12 Email Marketing Tips For 2022
Email marketing, est. 1978 and still going strong for 2022. In this blog, we share 12 email marketing tips to help you succeed in 2022.
Due to how long email marketing has been around for, you might not expect it to be as impactful in this modern age. You would be mistaken, though.
The fact email marketing has prevailed for so long is a testament to its effectiveness. Yes, it might be considered “old school”, but with over 4 billion users every day, email marketing is still a highly relevant and valuable channel.
Besides, digital channels like email marketing are ever-changing with the times. Stay in the loop with our 12 email marketing tips to kickstart your 2022.
Benefits of email marketing
Email marketing has the opportunity to offer huge return-on-investment (ROI).
Before you do something, it’s important to know why you’re doing it. There’s a multitude of reasons to use email marketing, but we’ll summarise a couple.
A key benefit is that email marketing has the opportunity to offer huge return-on-investment (ROI) – with a study reporting a whopping $42 was generated for every $1 spent. It’s hard to ignore figures like that!
Email marketing is also great for improving customer retention through providing personalised and relevant content. In fact, a study found 49% of consumers wanted to receive weekly email newsletters from their favourite brands… Give the people what they want!
So, are you convinced? Well, read on to discover our top email marketing tips you can use to make 2022 a great year…
Strategic & tactical email marketing tips for 2022
1. Set goals
Set SMART goals to help keep you on track.
Before you do anything, you must set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) goals to help you keep on track. Setting goals for your email marketing strategy will ensure each email has purpose and is working towards the overarching goal.
2. Understand your audience
Build segments based on your subscribers’ preferences and behaviours.
There’s no use in blindly sending out email newsletters to your audience and hoping they’ll do well.
Most email platforms nowadays allow you to build segments based on your subscribers’ preferences and behaviours. Think of these segments as representatives of the different niches within your audience.
Target relevant content to these segments to increase your chances of improving all your favourite rates (open rate, click-through-rate, and conversion rate)!
3. Tone of voice
Use tone of voice to let your brand personality shine.
The tone of voice and key terminology used in your email copy is definitely worth considering for your 2022 email marketing strategy.
Plus, if you’re thinking of mixing things up, the new year is the perfect time to do this.
By having clear tone of voice and terminology guidelines, you can make sure your brand personality shines brightly throughout. This consistency helps build brand familiarity and trust.
4. Plan, plan, plan!
Plan ahead for your email marketing strategy to ensure you don’t miss key dates or events.
Planning is key.
Although not unique to email marketing, having an email marketing schedule in place will be so useful. Your future self will thank you for it.
By creating a schedule, you can make sure your strategy includes key dates or events that are relevant to your business, like Black Friday.
5. Grab their attention
Highlight important call-to-actions at the top of your emails.
Did you know that adults have an attention span of 8 seconds?
Stay with us here!
We’re not trying to call you out. In fact, this tidbit of information is important when considering your email layout. A key part of email design is to make sure you highlight important call-to-actions at the top.
Also, if you plan on including images in your emails, ensure these are optimised to load properly across all devices. There’s nothing more boring than watching an image desperately trying to load – guaranteed that email is going straight to the bin!
6. Save time with email templates
Email templates will save you so much time in the long run.
So you’ve got your email copy and layout down to a T, it’s time to apply this to some email templates!
Email templates will save you so much time in the long run. Plus, they make it easy to ensure a consistent layout and tone of voice is used throughout your email campaigns.
7. Automation is your friend
Automated emails help engage your subscribers and improve conversion.
The real game changer when it comes to email marketing is automated emails.
Automated email flows are set up to automatically send once a rule has been triggered, based on the subscriber’s behaviour. There’s an abundance of tried and tested automated email flow templates out there designed to engage your subscribers and improve conversion.
If there’s one automated email you set up though, it should be the welcome email.
Why?
Because data shows that welcome emails have an average open rate of over 86%, four times the amount for other emails. What’s more, the average click-through-rate for welcome emails is almost 25%, which is 10 times higher than other emails.
You best get building! Once you’ve finished reading our blog, of course.
8. To use emojis, or to not use emojis?
Whether you use emojis or not depends on your target audience and brand personality.
That is the question…
Emojis are like Marmite – some people love them, some people hate them.
Whilst they can be an effective way of standing out in your subscriber’s inbox and improving your open rate, it really comes down to your target audience and brand.
If your brand’s personality and tone of voice is light-hearted and down to earth, emojis are likely to work for you.
On the other hand, emojis may not align so well with your brand if it’s more serious and professional.
Ultimately, we recommend A/B testing emojis in the subject line to measure the impact on your open rate.
9. Your words matter
Whether you decide to use emojis or not, it’s the words you use that really count when it comes to the subject line.
Particularly when it comes to optimising your subject line for opens. Inspire your subscribers to open your email by creating a sense of urgency and excitement.
Basically, give them a reason to open your email.
Use powerful words like “Free, Limited, Last Chance, 2022, Invitation, Special, Offer”.
Or, try using some basic personalisation in the subject line to capture attention:
“[first name], it’s your last chance to shop our sale!”
10. Pepsi Vs. Coca-Cola
Draw on comparisons to make your subject lines more interesting and clickable.
Subject lines that feature a comparison can evoke that sense of curiosity, even leading to increased open rates by 21%.
Plus, comparisons make for an interesting read. You can be light-hearted or quite aggressive with this tactic, depending on your brand. For instance, a more aggressive comparison could be between your product and your competitors.
11. Optimise for mobile
Make sure your emails look great on mobile devices.
As you probably know, we’re in a mobile-first world and it’s no different when it comes to email marketing. In fact, mobile users accounted for between 26 and 78% of email opens in 2021.
Therefore, it’s important that your emails are designed to look fantastic on all devices.
12. Testing, testing, 1, 2
Test different elements of your email marketing strategy to ensure it is optimised.
The best way to improve your email marketing efforts is to test.
Test different elements, subject lines, terminology, images.
Remember when A/B testing, only change one element at a time per test. This helps validate results.
There’s no point changing lots of different things because you won’t know what caused the difference! Keep track of the results and use it to build your own unique set of best practices.
Conclusion
We hope you found our email marketing tips useful when creating your 2022 email marketing strategy.
Remember, our list is not exhaustive. When it comes to email marketing, there’s a whole world of opportunity.
Especially when you start testing and optimising your emails, you’ll soon develop your own list of best practices.