While we’ve talked about 2020 before, we’re going to briefly bring it up again. 2020 was a year of mass disruptions and we’re not aware of a single industry that wasn’t disrupted, are you?
Email marketing was not unscathed through 2020. The volume of emails sent over 2020 increased 45% from the year prior.
We mentioned disruption striking across all businesses. This disruption brought a swath of change that everyone had to deal with. Businesses had to restrict capacity, change hours, move more business online, and shift their strategies altogether. How does a business easily communicate these changes with their customer base while reaching potential customers as well? You guessed it, email!
Email marketing is growing
It’s been rumored that email is dead, we laugh uncontrollably at this notion! Sent emails grew 45% over 2020! Not only is email alive, but it’s growing.
“One of the biggest benefits of using email to communicate with your customers is that nearly everyone uses email. In fact, 92% of online adults use email, with 61% using it on an average day.
People aren’t just using email to connect with family and friends either. 61% of consumers prefer to be contacted by brands through email, which is good news for your business.
The even better news? 99% of email users check their email every day, some as much as 20 times a day!
It’s often the first thing people do online; 58% of users check their email before they check out social media or the news (Optinmonster).”
While we believe that we check our email more the 20 times a day, how powerful is this? Email marketing creates ample opportunity to be seen by your audience.
Authenticity
Authenticity is extremely important. Your audience knows when you are not being authentic when your words do not align with your beliefs and your actions.
A way to think of it is like this: when you send an email to your audience, you would like them to open it. When someone opens your email, they are giving you their time. If what they read is not authentic, they will likely feel that you have wasted their time, significantly decreasing the likelihood they will open any subsequent emails you send.
Why is that? Let’s begin with the sheer amount of options your audience has? They have a vast sea of media options at their fingertips, from your competitors to the daily news in their inboxes. We mentioned that your audience gives you their time when they view one of your emails and let’s face it, we all only have so much time in our day to digest content from TV, Radio, and the web. Your content needs to be authentic to standout amongst the other options your audience has.
On top of all that, it is much simpler to be authentic. When you create authentic content, it has a natural flow to it and comes much more easily.
Bold Typography is the path forward
Many of us put the most importance on and rely on eye-catching imagery to grab someone’s attention. It’s like on social media, where posts with photos average a 37% boost in engagement. We need eye-catching imagery, don’t we?
While eye-catching images are nice, the trend we’re seeing is that they aren’t necessary. The trend into 2021 is showing a push towards bigger and bolder typography as another way to grab your reader’s attention. Bold typography is a great way to make a bold (no pun intended!) statement and to push key messages. The trend to being more creative with text and using fewer or no images is climbing.
Bright colors are out, bring more voice to your email with muted colors
Do you consider colors when crafting your emails and content? Color is often the overlooked aspect that is also the deciding factor for your email campaign being a success or failure.
Is color important? Consider this: “When marketing new products, it is crucial to consider that consumers place visual appearance and color above all other factors when shopping.” When buying a new product, a staggering 93% of consumers place value on visual appearance & color ahead of everything else. “85% of shoppers place color as a primary reason for why they buy a particular product.” (Neil Patel)
We’ve leaned towards the brighter colors, but as we progress into 2021 the trend is changing. More and more, people are preferring muted color palettes with complementary colors such as white and black interspersed in.
Designing with dark mode in mind
Eye strain is on the rise with the amount of time we spend on computers and devices. What is the answer to help with eye strain? Dark mode! Operating systems have offered inverted color schemes for a long time and apps are jumping on board now.
What is email dark mode? Email dark mode introduces a reversed color scheme, a black or dark grey background with light text, eliminating harmful blue light. Dark mode has created a headache for many marketers.
When designing your email you need to keep in mind that when your email is viewed by someone using dark mode, the background color of your email will switch to black. It is common for marketers to use specific images that have colors that blend into the background. A marketer may even use images with a specific color that is the same as their background so it flows seamlessly. When dark mode inverts the color scheme, it may throw off your design. To work with dark mode, you may try using images with transparent backgrounds where you can.
In conclusion
Life is always changing. Trends come and go, and may come again. It’s important to keep up with the trends in email marketing to set yourself apart from your competition that doesn’t. To break through some of the noise in your audience’s inbox and stand out to improve the chances of your email campaign’s success.
Email is far from dead and is even growing a great deal into 2021. If you’re not using email marketing at all, or to the fullest of its potential, it may be time to look into it. Authenticity is more important than ever and rightfully so. People don’t want to digest content that you don’t believe in or put any effort into, they want to see the authentic you. Bold typography is catching the eyes of many and improving the success of email campaigns while bright colors are on the out to muted colors. Eye strain is a serious issue due to the amount of time we are all on devices. This has increased the popularity of “dark mode” which is something you must consider when designing email campaigns.
What other email marketing trends are you seeing for 2021? Do you consider color when designing emails? If so, what is your go-to color and why? We’re excited to hear from you!
Until next time, keep smiling.
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