Explore the latest trends in email marketing for the upcoming year and see whether you have an opportunity to implement these trends into your new email campaign.

1. Accessibility

The rise of smart speakers with voice assistants reading emails aloud to consumers means that email marketers will need to ensure that their emails are accessible. The improvement of assistive technologies such as voice assistants will help accessibility for those 1.3 billion people with visual impairment according to the World Health Organisation.

2. Accessible Content

According to Litmus, research suggests that the average attention span in an email is just 13.4 seconds. The ideal copy in an email is around 50 words. Litmus recommends the following:

• Use shorter sentences

• Limit jargon and difficult words

• Localise your content for global audiences

3. Accessible Design

Making your email accessible means that your email campaigns will be accessible to a wider audience therefore the following needs to be followed:

• Using real text HTML

• Create a strong visual hierarchy within your email

• Avoid long sections of centre-justified text

• Optimise line spacing

• Use high contrasting colours

4. Accessible code

By using accessible codes to work for every user will mean the email can be read on multiple devices from desktop, mobile, smartwatch, smart speakers and other internet-connected devices.  To ensure accessibility here are a few points to consider implementing:

• Alterative text

• HTML tables are accessible to screen readers

• Use semantic HTML (For example using header tags rather than div ID’s)

5. User-generated content

User-generated content can be any form of content such as text, images, audio and visual created by the product’s end-user. User-generated content helps promote authenticity within the brand and motivates consumers to contribute via email or social media.

Summary

This year’s trend for email marketing is to ensure that campaigns are accessible with the rise of reading emails on mobiles as well as the emergence of smart speakers that are capable of reading emails. The importance of accessible colours, code and design is to ensure that consumers with visual impairment are still capable of consuming email content. Another importance is user-generated content to promote authenticity and brand awareness among consumers. With the continued rise of smart devices, customers can consume email content via a variety of devices. By ensuring that our email campaigns can be consumed on any device ensures that content can be consumed anywhere in the world.