5 Email Marketing Tips to Increase
Open Rates in 2022

Introduction:

We have compiled, from separate sources, 5 Email Marketing Tips to Increase Open Rates in 2022.

The first marketing email was sent in the late 1970s when Gary Thuerk, a marketing exec, sent a couple of hundred unsolicited emails to market his company’s computer products. More than 40 years later and a lot has changed. Now, it’s common practice to send thousands of emails in one go. Also, we hope that you never send unsolicited emails (if you do, read goal #3 closely).

Since the inception of email marketing decades ago, several new marketing channels have also emerged. Social media alone has exploded. Yet, as we’re fast approaching 2022, emails are still one of the most popular and effective ways to reach your audience.

If you’ve thought about dropping email for a newer channel – don’t. In fact, considering its ROI, if anything, you should be looking at how you can use it more effectively.

To help you, we’ve made a list of possible goals that you can set for 2022. While a number of these goals are basic email best practices that you should prioritize in any case, some of them are related to trends. Many of the trends that have shaped email marketing in 2021 will continue to play a huge role in the new year. So, if you haven’t leveraged all the trends in the past year, you’ll have another chance next year.

^{^[1]}Open rates are no longer the “end-all-be-all”

Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) went into effect in September of 2021. Citing privacy issues, Apple stopped senders from tracking open rates using invisible pixels. Chad S. White, the Head of Research at Oracle Marketing Consulting, pointed out that this will lead to false opens, noting that “all Apple opens will be massively inflated going forward.” The problem, in a nutshell, is that unengaged subscribers will appear to be active.
So, open rates are pretty much dead. This doesn’t mean that they’re useless metrics, but it does mean that they are less reliable. Instead, we’ll see more focus on click rates and overall email engagement.
In 2022, more one-on-one communication with readers and customers will be the key. In the coming year, try to reframe the mindset that email marketing is a one-way form of communication. Encourage replies, and when a reader sends you a message, by all means, write back. Interactivity is likely to escalate like never before, and you can be ahead of the curve by adopting before your competitors.

^{^[2]}Tips for Your Email Marketing in 2022:

1. Measure Your Performance

Measuring how your email campaigns perform is not unique to 2022. It should be one of your goals each year. If you don’t make time to crunch your numbers, you won’t be able to set realistic goals for the rest of the year. Not only will this information give you an idea of how you stack up against your competitors, but it will also help you to identify specific areas that require more attention.

Here are some important email benchmarks that you need to pay attention to:

Open rate
Click-through rate
Click-to-open rate
Unsubscribe rate

2. ^{^[3]}Lead with Value

Reciprocity (giving value back to your audience) is one of the main principles of creating a strong and profitable relationship with prospects and clients.

To provide value, though, you need to adopt customer-centric practices that will nurture them into your brand advocates. Start by asking yourself who your audience actually is. Do you have buyer personas in place?

This ideal representation will show you what your target audience wants from you and help you address their pain points. Knowing who to target will result in designing a content marketing strategy that will provide the most benefit to your prospects and maximize your email marketing efforts.

There are a variety of ways to add value to your messages:

Provide case studies and success stories for inspiration.
Offer recipes, DIY guides, and other tips and tricks that are not product-specific.
Show them educational product content (blog posts, ebooks, etc.) that addresses their pain points.
Give them freebies, discounts, giveaways, and so on.

3. ^{^[4]}Build your email list

A necessary first step to sending email marketing campaigns is building a contact list. After all, what good is an email marketing campaign without anyone to send it to? 🤷‍♀️

The best way to build your list is by creating a signup form and featuring it on your website, blog, and social media. For the best results, we recommend setting up a double opt-in sign-up form.

Double opt-in sign-up forms send new subscribers a confirmation email after they’ve submitted their email address. While this adds an extra step to the sign-up process, it is definitely worthwhile. Double opt-in helps:

Avoid deliverability issues from email address typos;
Give you the opportunity to ask what kind of content your subscribers want to receive;
Ensures your email marketing strategy is GDPR compliant.

Try placing or linking to your sign-up forms in high-traffic places, like your homepage, blog, social media bios, and even your email signature. To learn more, check out this article on how to create an email sign-up form.

4. ^{^[5]}Decide the types of email you want to send

Now that you’ve got a strategy to grow your email list, it’s time to decide which types of emails you want to send.

The types of emails you send will depend on what type of small business you have. It’s always safe to start with a monthly email newsletter. Some other examples might include:

Promotional emails for special offers or sales
Seasonal messages for holidays or special events
Personalized discounts and coupons for your most dedicated customers
Transactional emails (ecommerce receipts, appointment notifications, etc.)

5. Create your email design and content

The next step to creating an effective small business email marketing campaign is email design and content creation. 🎨

Email design

Not a design pro? Not to worry. Most email marketing tools have easy-to-use drag-and-drop editors so that even beginners can design stunning email marketing campaigns.

The number one thing to keep in mind with small business email marketing is that you don’t need to be over the top with your designs. Email is supposed to save you time, so don’t break your back creating overly elaborate and complex emails. Instead, stay true to your brand image. You’ll come across as more familiar and relatable to your subscribers.

Another important part of email design is the call to action (CTA). Make sure you add a CTA button that corresponds with the content of the email and tells readers what you want them to do. Here are some common CTA examples:

Read an article on your blog
Browse through new products on your site
Make a purchase using a discount code
Download an ebook, attend a webinar, or access other gated content

You should also avoid having more than one main CTA. Competing calls to action send a mixed message to readers and can harm your click through rate. If you have more than one goal in mind for an email campaign, create a hierarchy to let contacts know which is the most important. Using the inverted pyramid structure is a great way to do so.

6. Writing the email content for your campaigns

The most important thing to keep in mind at this stage is the customer. When designing your emails, try asking yourself what your subscribers want to see and how to provide them with value in your campaigns. ✨

The best way to write this type of targeted content is to first segment your email contacts into smaller lists with similar interests.

When sending mass emails to all of your contacts, it’s nearly impossible to craft a message that is relevant to everyone. Instead, try grouping contacts with similar needs or interests to send more targeted and higher quality content.

Try segmenting your contacts by:

Demographics, e.g., gender, age, location
Purchase history, e.g., preferred product categories, number of purchases, whether or not past purchases were during promotions or sales
Brand loyalty, e.g., new leads, longtime customers, VIPs
Email engagement, e.g., customers who click on all of your emails vs. those who have never opened an email

Once you break down your contacts into segments like these, it becomes much easier to craft a message that resonates with your target audience and drives engagement. 📈

Another important aspect of email content creation that’s easy to overlook is the subject line. These few words are the first thing your audience sees from your campaign. For this reason, make sure your email subject line is eye-catching but not overly promotional.

7. Send your campaign and analyze the performance

If you think you’re done once you hit ‘send’, think again!

To make the most of your marketing efforts, you should always be analyzing the performance of your campaigns. 🕵️‍♀️ Email is unique in this regard. Compared to other digital marketing channels, email provides a wealth of data and statistics to help improve your future campaigns.

Some absolutely essential metrics to keep track of include open rate, click through rate, and conversion rate. For more details on tracking your campaigns’ performance, check out this article on email marketing benchmarks and KPIs.

8. ^{^[6]}A few extra email marketing tips to conquer 2022

Email changed drastically over the last five years, but last year there were some real transformations. The wise email marketer stays aware of trends, adapting to regulations and practices.

With some brainstorming and trial and error, there’s no reason you can’t be a trendsetter instead of a follower. Whether you’re a beginner or expert-level email marketer, here are some extra tips to conquer 2022:

Focus on click rates and conversions. After all, this is the name of the game. What content is leading to higher click rates and better conversions?
Keep spam complaints at bay. You shouldn’t get more than one complaint for every 1,000 emails you send. Remove those contacts right away.
Test plain-text vs HTML emails. Changing to plain-text or sending a more elaborate HTML email could make a big difference. Some audiences respond much better to one.
Experiment with shorter or longer copy. This depends on your company, products and, most of all, your audience. Test different lengths until you find your sweet spot.
Allow people a way to sign up. What’s the point of having a list if people have to struggle to subscribe? Have several sign-up forms and talk about your newsletter on all your other channels.

Conclusion:

We hope that these ideas have helped your marketing efforts

For Assistance with Website Optimization, Visit Hues Agency.com.
Article compiled by huesagency.com

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