Email Marketing RulesEmail Marketing Trends for 2022: Proven Essentials
Posted on February 23, 2022
Email marketing is constantly evolving, so it can be difficult to know where to invest your time and energy from year to year. It’s extra challenging in turbulent times like these, when consumer behaviors and business goals are shifting rapidly. To help you prioritize your email marketing efforts this year, we surveyed Oracle Marketing Consulting’s more than 500 digital marketing experts, asking them to rate the current adoption of a range of email marketing technologies and tactics, as well as their predicted impact during 2022. We then mapped the results into adoption-impact quadrants.
In this post, we’re looking at the Proven Essentials, which are in the high adoption–high impact quadrant. The technologies and tactics in this quadrant are mature, but are still improving and delivering tremendous results.
Our Proven Essentials stand in stark contrast to our Unproven Opportunities, which still have significant risks associated with them and benefits that haven’t fully materialized. Our Proven Essentials also have a risk profile that’s the inverse of our Competitive Differentiators—that is, where our Competitive Differentiators offer a competitive advantage to early adopters, our Proven Essentials put late adopters at a competitive disadvantage.
Of the 26 trends we surveyed our digital marketing consultants about, a whopping 17 of them were rated as being in the high adoption–high impact quadrant for 2021. That’s a big increase from our prior surveys. Let’s talk about each of them in turn.
Progressive Profiling: Fuel for Long- & Short-Term Personalization
Posted on February 22, 2022
With the phaseout of third-party cookies on the horizon, brands are focusing more on collecting zero-party data. This is information that’s provided directly to brands by consumers. Often, it’s provided in response to progressive profiling efforts—that is, ongoing efforts to build an evolving picture of a customer or prospect over time through forms, surveys, and other methods. Without progressive profiling, you’re reliant forever and solely on the information that was shared at the very beginning of the relationship. That’s inefficient for two reasons.
First, long forms are daunting and a big turnoff to prospects and customers. Every question you add to a form reduces the form’s completion rate, even if some of those questions are optional. Because of that, it’s nearly impossible to get enough information through a single interaction to build an enduring relationship. Brands encounter much less resistance and generate much more success when they ask for a little information at a time, which is central to progressive profiling.
Second, data has a shelf-life. The needs and desires of people and businesses are constantly changing and evolving, so data has to be updated periodically. Indeed, some data has a very short shelf-life before it becomes obsolete. That said, both long- and short-term progressive profiling data are valuable and worth pursuing. Oracle Marketing Consulting’s Peter Briggs looks at the key differences between these two types, and then looks at how to leverage this data.
Email Marketing Trends for 2022: Competitive Differentiators
Posted on February 18, 2022
Email marketing is constantly evolving, so it can be difficult to know where to invest your time and energy from year to year. It’s extra challenging in turbulent times like these, when consumer behaviors and business goals are shifting rapidly. To help you prioritize your email marketing efforts this year, we surveyed Oracle Marketing Consulting’s more than 500 digital marketing experts, asking them to rate the current adoption of a range of email marketing technologies and tactics, as well as their predicted impact during 2022. We then mapped the results into adoption-impact quadrants.
In this post, we’re looking at the Competitive Differentiators, which are in the low adoption–high impact quadrant. The technologies and tactics in this quadrant are not completely proven, but some companies are already seeing great results from using them. They offer a significant competitive advantage with considerably less risk than our Unproven Opportunities.
But, there are still risks, including the acquisition of smaller providers, frequent process and feature changes as the technology stabilizes, frequent changes in best practices as knowledge rapidly evolves, changing cost structures, scarcity of needed skills, and other issues. These hassles and expenses are easier to accept, however, because many adopters are already seeing a sizable return on their investment. Their willingness to accept some uncertainty in exchange for good returns gives them a distinct advantage over their competitors, most of whom have yet to embrace these tactics and technologies.
Of the 26 trends we surveyed our digital marketing consultants about, seven of them were rated as being in the low adoption–high impact quadrant for 2021. Let’s talk about each of them in turn…
Email Marketing Trends for 2022: Unproven Opportunities
Posted on February 16, 2022
Email marketing is constantly evolving, so it can be difficult to know where to invest your time and energy from year to year. It’s extra challenging in turbulent times like these, when consumer behaviors and business goals are shifting rapidly. To help you prioritize your email marketing efforts this year, we surveyed Oracle Marketing Consulting’s more than 500 digital marketing experts, asking them to rate the current adoption of a range of email marketing technologies and tactics, as well as their predicted impact during 2022. We then mapped the results into adoption-impact quadrants.
In this post, we’re looking at the Unproven Opportunities, which are in the low adoption–low impact quadrant. The technologies and tactics here are not fully vetted and may not generate long-term adoption or impact. There are significant risks that could undermine your investment in part or entirely—including rejection by consumers, inadequate inbox provider support, inadequate digital marketing platform support, the passage of legislative impediments, and other issues.
Because of those risks, most brands will find that the best strategy is to wait and let others work out all the details, uncover the best practices, and stress-test the technologies. However, the pioneering companies who embrace these trends at this early stage may seize a sizable advantage over their competitors.
Of the 26 trends we surveyed our digital marketing consultants about, just two of them were rated as being in the low adoption–low impact quadrant for 2022. Let’s talk about each of them in turn…
8 Alternatives to Open-Triggered Email Sequences in the Age of Mail Privacy Protection
Posted on February 15, 2022
As more Apple Mail users have enabled Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), opens have become an increasingly unreliable signal of individual-level engagement for email marketers. That is requiring marketers to redefine how they select active audiences for campaigns, how they determine inactivity and make suppression decisions, and how they design journey progressions that were previously driven by opens.
That last impact will be particularly hard felt by B2B brands, who are the biggest users of open-triggered journeys to move customers and prospects down interaction funnels. While B2B brands are likely to be less impacted by MPP than their B2C colleagues, most will ultimately see 15% to 35% of their audiences affected. That’s too much of their audience impacted to ignore. Brands will have to make changes to their open-triggered journeys, and they have several alternatives to consider. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of each.
The Last Word on January 2022
Posted on February 3, 2022
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
8 Stats Show Email Subscribers Worth a Lot More Than Social Media Followers (The Tilt)
The New Normal (Google Trends)
How to Send a One-Time Burst (Postmaster @ Yahoo)
The Biggest Trends in Graphic Design for 2022, as Predicted by Leading Creatives (Creative Boom)
Case Study: 46% Increase in Email List Growth (Email Optimization Shop)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
I’m Mclovin this email from @McDonaldsUK (sorry, I had to)
What kind of email sorcery is this?! #emailgeeks #emailmarketing pic.twitter.com/oYsFVTGvWQ
— Samantha Knott (@samanthazoek) January 3, 2022
Best reply address I’ve ever seen.
🎖 yes_you_can_reply@ 🎖— Lauren Meyer (@LaurenEmailGeek) January 26, 2022
B2B tech companies: “Retention has better ROI than acquisition.”
Also B2B tech companies: “We’re hiring 100 new SDRs and 1 new Customer Marketing Manager.”
— Brooklin Nash (@realBrookNash) January 3, 2022
Nothing makes a consumer hate your brand more (And report your email as spam) than hiding an “unsubscribe” link in marketing emails #EmailMarketing #emailgeeks
— Don shaher (@DonatShaher) January 18, 2022
An old boss pitching buying email lists to me. https://t.co/aMKFhxjiiF
— Carin Slater (@carinslater) January 11, 2022
Noteworthy subject lines
Burlington, 1/12 – Don’t let your gift card go to waste!
Quiksilver, 1/4 – New Year | Same Sale!
Tractor Supply Co., 1/6 – Kick Start Your New Year’s Resolutions
Neiman Marcus, 1/14 – Find your spotlight
Crate & Barrel, 1/4 – Start the year off fresh with these easy updates →
Belk, 1/5 – This sparks joy! ✨ 50% off cleaning, storage & organization
IKEA, 1/20 – Children’s play stored the adult way
Home Depot, 1/4 – Motivate Your Next Moves 🏠
IKEA, 1/6 – Your home is never finished
West Elm, 1/12 – Inspo: 10 ways to makeover a blah bathroom
ModCloth, 1/6 – Who? New.
Bed Bath & Beyond, 1/5 – NEW! Subscribe to your favorite products for easier shopping!
Big Lots, 1/7 – Extra 10% OFF with Pickup! Stay safe—grab it curbside!
Applebee’s Grill + Bar, 1/28 – Get your favorites carside or carryout
Express, 1/12 – Rent it all, keep what you 💜
Eddie Bauer, 1/3 – Take Your Winter Workouts Outside!
Quiksilver, 1/12 – Is your outerwear made sustainably?
Kohl’s, 1/17 – Find your balance with active & wellness essentials
Great Gap Sale, 1/17 – BRB, in a cuddle bubble
Uncommon Goods, 1/14 – New: 💘 On the mind and your wrist: their name in silver and bronze
Zales, 1/14 – 🏹 Hey Cupid! Save Up to 25% Off Everything!
XOXO Victoria’s Secret, 1/18 – Calling All Sirens
Williams Sonoma, 1/28 – The 2022 Easter collection is here 🐇
Big Lots, 1/31 – SO ready for patio season? 🌻 Here’s your preview!
Bed Bath & Beyond, 1/18 – Your guide to better sleep—tips & picks to catch more zzz’s this year
Williams Sonoma, 1/7 – Introducing Williams Sonoma Open Kitchen: affordable kitchen essentials
West Elm, 1/31 – Plant Kween & Sophia Bush take us on a garden tour
Express, 1/6 – Celebrating National Mentoring Month 🎉
Moosejaw.com, 1/4 – Entrepreneurs wanted. The Moosejaw Outdoor Accelerator is back.
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
First Quarter 2022 Holiday Marketing Quarterly
e-shot: Email Engagement Is on the Up, and 7 More Trends for 2022
SparkPost: Tips to Prevent Burnout and Recharge Email Inspiration
Should Emails Expire? Yes and No
On-Demand Webinar: Effective Testing & Optimization Across Digital Marketing Channels
5 Digital Marketing Takeaways from the 2021 Holiday Season
Posted on February 2, 2022
A second consecutive chaotic and stressful holiday season is over—and just like last year, it’s tempting to want to close the book on it and never look back. However, that would be a mistake, as there are always lessons to be learned from Christmas Past that can help with our Christmas Future.
Here are 5 digital marketing takeaways that you should carry with you into your planning sessions for this year and the upcoming holiday season:
- Early start to holiday season has staying power
- Marquee shopping days are losing a little luster
- Adopt wider windows for measuring performance
- Improve cross-channel attribution
- Communicate product availability better
For a look at each of those takeaways…
First Quarter 2022 Holiday Marketing Quarterly
Posted on January 21, 2022
The holiday season doesn’t have an off-season. Having a successful holiday season means executing a successful four-quarter strategy. Oracle Consulting’s Holiday Marketing Quarterly gives you a quarter-by-quarter plan for how to achieve more during the critical holiday season with your digital marketing efforts.
The first quarter is focused on seizing opportunities, mitigating risks, learning from the just-passed holiday season, and starting to make the larger structural and programmatic changes necessary to succeed in the new year and during the next holiday season. In this Holiday Marketing Quarterly, we’ll cover:
- Holiday Post-Mortems
- Seasonal Buyer Reactivations
- Email Deliverability Recoveries
- Automated Email Optimization & Growth
- Creative Refreshes
- Upgrades & Expansions of Your Tech Stack
For the full checklist…
e-shot: Email Engagement Is on the Up, and 7 More Trends for 2022
Posted on January 18, 2022
The pandemic has put an increased focus on email marketing as a way for consumers to stay in touch with their favorite brands. Engagement is up, but e-shot wonders what marketers should focus on in 2022 to keep growing their email marketing programs growing. Along with Kath Pay, Jordie van Rijn, Dela Quist, Jenna Tiffany, Dave Chaffey, and Dan Hare, I help illuminate 7 trends for this year:
- Accessibility
- User-generated content and social proof
- Mindful personalization
- Data protection and privacy
- New ways to measure success
- Larger BIMI adoption across brands
- Interactivity in emails, including micro-interactions
For a detailed look at each of those…
SparkPost: Tips to Prevent Burnout and Recharge Email Inspiration
Posted on January 13, 2022
Burnout has become a national conversation, as job-switching has reached historic highs. It affects all facets of our professional and personal lives, including our social, mental, and physical well-being.
To help marketers recognize the signs of burnout and take action to alleviate them, the team at SparkPost has gathered their thoughts and tips, which I was honored to contribute to. We hope these ideas bring you some comfort and help you recharge your email inspiration. We’re all in this together.
Welcome! Email Marketing Rules is your guide to understanding the best practices of this complex, often misunderstood channel as you craft the best executions for your brand. Every week, we’ll explore strategies and tactics, discuss tips and inspiration, and dig into industry news and trends.
Chad S. White
Head of Research
Oracle Digital Experience Agency
Author of Email Marketing Rules and nearly 4,000 articles about digital and email marketing
