A new year is upon us, and it's shaping up to be one of the most dramatic years in email marketing history. Well, maybe that's hyperbole, but it certainly sounds more exciting when you put it that way.
While I don't have a crystal ball to peek into the future, I've done some industry research, inbox analysis, and continuous pondering to compile a list of the hottest up-and-coming email marketing trends in 2024.
From the awe-inspiring power of expanded generative AI to the sleek allure of minimalistic designs, we will uncover the secrets that will turbocharge your email strategies. And remember, these trends are straight from my playbook—a personal forecast from Jesse Sumrak, not an official SendGrid prophecy.
Whether you're a seasoned marketer or just getting your feet wet, these email marketing trends will help you create engaging, relevant content in the new year and beyond.
Email has been around for decades now, but it still somehow manages to change and shake things up year after year. While you could still get away with running your traditional strategy, you'll want to keep up with the latest trends to reach the highest levels of deliverability and engagement.
Here's why you'll want to keep a close eye on (and potentially bandwagon) these email marketing trends:
Consumer preferences: Consumer habits and preferences are not static—they evolve with the changing digital landscape. What was engaging last year might not resonate this year.
Tech advances: The digital space is constantly in flux, with new technologies emerging rapidly. Keeping abreast of the latest trends means leveraging new tools and techniques (such as AI and interactive design) that can significantly enhance the performance of your email campaigns.
Competitive opportunity: In a crowded digital market, differentiation is key. By adopting the latest trends, you can stand out in your subscribers' inboxes, capture their attention, and stay ahead of competitors who might be slower to embrace new approaches.
Improved engagement: The ultimate goal of any marketing strategy is to engage customers effectively and drive a strong return on investment. The latest trends in email marketing often offer innovative ways to boost engagement, enhance personalization, and, ultimately, increase the ROI of your campaigns.
Compliance: With regulations like GDPR and evolving email standards, staying updated with the latest trends also means ensuring compliance and adhering to best practices.
As we look towards 2024, the email marketing landscape is poised for some groundbreaking shifts. These changes aren't just about flashy new tools or gimmicks—they're about deep, impactful transformations that respond to the evolving digital ecosystem.
This year promises to unveil trends that will redefine how we connect with our audience, measure success, and craft our email marketing strategies. We're about to explore innovations that go beyond the traditional, venturing into realms of heightened engagement, smarter analytics, and more intuitive user interactions.
1. Email authentication
In 2024, email authentication is finally evolving from a best practice to a requirement, especially for high-volume senders. Google and Yahoo's new guidelines (set to be enforced starting February 2024) signal a significant shift in the industry's approach to email authentication.
Here's a taste of what those new requirements entail:
SPF and DKIM authentication: Senders must set up SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) for their sending domains. These protocols are fundamental to authenticating your emails and proving they're sent from a legitimate source.
DMARC policy implementation: Alongside SPF and DKIM, a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) policy is mandatory. This policy doesn't need to be enforced at the outset, indicating Gmail's understanding of DMARC's complexity. However, achieving DMARC enforcement remains a best practice for safeguarding against domain spoofing and abuse.
Alignment of sending domain: The domain in the sender's 'From' header must align with either the SPF or DKIM domain, ensuring consistency and reliability in the sender's identity.
Valid DNS records:Maintaining valid forward and reverse DNS records, also known as PTR records, is essential. These records contribute to the legitimacy and traceability of the sending domains and IPs.
One-click unsubscribe feature: For subscription-based messages, enabling a visible and accessible one-click unsubscribe option is crucial. This practice enhances user experience and aligns with Gmail's requirements for maintaining low spam rates.
Maintaining low spam rates: Keep spam rates below 0.3%. This metric reflects the sender's reputation and the effectiveness of their email practices.
These new requirements from major email service providers like Google and Yahoo highlight the industry's increasing focus on security and authenticity. Compliance with these guidelines is crucial for ensuring high deliverability and maintaining a good sender reputation.
Expect other inbox providers to announce similar regulations in 2024.
2. Expanded generative AI
Generative AI represents a significant leap forward in email marketing technology. It empowers marketers to craft more effective, personalized email campaigns while saving time and resources. This advanced AI technology goes beyond basic automation, enabling the creation of highly personalized, dynamic content at scale.
Content creation: AI can generate compelling email content tailored to individual preferences based on user data and past interactions.
Personalization at scale: With generative AI, personalizing content for thousands of subscribers becomes effortless, ensuring each email feels uniquely crafted for the recipient.
Efficiency and time saving: Generative AI significantly reduces the time and effort needed to create diverse and engaging email campaigns.
While you might think that AI-generated content might not be as engaging, it actually has the potential to be the most engaging. Let's face it—as a human marketer, you can only get so personalized and segmented with your marketing campaigns. Generative AI, on the other hand, doesn't face the same restrictions.
Emails created with generative AI are likely to see higher engagement rates as they resonate more with recipients due to their personalized nature. Generative AI can analyze large volumes of data to inform content strategy, ensuring that every email sent is data-backed and targeted.
3. Interactive email experiences
In 2024, interactive email experiences will reshape how consumers engage with email content. This trend is about transforming emails from static messages into dynamic, engaging experiences. Here's what we think you'll see more of in 2024:
Embedded widgets and features: Incorporation of interactive elements like polls, surveys, and quizzes directly within the email.
Rich media integration: Utilization of videos, GIFs, and other rich media to make emails more visually appealing and engaging.
Real-time content updates: Ability to update content in real-time based on user actions or external factors, like stock levels or weather conditions.
Gamification elements: Incorporating game-like elements such as scratch cards or spin-to-win features to increase engagement and fun.
Interactive call-to-action (CTA) buttons: Interactive CTAs that change color, animate, or expand upon hover or click, providing immediate feedback to the user.
Interactive email experiences illustrate the future of email marketing. As technology evolves, these immersive and engaging email experiences will become increasingly sophisticated and widespread in 2024 and beyond.
4. Minimalistic designs
Less is more in 2024 (yes, that rhymed). The trend of minimalistic designs in email marketing is gaining momentum. This approach focuses on simplicity and clarity, stripping away unnecessary elements to deliver a clean, user-friendly experience.
While this might sound contradictory to interactive experiences, it's all about cleaning up the message to focus on what's important. This could mean fewer images, more white space, simplified color schemes, and easy-to-read typography.
This trend caters to the aesthetic preferences of modern consumers and aligns with the growing need for straightforward, digestible content in the digital space. Here's what we think you'll see in 2024:
Clean layouts: Utilizing whitespace effectively creates a design that is easy to navigate and pleasing to the eye.
Simplified color schemes: Adopting a limited color palette to avoid visual clutter and maintain focus on the content.
Clear typography: Using easy-to-read fonts and minimal text to convey messages succinctly and clearly.
Enhanced readability: Simplified designs improve readability, especially on mobile devices with limited screen space.
Focus on content: By reducing distractions, minimalistic designs allow the core message to stand out.
Faster load times: Minimal designs typically have fewer elements, which can lead to quicker load times, improving the user experience.
5. Mobile focus
With the majority of emails being opened on mobile devices, designing emails with a mobile focus is imperative. We've all known this for quite some time, but it still feels like mobile design gets the afterthought—and that might be because we're often designing and planning email campaigns from a desktop.
Still, we believe 2024 will be the year most brands finally get on board with prioritizing mobile responsiveness and design:
Responsive design: Ensuring emails automatically adjust to fit the screen size of various mobile devices for optimal readability and interaction.
Touch-friendly elements: Incorporating larger buttons and links that are easy to tap with a finger.
Concise content: Keeping email content brief and to the point, as mobile users typically have shorter attention spans.
Optimized images: Using images optimized for quick loading on mobile devices without compromising quality.
6. BIMI adoption
Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) is an email authentication protocol that allows brands to display their logo next to their email in the inbox, enhancing brand visibility and trust. While it's still relatively new, you've likely seen a handful of well-known brands implementing this in the inbox.
And with the new authentication standards coming into place, most senders will already be well on their way toward BIMI implementation simply by following the sender guidelines. We believe this will encourage more users to go all the way and finally complete the requirements for BIMI.
7. New metrics focus
Marketers and senders will start looking at metrics beyond open rates, partly thanks to Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) and other data restrictions. Instead, businesses will turn to other key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the value and performance of their email campaigns:
Engagement over time: Beyond open and click rates, tracking how long recipients engage with an email offers insights into content relevance and effectiveness.
Email influence on customer journey: Assessing how email interactions influence the overall customer journey, including multi-channel attribution.
Subscriber lifetime value: Focusing on the long-term value of subscribers rather than short-term metrics like click-through rates.
Conversion rate: Measuring the percentage of email recipients who completed a desired action, such as purchasing or signing up for a webinar.
List growth rate: Tracking the rate at which the email list grows, indicating the effectiveness of list-building strategies.
These emerging trends—from the increased focus on mobile optimization to the adoption of BIMI and the shift towards new performance metrics—highlight the continuous evolution of email marketing.
Fortunately, you don't have to navigate these shifts on your own. We've got your back.
With SendGrid, you get the technology, insights, and support needed to embrace these trends and enhance your email marketing strategies. Whether implementing advanced authentication protocols, crafting interactive and mobile-optimized emails, or utilizing new metrics for deeper insights, SendGrid is your partner in staying ahead in the email marketing game.
