Top Email Marketing Trends to Use in 2020

This article was last updated on June 7, 2021

Remember when experts predicted that email as a method of communication was to be short-lived? Well, the joke’s on them. Email is not only a standard form of communication; it’s the preferred marketing channel for most businesses. As email marketing grows more powerful and continues to change, it may be tough to keep up. That’s where we come in. Below, we’ve chosen our favorite email marketing trends for 2020 that are sure to engage and convert your customers.

Animated GIFs

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, what about a GIF? Whether you pronounce it GIF or JIF, the truth remains that using them in email marketing is a winning combination. They’re an upgrade to the static images that we typically use in marketing emails. Experts like top marketing email delivery service SendGrid have found that adding them dramatically improves a reader’s engagement.

The reason why they’re such a marketing favorite is due to their diversity. GIFs can be used in many ways, from expressing a feeling and showing a reaction, to demonstrating how something works and showcasing an item.

Have a proprietary machine that you want to show off? Use a GIF to inform subscribers how it works. Do you have a new fall clothing line on the horizon? Give a sneak peek of what’s in store by using a GIF. Want to encourage a reader to click the Call to Action button? A GIF can help.

User-Generated Content

What do you do with the customer feedback and reviews that you receive? The answer is to use it to captivate your customers through marketing emails. User-generated content (UGC) is any piece of content (think text, images, audio, etc.) created by a customer. It ranges from product reviews and feedback to votes and surveys. When customers interact with your email, their behavior or response is tracked. This data can be used for many reasons, including producing better future emails or testimonials that help other customers make a purchase decision.

Dark Mode

Sorry, light mode lovers, the phenomenon that is dark mode is here to stay. Its appeal is that it’s easy on the eyes, gives everything a sleek look, and supposedly saves battery life on all devices that use it. This rising trend is a promising opportunity for email marketing, as it encourages companies to explore their creativity with a darker theme. A thing to keep in mind when designing emails is to make sure your emails will correctly render whether they’re in light or dark mode. Many devices use one or the other, and you don’t want to risk your emails getting deleted from formatting issues. A best practice is that if you’re not sure how it will look, test it before you send it.

Integrating Social Media and Email Marketing

Believe it or not, social media and email marketing go hand-in-hand. According to the business data platform Statista, more than 3 billion people are predicted to use social media in 2020. For businesses, this means there are more opportunities to strengthen their online presence and garner more followers.

To get the most out of this trend, it’s recommended to add social media buttons in your emails and make your emails shareable. If your followers enjoy your emails and choose to share them, it can lead to recommendations. And it works in reverse as well. You can invite your social media followers to subscribe to your newsletter.

Interactivity

The average reader only spends 2-8 seconds skimming an email. That’s not a lot of time to get their attention. An email marketing trend that carried over from 2019 is the use of interactivity to keep a subscriber’s interest when they click on your email. Simply put, it makes the emails more interesting. Making marketing emails more “fun” to read and interact with, influences the reader to stay longer, explore every inch of the email, and read the content in hopes of finding more things to interact with. A few interactive elements include:

• Quizzes that unlock discounts
• Games
• Interactive Images
• Hover/Rollover events
• Animated Call to Action buttons
• Surveys and polls

Customers who interact with these kinds of emails are also more likely to purchase the product or enroll in your company’s services. They’ve also expressed that when companies customize the content within their emails, they’re interested in building a good relationship with them.

Automation and Workflows

Let’s face it. Companies don’t have weeks to dedicate to producing emails. And experts believe that as more brands recognize the impact email can have on the marketing channel, there will soon be a demand for a higher volume of targeted emails and campaigns.

The solution is to replace manual work wherever you can. Opt for automating your emails and using data to determine when is the best time to send them or when the emails should trigger. Automating your emails and creating workflows is an excellent way to boost your overall productivity, save time, and reduce the number of errors in your emails.

Personalization

The era of one-size-fits-all emails is out the door. Your customers don’t want to feel like they’re among many (even though it’s impossible to know every one of your customers). The trend is to consider who they are, their interests, and where they are in your sales pipeline. You can use email segmentation to narrow down what content would be relevant to your customers. It’s an excellent tactic for those who don’t like being sold to.

MailBakery: Helping You Stay on Top of Email Marketing Trends

Having a hard time keeping up with industry email marketing trends and how to incorporate them into your email marketing? Don’t worry, our team at MailBakery can take care of that for you.

Together we can focus on creating an email template that appeals to your readers while staying up to date on practices and the newest trends.

Not sure where to start? Request a quote and we’ll get you up and running.