TOP 10 Email Marketing trends in 2021

2020 has been an unpredictable year. Covid 19 has turned corporate strategies upside down and companies had to evolve, adapt and change. To get the year off to a good start, we’ve listed our TOP 10 email marketing trends for 2021 that will help to make your newsletter unforgettable.

Personalizing your emails is nothing new. Marketers have been using this concept for several years. Personalisation represents a lever in terms of customer loyalty and optimisation of customer relations. According to Accenture Strategy study, 66% of French people say they are more inclined to consume products from a brand that personalised its offer. 

Personalisation is not just putting the name of the recipient when sending a campaign. It is about using user data and highlighting their preferences, their needs according to their geolocation and their age. This segmentation makes it possible to better target and reach the subscribers of a mailing list by grouping types of subscribers in the same categories for sending a newsletter.

For example, to create a hyper-personalisation, you can  customise WordPress and Joomla automatic emails on AcyMailing. You can customize confirmation email, reset password/remind username, notifications sent to the admin… To find out how to do it, go to the documentation.

The crisis has raised the need to get closer to its targets. Consumers need to be recognised, listened and supported. In 2021, companies must therefore be more authentic in their strategy.  Content must be even more segmented and personalised. This will help avoid unsubscriptions due to repeated and unsuitable content. Indeed, according to the Lucid agency, around 20% of recipients will unsubscribe if the content does not interest them. Companies must therefore use more targeted content to meet their expectations.

Who doesn’t like to send warm newsletters with GIFS, photos, videos… In 2021, we’re back to the good old classic of text-only. Indeed, the text is perceived as more personal and friendly like when you finally send a message to your friend. This trend complements the need for proximity and hyper-personalisation of subscribers. Using text in your newsletters allows you to create a proximity link and make emails much more human. 

To achieve this, here are some tips. Pretend you’re writing an essay:

• Space out your text
• Create a structure to your content: sections, title, subtitle 
• Use short sentences and get to the point
• Make strategic call-to-action 

In the current period, brands are sending more and more emails to stand out from their competitors and be seen. Due to the closing of stores, promotions just pile up in your mailbox.

That’s why you have to stand out and catch the eye of subscribers. This is done through eye-catching design and colours. But above all through more positive colours. Indeed, 93% of consumers take colour into account during a purchase.

And as we know, colours are important in marketing, they create emotions and create assimilation in the customer’s mind.

Here are some examples of colours that can make your newsletters more attractive:

• Black: Power, elegance, mystery
• Yellow: Joy, Freshness
• Dark Blue: Knowledge, Confidence, Integrity

The new trend to make your emails more attractive is AMP, Accelerate Mobile Performance. AMP allows your subscribers to access directly to the product web page or interact directly on your email. The consumer has access to animations, carousels… This trend is drastically improving the user experience. Users no longer need to click to be redirected to the website. Everything happens on the email in your mailbox. AMP allows you to display your web page faster without the usual loading times of your site. Indeed, 32% of smartphone users leave a site after only 5 to 6 seconds if it’s too slow.

To find out more about AMP and its uses on WordPress: https://wpformation.com/amp-wordpress/

Automation allows you to program your campaigns and make them as effective as possible. You can therefore create welcome, birthday or order confirmation emails. Indeed, birthday emails can generate around 342% more revenue per email than standard promotional emails (Experian). These follow-up emails present many advantages. AcyMailing lists them in its new feature for its WordPress and Joomla newsletter plugin.

Another alternative to AMP is to offer dynamic clickable content in your newsletters. It is important to promote click conversion as soon as a newsletter is opened. For example, you can propose promotional offers, videos, gifs, tips…which will promote click-throughs to the website.

Consumer expectations have changed significantly in 2020. People have become more aware of the impact of brands and their own buying behaviour. They are now looking for brands that are committed to a social, environmental or political cause. Brands that make only profit with a lack of commitment are outdated. In 2021, more and more committed emails will see the light of day. According to a study, 84 percent of customers believe that an engaged brand contributes to the performance of a marketing campaign.

Human beings must be at the heart of emailing strategies. In 2021, we need to rethink our message, our communication in order to create empathy and strong links with our community. Authenticity and a real concern for the needs of its customers is the key to success.

For brands, this trend implies rethinking their messages, their communication channels but also the user experience. It is necessary to know how to identify consumer needs and create a coherent customer journey. 

Artificial intelligence represents the future and has an impact on all sectors. That’s why it’s interesting to adopt this trend in your email campaigns. AI allows you to analyse your emails and user data more quickly. This way you can segment your emails and make your campaigns more successful. Software already exists to analyse the impact of your emails thanks to predictive analysis. They will analyse the areas that catch the eye, the attractive areas or the overall aesthetics of the email. It’s time to optimise your emails with AI. 

If you don’t want to use an AI, you can in the meantime analyse your campaigns on AcyMailing with Statistics.

The latest trend in 2021 concerns UGCs, i.e. user generated content. This content comes in different forms: opinions, recommendations, comments, activity on social networks… If you put UGCs in your emails, that means you show the experience of your customers first. It creates a link with your community.

Email Design has listed the top 3 ways to integrate UGC in your emails:

• Work the 5 star reviews
• Put the best sellers and most liked products
• Take an instagram photo, rather than words

You can now start the year 2021 by taking these trends into account! 😉