1 month ago I received an email from one of our customers " Hi Marion, it would be nice to organize a meeting so that you can present us some trends for 2022. " Okay! I'm gathering my ideas and getting started! And since I'm super nice, I'm sharing it with everyone. Enjoy !
1. Towards less and less tracking
We saw it in Q1 2021 with the end of third-party cookers. We saw it again in September 2021 with the new version of Apple Mail (iOS15 and Macos 12 (Monterey)) . As of 11/26/2021, approximately 60 days after its release, ios15 accounts for 44.47% of downloaded iOS versions. (https://mixpanel.com/trends/#report/ios_15) And this is just the beginning. The trend will most certainly be replicated on Android and co. As time goes on, there will be more and more restrictions on email tracking and more particularly on tracking openings. The "end-of-funnel" measurement points are those that will remain the most relevant and reliable.
This underlying trend drives much of what follows.
2. Need for ethics, need for transparency
It is more and more important to define a moral framework. We are facing a reversal of the balance of power between brands and consumers. It goes through :
- From the consent forms, minimization of collected data, explain well what you subscribe to, without surprises.
- The implementation of a preference centeraccessible in the emails.
- The emphasis on the unsubscribe form in emails (header and footer)
It is the respect of the RGPD but not only... not to send commercial emails without consent (even with active clients...), Break down your communication types and listen to preferences.
3. Anticipate. Plan
Sending campaigns on a piecemeal basis is a thing of the past. It becomes essential to plan its campaigns several weeks in advance, especially when the commercial events follow one another. Example: Christmas launch, Black week, Black friday, Christmas, Winter sales)
4. Telling. Work on content. Commitment. Communicate around values
The email that describes the commercial offer is outdated. You have to work on the content, give your opinion, express your choices, your commitments, write with your gut. Move towards storytelling. In the next recruitment of CRM teams, it is good to include content manager talents in the CRM teams.
Psst: Writing an email is not that simple. We are organizing a live with the agency We are the words on Thursday, December 16 on the theme of writing in emailing. Come on, it'll be good.
5. Towards more strategic segments
We dug this subject during a live in November. The idea is to go beyond the typical segments: prospects, customers, ex-customers. Here are some examples of strategic segments that work quite well:
- Segments by affinity
- Potential buyers
- The Promophiles
- The "Booking window" score
- Email channel appetence score
- The lead nurturing score
6. Analyze. Towards a more reasonable approach to performance
We favor the click, dissatisfaction and conversion. If a large part of our subscribers open via an AppleMail environment (ios15 + Montery version)We forget the reminders about the non-reopeners (we already didn't like it that much 🙂 ). We do not relaunch on the segments that generate more than 40% of dissatisfaction. When the stats are bad, we rather pause the sending schedule. And we ask ourselves questions as soon as 25% of dissatisfaction by adjusting our target and the content of our message. To learn more about the indicators to follow, please download this white paper.
Need help?
Reading content isn't everything. The best way is to talk to us.
7. Review the definition of inactive emails
Until now, when we talked about "inactive email contacts" (or dormant contacts), we usually meant non-openers - 6 months. Now, with the new versions of Apple MailWe will have to find other indicators that allow us to identify "inactive email contacts". We will privilege the non clickers +(or not) a notion of visits. Example: Have not clicked on an email for 12 months AND Have not visited the site (or landing pages) for 12 months.
But, for the visits, 2 obstacles:
- you still need to have the tracking data reconciled with your CRM database
- and now that you can visit a site by REFUSING the deposit of cookies...
8. Mobile specific content
Responsive is good. But after having done several diagnostics of opening environments for many of our clients, I wonder if it is not necessary to create specific mobile content to extend the reading time because we really see a clear difference from one device to another.
9. Design system
Industrialize the creation of emails, build a library of reusable blocks over time based on on a specific graphic charter for email (which itself is based on a web graphic charter). Font sizes, colors, margins, CTA style... EVERYTHING is defined in advance. No design mistakes are possible. Consistency on all types of emails (commercial, editorial, transactional, relational...) This saves a lot of time at the email creation stage. We stop spending time on the design/technical aspects, we FINALLY spend time on the content.
10. Integration: innovation in emailing yes but no well I don't know maybe
First and foremost, it is ABSOLUTELY necessary to know its opening environments to know whether or not to integrate an innovative block : carousela video block, even a countdown.... If you don't do this, you may (maybe) be disappointed. Innovation is good but it has to show behind it 😉
11. Marketing automation more and more essential
Consumers can't take it anymore. They are overloaded with promotional emails in their mailboxes. Yet advertisers say they are segmenting more and more. We have to go even further towards more and more marketing automation. The goal? Send emails at the right time, when the contact is hot, when he has recently interacted with you (click, phone, visit, etc...). If you have set up your strategic segments, you can automate an email. Each contact who will enter these segments, will receive his email at the right time.
12. Autonomy in the entire production chain
Because marketers have lots of ideas, which they need to test to understand. Because time flies. Because we like to be "jack of all trades" more and more. The trend is towards tools that do more and more of the work without necessarily having to call on a data scientist, an HTML integrator for email or a tool manager. The trend is towards the Swiss army knife ;-). It allows you to focus on the strategythe email writingtargeting and analysis. Don't waste your time setting up campaigns and encoding emails. Choose tools that allow to create emails in drag and dropwhich offer you ready-to-use strategic segments, automated scenarios in just a few clicks (I promise, they do exist!). Be careful, though: if you're an e-commerce/pure player, these tools exist. If you're a BtoB, too. Otherwise, you'll always have to plan for customization 😉 )
13. Responsible purchasing policy
During asupport in choosing a routing toolI see more and more interest in the CSR commitment of the future tools selected. In the specifications, it is no longer rare to see a paragraph on the purchasing policy where it is required to account for the environmental and societal commitment (low-carbon data centers, carbon offsets, gender equality, etc. ...) and it is SO MUCH BETTER, it was time!
14. Support the project Email Expiration Date
This is a serious trend! Since 50 companies support this project ! And every time we talk about it, we are told " but it seems so EVIDENT! Why didn't it exist before? Maybe because it doesn't bring in the dough 😉
In any case, Including an expiration date in commercial emails reduces the carbon footprint of billions of commercial emails and newsletters stored indefinitely in data centers around the world. This project aims to reduce the increase in the volume of these messages stored for nothing. It also solves one of the biggest challenges of marketers: the "fed up" of subscribers. The mailbox is (almost) automatically lightened, commercial emails are deleted as soon as the offer is over, the servers will be much better off. This is the future!
If you do not yet support this project: https://www.zerocarbon.email/fr/accueil/
