Here are five email marketing trends we are seeing play out in 2023, and how to navigate each one.
Trend 1, Out With the Open Rate
Privacy features are making the open rate an unreliable KPI, and you can no longer treat it as your most important email marketing metric.
The biggest factor is Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP). It hides when and where Apple users open an email, which device they are using, and any on-device activity. That has a direct impact on segmentation based on open date and on journey emails that depend on an open to trigger the next step.
Now is a good time to identify which metrics actually reflect business value for you, and to start shifting your reporting accordingly.
Trend 2, In With the Action
With open rate data becoming less useful, the value of genuine engagement goes up. Your email content needs to drive an action, not just get read. Get subscribers clicking through to your website, downloading resources, reading blog posts, or requesting callbacks. The specific action matters less than the fact that one exists.
Interactivity fits squarely into this shift. Interactive, responsive emails increase customer engagement and tie into the broader gamification trend. If you have not experimented with interactive email elements yet, 2023 is the year to start.
Trend 3, Personalisation Is More of a Must Than Ever
Personalising your email campaigns consistently lifts open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. The evidence for this is well established. As inboxes get more cluttered, a personalised subject line or tailored body content is one of the more reliable ways to stand out.
Speak to subscribers as individuals. Use what you know about them to make the email feel relevant rather than broadcast.
Trend 4, Sell Your Story, Not Just Your Products
Customers want to know who they are dealing with. You can load an email with calls to action, but if you are not opening a real dialogue with your subscribers, you are slowly eroding their trust.
Building a company narrative takes time, but it pays off. Bring some personality into your marketing. Tell your company's story. Strong storytelling builds relationships that hold up over time and give subscribers a reason to stay on your list.
Trend 5, Time for a Redesign
Email design has moved quickly over the past year. Before you hit send on your next campaign, take a hard look at your current templates. Are they still doing the job, or have you fallen behind on good design practice?
Run through this checklist:
- Are you designing for mobile first?
- Are you accounting for dark mode and how it affects your layout and colours?
- Are your emails uncluttered and focused on a single purpose?
- Are you delivering a consistent brand experience across all your channels?
- Are you using ranked calls to action so the primary action is obvious?
Prepare for 2023
Before the holiday brain kicks in, set aside some time to work through these trends and figure out where your strategy needs updating.
If you want a hand, email us at solutions@touchbasepro.com. Our team would love to work with you.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is the email open rate becoming less reliable as a KPI?
- Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) masks when and where Apple users open emails, along with device data. This inflates open rates and makes them an inaccurate signal for segmentation or trigger-based journeys.
- What metrics should I track instead of open rate?
- Focus on click-through rate, conversion rate, and downstream actions like resource downloads or callback requests. These reflect real engagement rather than a potentially inflated open count.
- What does designing for dark mode mean in practice?
- Dark mode can invert or alter colours in ways that break your design, particularly logos and images with transparent backgrounds. Test your templates in dark mode and adjust colours and contrast so they hold up across both light and dark displays.
- How does personalisation improve email marketing performance?
- Personalised subject lines and tailored body content consistently lift open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. As inboxes get busier, relevant content that speaks to the individual subscriber is one of the more reliable ways to hold attention.