Joanna Hoheisel, Director Business Consulting at Optimizely, has identified seven trends in email marketing and is convinced that there is no getting around real data-driven email marketing for this year. Read in the following her list of the trends any marketers should keep an eye on in 2022:

• To achieve the highest possible email delivery rate, marketers can no longer ignore the BIMI standard, an email authentication standard. It shows a verified company logo in recipients' inboxes when sending a properly authenticated email. They can then be confident that the email is authenticated and not a dangerous phishing attempt.
• Rigid content, a personalized subject line or address are no longer enough to be noticed. Real-time personalization enables marketers to fill the user's perception window with tailor-made content and to reach users concisely. The fastest way to personalize it is through automation. While users surf the Internet, intelligent technologies such as algorithms or machine learning collect and evaluate data.
• A few months ago, the new Apple Mail Privacy Protection got launched that prevents tracking of email opens for Apple Mail users. A major consequence of the update is that the KPI of the open rate, which has so far been so dominant for marketers, loses its informative value in conjunction with Apple Mail. That is why Optimizely wants to record separately the Apple mail proxies in the future to keep the statistics clean and enable user-based openings to be evaluated.
• Re-verification and high-interaction mailings with Apple Mail Privacy Protection. To maintain email distribution lists with Apple Mail users, it is advisable to send emails to subscribers who have not clicked any links for a certain period of time. “Content is king” clearly remains the motto, since email newsletters that contain good, relevant, and personalized content achieve high click rates. With Apple Mail users, the KPI open rate can be "bypassed" in this way.
• Marketers must meet various legal requirements when it comes to sending emails. You need a legal basis for this, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the law against unfair competition allows email advertising only with prior, express consent. Email marketers like Optimizely generally ensure legally compliant emails using the double opt-in procedure.
• Most mail marketing tools collect data within the email journey; however, “intent data” that is popular in the B2B segment, recording user intentions and interests shouldn’t be focused on too. Such data can now be bundled on data platforms such as those offered by Optimizely, making orchestration easier.
• Finally, the Darkmode is undoubtedly one of the most noticeable digital trends of the recent past and is receiving a positive response from an increasing number of users. Various email clients offer Darkmode as a display alternative, so that the trend has meanwhile become a standard. As a result, email marketers must grapple with the different color schemes email clients use.

By MediaBUZZ