2023 Email Marketing Trends

For marketers, it’s hard to imagine a world without email. Regardless of the trends that come and go, such as social media or video, email still provides the most bang for your buck and ROI for your marketing efforts.

It remains one of the most critical channels for success for your brand. That high return on investment makes email all the more important as we move into 2023. To stand out from the competition, capture attention, drive engagement, and win the inbox having a solid email marketing strategy is an absolute must.

Part of that means knowing what your readers and customers expect moving forward so you have time to prepare and develop a winning strategy. Here’s what you need to know about the 2023 email marketing trends we predict will be popular in the coming year.

Email personalization remains critical

Email personalization has certainly been a popular trend for the last few years, and there are no signs it’s going away anytime soon. But a lot of brands still aren’t fully capitalizing on the opportunity that personalization can bring to your marketing plans.

Consumers want to get personalized 1:1 messaging that speaks directly to them. That kind of scale becomes difficult as your email list grows and could leave your brand struggling to connect with readers.

Smart Banners™ can be your secret weapon for adding more personalized messaging to every email you send, quickly and easily. From welcome emails to abandoned cart and browse notifications to loyalty and shipping notifications, and even local event invites using location data, you’re covered.

Increasing dependence on AI technology

Another popular trend will be the continued adaptation of AI technology in email marketing. Using AI has a couple of benefits. It will not only help you improve automation by streamlining processes and workflows, but it can also help improve personalization at scale.

One example of AI-powered tools in action is Zembula’s Campaign Decision Engine. Once you’ve connected your data and customer parameters, it runs through that information and, within milliseconds, determines what Smart Banner™ is going to get the best engagement from your customers.

In the past, that’s something that could only have been accomplished through multiple iterations of email copy and dozens of A/B tests. Now it happens automatically without you needing to be involved, change code, or run tons of tests.

Adding more real-time SMS messaging into the mix

Incorporating SMS campaigns into your marketing strategy doesn’t have to be an either-or with your email strategy. Now you can combine email and SMS marketing because they complement each other.

SMS gives you another way to reach your customers in-real time. Since customers read SMS messages more quickly than email with a higher open rates, it’s another path to connect with customers in and out of the inbox.

You can use SMS messaging to reach out to your customers and alert them in real time about sales, special events, inventory and tracking updates, and more.   

Plus, technology now allows you to do more than send generic messaging. You can also use animation to send personalized SMS messages that are tied directly to email messaging that you’re already setting up.

Focusing more on customer engagement

With the rollout of changes from the Apple iOS 15 update that came over earlier in 2022, new metrics have to be developed to determine how customers are engaging with your emails.

While open rates used to be one of the more common ways to see if people wearing interacting with what you were sending, now you have to look at other metrics to determine how consumers are engaging with your content.

One of those is through clicks in your emails. Smart Banners™ help you do that, making your emails more personalized to drive engagement. Plus, with the banner at the top of the email, it makes it easy for your customers to click. And if they’re opening emails on their phone, the message is right at the top, means there isn’t any scrolling to find where to click.

Develop a strategy to improve the customer journey

With increasing competition both online and in-store, you need to do more to both attract new customers and keep the customers you have. That means you have to focus on their experience and the journey they take through your funnels. 

One way to do that is keeping a focus on the omnichannel experience — finding ways to keep the in-store, email, and SMS messaging personalized and aligned. That makes it easier for your customers to get the same experience from you regardless of how they engage with your brand.

As we move into 2023, thinking proactively and focusing on how you can make your customer journey stand out, instead of reacting late can make all the difference. Look at the data, know what your customers want, and develop a strategy to deliver.

Zembula can help

If you want to transform your marketing and really stand out in 2023 and beyond, now is the time to make changes. We can help.

Get in touch today, and one of our email marketing experts will set you up with a demo of the Zembula platform. Try it out in person, and you’ll see all of the new and exciting ways you can continue the conversation with your customers.