Is email still relevant?

Let’s take a look at its history: Electronic mail (email) was born in the 70s, and email marketing started at the tail end of that decade — that’s over 50 years of use as a marketing channel and communication tool . In the 80s and 90s, email adoption skyrocketed, and its popularity rose — Tom Hanks even starred in a movie about it! Today, over 300 billion emails are sent worldwide every day. Email has transcended generations and outlived countless cultural movements and social trends.

In the 2010s, social media took off, and suddenly, marketers had a way to reach consumers on  channels they were scrolling through every day. Skeptics said that with the rise of social media, email would die. Technologies that have lasted for a long time can often become outdated and ineffective, but not email, it’s still here.

So, after all these years of skepticism and debate, is email still relevant? This universally adopted communication method has outlasted everything that’s tried to take it down. Today, email has over 4 billion users, and 87% of marketing leaders say email is critical to their success. Additionally, 4 out of 5 customers still prefer email over any other form of communication, according to Intuit Mailchimp’s 2023 holiday report.

Email will continue to play an essential role in marketers’ futures as they connect with consumers and grow their businesses. In fact, email is only getting smarter. Looking different than it did 50 years, 5 years, or even one year ago. Email will only continue to strengthen its ability to help companies get in front of their customers with the right message at the right time through personalization, AI, and deep analytics.

Email personalization is here to stay

Just like music and fashion, email has gone through many trends over the years, evolving its look, feel, and capabilities to match the needs of its users. The most recent email trend is one that can be found in many marketing plans: personalization. But, it’s not a fad. Personalization is an effective tactic, and it’s here to stay.

Email personalization increases open rates, boosts customer engagement, improves relationship building, lessens unsubscribe rates, and drives sales. It’s the superpower of the modern email that appeals to both customers and companies.

According to a recent Mailchimp survey, 87% of customers are more likely to click on an email that’s personalized to them, and 63% of customers trust a company more when they receive personalized emails. Not only do customers prefer personalization, but 9 in 10 marketers agree that personalization is the most successful strategy they’ve had, with 92% of marketers agreeing that personalization in email marketing helps drive more revenue.

So, how can you achieve personalization? It can start with doing things like inserting a person’s name into an email, but that small change won’t drive revenue and it can sometimes come with risks if you don’t have confidence in your data accuracy. Here are some more ways to personalize:

• Segment audiences: Break your audience into segments based on things like preferences, purchase behavior, and tenure on your list. Then, send emails uniquely tailored to those groups. Welcome emails for new subscribers are a great way to get started with personalization. You can create segments manually or take advantage of time-saving tools that harness the power of machine learning to automatically generate segments based on campaign activity, purchase history, demographics, and more.
• Create personalized content: Leverage customer data from your connected e-commerce store to create content based on previous purchases or swap out images and content for different audience segments. You can send the same email to multiple segments and add an additional module to a specific segment who shares that they’re interested in events, for example. Then use AI-powered tools to deliver more relevant messages without doing the heavy lifting.
• Don’t forget birthdays: The little things go a long way in making your customers feel seen and important, and while some marketers might find these kinds of emails to be cliched, customers have come to expect them. Personalized birthday emails are a great way to stay front of mind and show up in someone’s inbox in a relevant and timely way that will likely be well-received, particularly if it comes with a birthday treat.
• Automation: Use automations to send an email triggered by a customer’s action or behavior, like a post-purchase email, abandoned cart notification, or event reminders. This will keep your customers engaged wherever they are in their purchase journey with your brand.

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AI is accelerating new methods for marketers to connect with their customers

AI is everywhere these days, and for good reason — it’s transforming the way we work. For email marketers, it can do many things, but ultimately, it can alleviate the burden of small and repetitive tasks so marketers can focus on more strategic work.

AI can analyze email performance data and provide strategic recommendations based on that analysis. This helps marketers create better emails that are personalized and effectively connect with customers. Last year alone, there were 8M+ data-backed recommendations generated by Mailchimp’s AI-powered features for customers.

Using AI does not mean marketers or creators will be replaced or need to give up creative control. Rather, it helps provide a starting point for marketers experiencing creative blockers. For instance, AI can generate an initial draft of email copy and marketers can then hyper-personalize the message for the right audience.

Beyond AI

While AI is certainly driving a lot of change and conversation right now, we predict a few other email trends that will help companies better connect with their customers: omnichannel strategy and interactive email experiences.

By connecting your email marketing strategy with other marketing channels like social media or SMS, marketers can create more touchpoints with customers with greater reach, access to more potential prospects, an increase in brand awareness, and the potential for higher conversion rates. For example, use social media to find and engage prospects who will likely sign up for your email marketing campaigns. Then, use email marketing to connect prospects to your social media platforms. It’s a multichannel gift that keeps on giving.

While integration helps with reach, incorporating interactive elements into an email helps with engagement, by providing better email experiences and helping companies understand their customers.

Interactive emails simplify the user experience and remove friction by providing value within the email, rather than requiring the user to take an additional step of clicking to view a website. It involves more than just adding hyperlinks. Think of hover functions or a photo gallery with images that change when someone clicks on a picture. These interactive elements are usually associated with a well-designed landing page, but can also be used for email.

And because the user is able to interact with more elements of the email, there are more data points for the marketers to analyze, making it easier to understand user behavior. You get a clearer picture of what is really resonating with the audience.

Email marketing is not dead. It’s a valuable channel that has the potential to help marketers connect with their customers in an efficient, personalized, and interactive way.

Just remember, if it mattered, there’s a good chance it happened over email.

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