2022… phew! What a year…

I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely looking forward to a fresh start and seeing what 2023 has to bring.

Like most, I’ll spend this month figuring out goals for next year, setting the right expectations…

… and then probably preparing to eventually give some of them up.

Because when it comes to new year resolutions, It’s easy to set an impressive amount of resolutions at the beginning of the new year and then see those resolutions fail as the conditions to meet them change as the year goes on.

For example, I once set myself a resolution to start running, which went great – until there was a cold snap and the thought of going outside in the freezing cold (nope!) made my resolution come to an abrupt end.

Knowing how things are changing in the future impacts on your plans and things are definitely changing in the world of email marketing.

Here are the key things we’re seeing on the horizon: if you’re planning to step up your email marketing game (and why wouldn’t you) this is a must read.

We’ll walk you through these changes and show you how to implement them in your marketing plan for the New Year.

With 2023 just around the corner there’s no time to waste. Start using these tips today to ensure you start the year on top of your game.

The Death of open rates as a statistic

OK, so that may be a bit OTT but open rates are no longer a really reliable statistic, here’s why…

2022 saw several privacy related changes. One of the most significant changes being Apple releasing new privacy settings (Apple MPP) that prevented email users tracking information from Apple users such as the open rate. These changes have resulted in open rates going up as Apple “opens” the email before it hits the inbox giving it a false positive. This means you can’t necessarily trust your open rates, making them less relevant.

Data privacy will therefore continue to be a strong focus as we are expected to adapt to these latest changes. As MPP is adopted by more users, open rate will become more of an unreliable metric. There’s still some benefit of tracking your own open rates over time to a degree you just need to “be aware” of what you’re tracking.

The rise of engagement

 Ultimately, other metrics such as clicks and click-through rates will become more important which means creating engaging content with effective Call To Actions (CTAs) should be the topmost priority.

Encouraging clicks matters more than ever. You need to inspire your prospects to take action by creating a “next-step” for your reader to connect with. Whether that’s reading your latest blog post or unlocking a free offer, you’ve NEED to give them a little push.

CTA best practices

• Make sure your CTA carries compelling verbs, so it’s precise enough to carry out its purpose, and compelling enough to inspire action. A commanding verb that connotes motion is usually best. For example, Instead of saying, “Click Here”, you can say, Get Started, Join Today, or Try it Out,
• Add some context to your call-to-action to emphasise what the customer will receive if they click on the button.
• Ensure your CTA resonates with the rest of the content.
• Grab your prospects’ attention with bold design, make your CTA button a contrasting colour, give it an interesting border, or make the font larger.
• Create multiple CTAs when needed.
• Test your CTA’s, try different designs, placements and wording to see what works best then test again and see if you can improve conversions even more.

You also need to ensure you track your clicks to measure levels of engagement. If you have access to Google Analytics or other tools on your website, use it to see what activity users are taking after clicking your email.

Utilise the use of UTMs to track traffic for different campaigns, A UTM code is a simple snippet code that you can add to the end of a URL to track the performance of campaigns and content.

And remember, for someone to click on a link in your email, the email had to land in their inbox. Which means that creating engaging content with effective CTA’s will help increase your overall email deliverability.

Your Brand story matters

 With such a large influx of mail hitting their inboxes, customers today want to know who they’re buying from and what those businesses stand for.

This coming year, your brand story will become even more important as customers look to connect with the brands they buy from and determine if that brand deserves their attention and trust or not.

This means you must develop new approaches to telling your story. You need to be better at conveying who you are and what you stand for.

Tell your company’s story and show your brand’s personality by sharing behind the scene pictures or videos, editorial shoots, news, quotes, etc. Doing this makes your content valuable and shows your authority.

By doing this you can increase engagement and build relationships with your subscribers, encouraging them to become loyal customers and brand advocates.

It’s worth remembering that there needs to be some appreciation for the depth of relationship people want. You must think about where the prospect is within their journey and what will interest, educate or entertain your audience in order for them to stay on board with your email marketing.

Create value by putting yourself in your follower’ shoes and answer a simple question: What’s in it for me?

Add a personal touch by asking your audience what they would like to read and ask your users to share their thoughts about how you could improve your brand.

A simple short survey in an email can give you a strong indication of how you can improve your engagement rate with your existing audience.

Standing out from the noise is essential – segment for the win

While many of you may already be using emails in your marketing activities, are you using them effectively to deliver personalised content to your audience?

If you want to be successful in your email marketing campaigns, a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t going to cut it. By using email segmentation, you can drastically improve the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

What’s more, segmentation allows you to send more relevant content.

The more relevant your email communication is, the more likely your audience will continue to engage with it.

The key here is to know your audience, identify the different types of customers on your subscriber list, figure out what each customer truly needs, and then deliver value to them.

First Party Data from your own forms will become even more important in 2023

You should be storing information that allows you to send the right information to different groups of people. The more data you’re able to collect, the better you can target.

• Capturing information about your subscribers on your sign up form is a great place to start or create a specific landing page.
• Asking questions in a welcome series lets you collect information you need without asking for too much up in a sign up form. Include some questions with multiple choice answers that readers can easily click, then Tag subscribers based on their answers.
• Always look out for opportunities to get to know a little more about your audience.
• You can use surveys, focus groups, polls, and interviews to learn more about your customers.
• Even if you’re not asking subscribers to provide information about themselves up front, you can tell a lot about their interests based on what they signed up for.

Remember to always stay vigilant about how you capture and use customer data.

Final thoughts

There has never been a better time than NOW to master your email marketing for 2023. We hope these tips have given you an idea to start off your New Year marketing on the right foot.

The world of email marketing will continue to change which means as a business, you must continue to adapt. If you implement some of these email marketing strategies you’ll be ahead of the curve going into the new year.