3 Trends to Shake Up Your Email Marketing

Many marketers think of email as the workhorse in their stable—no nonsense and dependable, but not necessarily the coolest tool in the box. Like a humble cheeseburger, email marketing isn’t the newest or flashiest thing, but it’s dependable and gets the job done. And just like adding a dab of pesto or a piece of bacon can elevate that cheeseburger, these tips are game changers that can put a whole new spin on your emails and may boost your results.

Make it interactive—Building simple interactions into your email can help break up your content and keep your audience captivated. When planning your next email, think about including elements such as simple quizzes, videos, carousels and add-to-calendar modules. Besides giving your audience a break, you’ll stand out for all the right reasons: Only 23% of marketers say they’ve tried interactive emails, so this could be a huge opportunity.

More emphasis on dark mode—People love using their phones and tablets in dark mode—that darker color palette that seems ready-made for low light situations or at night. Recent studies show that about 40% of Apple users prefer it for their iOS, and 95% of Android users prefer it across the board. Some basic best practices for dark mode include:

• Outline white text in black
• Avoid saturated colors when possible (or desaturate them)
• Keep your emails scannable with less content
• Use bold text sparingly

Get creative with your A/B testing—A/B testing may not be the coolest new trend, but it can lead to better-performing emails and landing pages. But, surprisingly, fewer than 40% of marketers test their campaigns—missing out on collecting insights and data that can be used to boost performance.

Drill down and try testing elements such as:

• Number of links. Your emails shouldn’t link out to too many sources but try a split test with two links vs. no links to see which performs better.
• The greeting. Believe it or not, something as simple as whether you say, “Hello,” “Hey there” or “Hi John” can make a huge difference. Test and find out what works best for your company.
• Subject line word order. Since we read left to right, “frontloading” a special offer or personalized text might affect open and click-through rates.
• Plain text vs. HTML. You can also start by testing whether a plain text email performs better than an HTML version.

Most of these suggestions are probably things you’re already doing or could easily be doing. The key is executing them flawlessly and consistently. We can support your email marketing efforts in numerous ways. Let us help you create successful integrated marketing campaigns.