The trends governing email marketing optimization change every year as new understandings of best practices emerge. In that respect, 2021 will be no different. Any business seeking to get the best ROI from their email campaigns must understand these changes. Take a look at the email marketing optimization techniques for 2021 to see how you can modify your emails to get more leads, qualify buyers, and convert!
Get Personal: Hyper-Personalization in Email Marketing
Businesses are starting to realize that they are not marketing to companies; they are marketing to the people that run those companies or their clients directly. Nobody wants to receive impersonal, jargon-laden marketing anymore. That is why hyper-personalization in email marketing is on the rise. Fortunately, any brand’s voice can personalize and customize its messages in several ways including:
- Using the customer’s name in the email (don’t worry, you can automate this step)
- Creating content for specific audience subsets
- Removing the third-person point of view from your emails
- Engaging customers with pop culture for lighthearted content
These are some ways that brands are finding success in email marketing that should find their way into your playbook.
Create Interactive Content
People like to be heard. Potential customers want to feel as though their voice matters, especially if it’s a unique viewpoint. Email marketing best practices for 2021 suggest giving them a voice in your email responses because they are more likely to respond to you if you allow them to reply. Interactive content is king in that respect.
One way to implement this content is to set up a WiFi proximity email campaign that allows a company to send emails to clients that log onto their Wi-Fi systems when they come into the store or when they leave. These emails could offer current and future discounts, surveys, or even information about your new products.
A/B Testing and Tracking Results
Email marketing optimization often calls for A/B testing. A/B testing sounds difficult, but it is merely a scientific method of testing the efficacy of two email campaigns that are similar in all respects except for a single variable. These variables can come in different forms:
- Discounts based on a percentage or dollar amounts
- Time of day (Afternoon vs. night)
- The inclusion of videos or pictures
- Subject lines
The email that receives the highest response rate will show the preferences of your customers and give you guidance for future email campaigns.
Respect Privacy
Another major shift in email marketing optimization for 2021 will be a more direct and purposeful collection of emails and associated data. Specifically, companies will seek to only gather emails form individuals that are directly interacting with their brand through web page forms, loyalty signups, and guest Wi-Fi connections. This stands in direct contrast to the former methods of gaining emails by any means possible, even if the customer was not directly engaging with the brand. The future of email marketing is about consent and treating potential and existing customers with respect, especially with regards to their privacy.
Email marketing best practices are always being updated to help companies garner the best results. As we have mentioned, the next major shift is toward being more personable to customers. The trends we have mentioned here are largely a reflection of that changing philosophy, and they will guide the foreseeable future.
