If you have a marketing strategy in 2022 that doesn’t rely heavily on email, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity to connect with customers, drive revenue, and generate results. Email continues to be one of the most valuable yet underutilized marketing tools in the modern marketing arsenal. Now’s the time to go all-in!
The Power of Email Marketing
Email might not be as flashy as social media, blogging, or podcasting, but you could make the argument that it’s the most effective and highest-returning marketing investment you can make. Research curated by Constant Contact shows:
- Email marketing generates an impressive $36 in revenue for every $1 spent.
- 80 percent of professionals believe email marketing plays a critical role in their customer acquisition and retention.
- 60 percent of customers say they’ve made a purchase after receiving a marketing email. By contrast, just 12.5 percent of consumers say they’ve bought something using the “buy” button on social media.
- Approximately 1 in 5 emails are opened within the first hour of being sent. This makes email one of the fastest and most reliable ways to reach customers.
- 61% of consumers say they enjoy receiving promotional emails from brands they like, and 38 percent say they’d like these emails to come more frequently.
- Since 2011, email open rates have grown by 100 percent on mobile devices.
Clearly, there’s immense value to be extracted from email marketing. If you aren’t already utilizing email, then let these statistics serve as a wakeup call. And if you are using email marketing, let these numbers be an encouragement to continue maximizing this marketing channel.
5 Email Marketing Tactics for 2022 (and Beyond)
Email marketing is constantly changing and evolving. And while different techniques come and go, it’s important to have your finger firmly on the pulse of what’s working. With this in mind, here are several email marketing tactics that are working well in 2022 (and likely will continue to work in the future).
Use Conversational Subject Lines
If you take nothing else away from this entire article, you should know that the subject line is the most important part of an email. If you write poor subject lines, people will never open your emails. And if people never open your emails, it doesn’t matter how good your copy is – you’ll never get people to click, buy, or reply.
You can think of the subject line as the curb appeal for your email. Much like a home’s curb appeal influences whether or not homebuyers are interested in a house, your subject line dictates whether people click or not.
There are plenty of different strategies and techniques for writing effective subject lines that drive high open rates. Entire books have been written about the topic. But if there’s one strategy that’s working really well in 2022, it’s the use of something we’ll call “conversational” subject lines.
For the most part, marketers use subject lines with enticing claims, promises, and benefits. And while these can certainly work well, we’ve reached a point where a lot of customers have marketing fatigue. They’re so accustomed to seeing bold claims that they’ve become desensitized to them. When they see a subject line like this, they know a sales pitch is inside and are less likely to click. (If it’s enticing enough, they will click. But it takes a lot of practice to learn how to write irresistible marketing subject lines.)
Conversational subject lines are an alternative approach that cuts through the noise. You can think of these subject lines as something you’d send to a friend, spouse, or coworker. They’re short, punchy, and very natural. Examples include:
- quick question
- Is this you?
- Just passing this along…
- quick chat?
- I think you’ll like this
These are just examples designed to show you what conversational subject lines look like. By no means are these the only options. There are unlimited options. The only limit is your own creativity.
Integrate Video
Video content has quickly become one of the hottest and most effective content marketing mediums. If you can find a way to combine email marketing with video, you can get oversized results.
The tricky part about using video with email is that most email platforms won’t allow you to directly embed a streaming video into an email. In other words, you can’t send an email and have people watch a video directly inside of it. (At least not natively.) However, as VideoSupply explains, there are several options:
- Include a still image of the video and overlay a “play” symbol on top of it and hyperlink to a landing page or hosting platform like YouTube or Vimeo to serve the video.
- Turn the video into a GIF that moves inside of the email. Then hyperlink the GIF to the full video so that people can click and watch.
- Some email clients actually allow for fully embedded videos. Use third-party software to put HTML5 code in the email so that it streams. (This is the least preferred option, as it may trigger spam filters with certain email providers.)
You certainly don’t need to send videos in every single email, but it can be an effective tactic when used strategically.
Always Include a P.S.
Did you know that over 90 percent of people read the P.S. line in an email? That’s a much higher percentage than the number of people who actually read the body of the message. So if you want to grab attention and get people to focus on something in particular, always include a P.S.
Most email marketers treat the P.S. as an afterthought. However, it could be argued that it’s one of the most important elements (after the subject line, of course). So rather than just lazily tossing one in at the last minute, consider building your entire email around the P.S. at the end.
A P.S. is a great place to quickly summarize your email and/or include a call-to-action. It’s also a good place to ask a question in order to get a response.
Personalize as Much as Possible
Personalized marketing is effective marketing. People have grown tired of general marketing that speaks to everyone. They want to feel important and prioritized. There are several ways to do this within your email strategy.
The easiest way to personalize is by inserting custom name “tags” into your emails. Depending on the email platform you’re using, this tag usually looks something like “FNAME” or “{first_name}.” When you plug one of these tags in, it automatically finds the recipient’s first name (assuming you have that data point) and includes it in the email wherever you paste the tag.
Another way to personalize emails is by segmenting your list. For example, if you sell health and beauty products, you can segment your list by men and women. This allows you to send one variation with products men are interested in and another variation with products women are interested in.
Get People to Reply
The final tip is to get people to mash that reply button. When people reply, it actually sends a signal to the email client that they’re interested in your messages. This increases the likelihood that the email shows up in the primary folder and lowers the risk of being sent to spam.
There’s also a psychological component of getting people to reply. When someone replies to an email, they’re taking a micro action that makes them more likely to follow through with bigger actions in the future (like clicking a link or buying a product).
The best way to get people to reply is by asking a question and/or incentivizing. For example, you could say something like: Are you interested in this? I’d love to send you our 35-page home remodeling guide. Just hit reply and I’ll give you a free copy.
Add Email to Your Marketing Arsenal
Strengthen your results by adding email to your tactical marketing war chest. While it does take some time and patience, a commitment to strategic marketing will eventually generate results for your business. Begin by implementing the tips highlighted above and then continue to iterate until you find the right approach for your company.