos that are cor­rect­ly synchronised.
• Use high colour contrast.
• Make sure links are clear­ly iden­ti­fied by under­lines or bold text.
• Use sim­ple language.

Mak­ing emails acces­si­ble sim­ply makes good busi­ness sense. In 2021, 22% of the UK pop­u­la­tion was recog­nised as dis­abled, rep­re­sent­ing over one-fifth of con­sumers to whom busi­ness­es can mar­ket prod­ucts and ser­vices. With­out acces­si­ble email cam­paigns, this group is dif­fi­cult to reach.

As well as broad­en­ing their audi­ence reach, busi­ness­es can avoid legal issues by mak­ing their emails and web­sites more acces­si­ble. More­over, it’s the right thing to do from an eth­i­cal stand­point. Ethics are more impor­tant than ever, and in 2023 busi­ness­es will be under even more scruti­ny to be inclusive.

By invest­ing in acces­si­bil­i­ty, busi­ness­es can tap into a sig­nif­i­cant mar­ket seg­ment, avoid legal issues, and demon­strate their com­mit­ment to inclu­siv­i­ty and accessibility.

3. User-generated content

User-gen­er­at­ed con­tent (UGC) refers to any con­tent, such as reviews, tes­ti­mo­ni­als, social media posts, or images, that is cre­at­ed and shared by cus­tomers. It can play an impor­tant role in email mar­ket­ing cam­paigns, pro­vid­ing social proof and build­ing cus­tomer trust.

It shows poten­tial cus­tomers that real peo­ple have had pos­i­tive expe­ri­ences with a prod­uct or ser­vice, increas­ing the like­li­hood of a pur­chase. More­over, it can make emails more engag­ing and per­son­alised. Emails fea­tur­ing cus­tomer reviews or images can be tai­lored to the indi­vid­ual recip­i­ent, mak­ing them more like­ly to engage with the con­tent and take action.

Addi­tion­al­ly, UGC can help to increase brand aware­ness and loy­al­ty. Cus­tomers who see their con­tent fea­tured in emails or on social media are like­li­er to feel con­nect­ed and com­mit­ted to the brand.

Includ­ing UGC in email cam­paigns will become increas­ing­ly impor­tant in 2023 because cus­tomers are now seek­ing more authen­tic and per­son­alised brand con­tent. Plus, with the growth of social media and influ­encer mar­ket­ing, cus­tomers are becom­ing more accus­tomed to see­ing con­tent cre­at­ed by real peo­ple and buy­ing prod­ucts they use.

Includ­ing UGC in email cam­paigns can help busi­ness­es tap into this trend and boost the ROI they’re cur­rent­ly making.

It will be cru­cial for your brand to inte­grate UGC in its emails this year, so do begin ask­ing for reviews and tes­ti­mo­ni­als if you haven’t already. This prac­tice can help you stand out in a crowd­ed dig­i­tal mar­ket­place and make your mes­sag­ing more memorable.

4. Hyper-personalisation

Per­son­al­i­sa­tion is cru­cial to email cam­paigns because it helps to cre­ate stronger con­nec­tions with recip­i­ents. By address­ing the recip­i­ent by name and tai­lor­ing the email con­tent to their inter­ests and needs, busi­ness­es are more like­ly to grab their atten­tion and make them feel valued.

This can lead to high­er open and click-through rates, as well as increased brand engage­ment. Per­son­al­i­sa­tion can also help to reduce the like­li­hood of your emails being marked as spam since the con­tent is tar­get­ed and rel­e­vant to the recipient.

Per­son­al­i­sa­tion isn’t new – we’re all used to being named per­son­al­ly in email sub­ject lines. So, why are we talk­ing about per­son­al­i­sa­tion as a trend for 2023?

Well, this year, the bar is being raised. Hyper-per­son­al­i­sa­tion aims to pro­vide gen­uine­ly rel­e­vant con­tent and expe­ri­ences for email sub­scribers because that’s what con­sumers are ask­ing for. In fact, in 2022, 73% of con­sumers said they “expect com­pa­nies to under­stand my unique needs and expec­ta­tions”.

So, how are busi­ness­es respond­ing to this demand?

• Under­stand­ing audi­ences with zero-par­ty (freely shared) data.
• Request­ing data in mail­ing sign-up forms.
• Seg­ment­ing audi­ence by the best time of day/week to receive emails.
• Use pur­chase and brows­ing his­to­ry to make prod­uct recommendations.
• Send pro­mo­tion­al emails around birth­days and anniversaries.

The shift from per­son­al­i­sa­tion to hyper-per­son­al­i­sa­tion requires busi­ness­es to con­sid­er data that isn’t being used. Exact tech­niques will vary between com­pa­nies and indus­tries, so there aren’t strict guide­lines for this trend.

Nev­er­the­less, know that con­sumers in 2023 will engage more with high­ly per­son­alised mes­sag­ing, and there is a wide range of ways brands can tap into this.

5. Interactivity

The rise of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies has led to a mas­sive increase in online com­mu­ni­ca­tion and shop­ping, mak­ing email mar­ket­ing a fun­da­men­tal chan­nel for busi­ness­es to reach their tar­get audi­ences. The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has only bol­stered this trend, push­ing more peo­ple to make the shift towards online shopping.

Fur­ther­more, numer­ous tools are avail­able to busi­ness­es that help cre­ate, design, and dis­trib­ute email cam­paigns. As a result of these fac­tors, peo­ple are get­ting dozens of emails every day (at least), result­ing in email mar­ket­ing becom­ing more com­pet­i­tive than ever before.

One strat­e­gy that can set brands apart from their com­peti­tors is inter­ac­tiv­i­ty, which con­tin­ues to advance and devel­op as the years go by.

In 2023, how­ev­er, email inter­ac­tiv­i­ty is set to reach new heights. With some brands allow­ing sub­scribers to com­plete actions with­out ever leav­ing their inbox, they’re serv­ing user expe­ri­ence as well as pro­vid­ing an engag­ing fea­ture. This is cru­cial to increas­ing ROI, as engage­ment actions are made eas­i­er for subscribers.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, some inter­ac­tive ele­ments aren’t cur­rent­ly sup­port­ed by every email serv­er – so they’ll need to catch up before this trend can gath­er speed.

How­ev­er, it’s worth know­ing the direc­tion email’s head­ed in – plus, you can still get involved in the inter­ac­tive hype in the mean­time. For now, you can imple­ment any of the fol­low­ing ele­ments to grab users’ attention:

• Polls
• Sur­veys
• Quizzes
• Videos
• GIFs
• Add prod­ucts to cart
• Sign up to lists
• Book an appointment
• Count­down timers

6. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Chat­bots and AI have gained pop­u­lar­i­ty in recent years due to their abil­i­ty to stream­line cus­tomer ser­vice oper­a­tions and enhance the over­all user expe­ri­ence. In 2023 the AI mar­ket is pre­dict­ed to increase by 38%, and it’s already being used for far more tasks than just cus­tomer service.

In par­tic­u­lar, AI can help mar­keters with their email cam­paigns, in ways out­lined below:

Personalisation

AI can help per­son­alise email cam­paigns by analysing user data and cre­at­ing tai­lored mes­sages that res­onate with indi­vid­ual recip­i­ents. It can also help to seg­ment email lists based on user behav­iour, pref­er­ences, and demo­graph­ics, ensur­ing that mes­sages are sent to the right peo­ple at the right time.

Optimisation

AI can analyse email cam­paign data and iden­ti­fy pat­terns that can help to opti­mise future cam­paigns. For exam­ple, it can deter­mine the best time to send emails, the opti­mal sub­ject lines, and the most effec­tive CTAs.

Automation

AI can auto­mate many aspects of email mar­ket­ing cam­paigns, such as list man­age­ment, mes­sage cre­ation, and send­ing. This can help to save time and resources while ensur­ing that emails are sent con­sis­tent­ly and at the best times.

Predictive Analytics

AI can use pre­dic­tive ana­lyt­ics to fore­cast user behav­iour and iden­ti­fy poten­tial oppor­tu­ni­ties for con­ver­sion. This can help to cre­ate more tar­get­ed and effec­tive email campaigns.

A/B Testing

AI can help to auto­mate A/B test­ing, allow­ing mar­keters to test dif­fer­ent email designs, con­tent, and CTAs. This can help to opti­mise email cam­paigns for bet­ter results.

If they are to adapt to this new trend and get the most out of these tools, email mar­keters will have to learn how to influ­ence and guide AI tools prop­er­ly. In con­trast to fears that AI will take every­one’s jobs, it will only enhance them. Pro­fes­sion­als will­ing to embrace this trend will no doubt get ahead of their competition.

7. A rise in phishing threats

Busi­ness­es are at greater risk of phish­ing threats than ever before. With the increase in remote work due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, employ­ees may be using per­son­al devices or net­works that are less secure than those used in offices, cre­at­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties for phish­ing attacks.

Attack­ers are con­tin­u­al­ly devel­op­ing new and more sophis­ti­cat­ed phish­ing tech­niques and have ben­e­fit­ed from the increased online activ­i­ty we see today. Fur­ther­more, the dark web now offers ready-made phish­ing kits, increas­ing access to these tech­niques for inex­pe­ri­enced attackers.

The com­bi­na­tion of these fac­tors has meant that phish­ing attacks have been on the rise in recent years. By send­ing fraud­u­lent emails that look like they are from legit­i­mate sources, such as banks, gov­ern­ment agen­cies, or busi­ness­es, com­pa­nies can have issues with legit­imis­ing their email cam­paigns and heal­ing rela­tion­ships with their cus­tomer base.

If a recip­i­ent receives a fraud­u­lent email that looks like it is from a busi­ness, they may become sus­pi­cious of all emails that they receive from that busi­ness, includ­ing legit­i­mate mar­ket­ing emails. This can lead to a decrease in open and click-through rates and may even cause recip­i­ents to unsub­scribe from the busi­ness’s email list.

To pre­vent this from hap­pen­ing to your busi­ness, there are sev­er­al things you can do:

• Use anti-phish­ing soft­ware and keep it updat­ed to pro­tect against the lat­est threats.
• Imple­ment mul­ti-fac­tor authen­ti­ca­tion (MFA).
• Imple­ment email filters.
• Reg­u­lar­ly update soft­ware and systems.
• Mon­i­tor net­works for sus­pi­cious activ­i­ty, such as unusu­al logins or access attempts.

Final thoughts

So, those are the trends you can expect to see in 2023, and the best prac­tices you can imple­ment to keep up.

If you would like sup­port for opti­mis­ing your email mar­ket­ing cam­paigns, do get in touch via the but­ton below. Our team will be hap­py to help.

Get in touch