Refresh Your Email Marketing Strategy with These Top Tools and Trends for Spring 2022

Make 2022 your most successful email marketing year to date.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Is your email marketing strategy in need of a refresh this year? Then look no further.

As spring approaches, now is the perfect time to take a step back and look at how your email marketing campaigns are performing and find new ways to improve them.

Whether this is by finding a new automation platform that offers expanded capabilities than the one you have now or by revitalizing your email campaigns by tapping into new trends – you can still make 2022 the most successful year yet.

All you have to do is make the decision to shift gears and find the tools you need to improve your current email strategy.

To help you do that, this article will take a deep dive into some of the top email marketing tools and trends you need to know for 2022.

Looking to jump ahead? Here’s a list of the trends we’ll cover after the top eight email marketing tools:

You can no longer rely solely on open rates
Move into the future with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive technology
Make the most out of behavioral triggered emails
Design emails that encourage customers to convert
Create connected customer experiences across all of your marketing channels

Top 8 Email Marketing Tools to Know for 2022

When it comes to having a successful email marketing strategy, the tools you have in place play a big role. And one of the most important tools you can have is a robust marketing automation platform that allows you to create, send, and manage all of your email communications.

Finding the right tool for your business will depend on the goals you have for your email marketing efforts, but here are a few examples of the things you’ll want to look for in a tool:

Templates and simple email design tools
Customer data and insights collection
The ability to segment your audiences
Personalization capabilities
Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics technology
Testing and reporting capabilities

All of these things will help you make the most out of every message you send and ensure you’re keeping your content relevant to the needs of your customers. To help you get started on the search for the perfect platform for you, let’s take a look at eight of the top email marketing tools available.

1. Listrak

The Listrak platform is a cross-channel marketing tool that will allow you to elevate your email marketing efforts and integrate them with your other channels. It’s a tool that will provide you with everything you need, from email creation to integrating advanced tools like predictive marketing technologies.

The Listrak platform will provide you with everything you need to create a comprehensive email marketing program. From detailed customer insights to advanced email technology, you can’t go wrong with this tool. Image courtesy of Listrak.

Email Marketing Highlights:

Creating and designing responsive emails is made simple with the Listrak Composer, an intuitive, drag-and-drop email editing tool
Easily reconnect with customers who left a product in their cart or browsed your website but didn’t complete a purchase with the abandonment messaging suite
Connect with customers with personalized, relevant behavioral-based trigger messages that are sent based on their real-time interactions
Tap into machine learning, AI, and predictive analytics technologies to provide your customers with the most relevant product recommendations and more

Pricing: The Listrak platform has customized pricing based on business needs. You’ll want to contact a representative to learn more about what pricing would look like for you.

Other Tools: Listrak is a full-service platform and offers additional tools like SMS/MMS marketing, predictive analytics, customer insights, a journey hub, and more.

2. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a customer experience platform that has an impressive stack of email marketing tools. Whether you’re an eCommerce-based, B2C, or B2B business, this platform has a solution for your email marketing needs.

Make email creation simple with ActiveCampagins’ drag-and-drop email editor. This tool will allow anyone to create and design professional-looking emails that encourage conversions. Image courtesy of ActiveCampaign.

Email Marketing Highlights:

Simplify email creation with a drag-and-drop email designer and create professional emails every time, without the extra hassle
Send triggered emails that are sent to customers automatically based on real-time purchases, site visits, or engagements
Use customer data to send targeted emails that get your messages to the right person at the right time
Move customers through the sales funnel and transition new subscribers into purchasing customers

Pricing: There are four plan options available for the platform, including the Lite plan starting at $9 per month, the Plus plan starting at $49 per month, the Professional plan starting at $149 per month, and the Enterprise plan starting at $259 per month. Pricing increases based on the number of contacts you have.

Other Tools: ActiveCampaign has a wide variety of tools to help you manage your marketing efforts including messaging and texting services, automation maps, dynamic content, web personalization, and more.

3. Moosend

Moosend is an email marketing platform that will make it simple for your teams to create emails and convert new leads. With advanced automation capabilities, Moosend makes it easy to connect with your customers at the right time, with the right content.

Use real customer data and insight to create personalized experiences that encourage subscribers to engage with your content. The more relevant the message, the more likely they are to continue opening your messages and engage in the future. Image courtesy of Moosend.

Email Marketing Highlights:

Email creation is made simple with this platform’s email building tool which allows you to create professional emails without having to understand coding
Tap into advanced automation tools that can simplify your work and move customers through their journey without manual intervention
Use customer data and insights to create highly personalized emails that encourage subscribers to click and convert
Better understand your audiences with advanced list segmentation to identify cart abandoners or reward loyal customers

Pricing: There are two plan options for the Moosend platform including, the Pro plan starting at $9 per month and the Enterprise plan that is customized based on business needs. Plan pricing does vary based on the number of subscribers you have.

Other Tools: Moosend is primarily an email-focused platform, but it does provide you with CRM tools, landing page capabilities, eCommerce AI, and more.

4. Sendinblue

Sendinblue is a marketing automation platform that will help you grow your business and reach your customers with the most timely and relevant emails. Whether you need a tool that makes it simple to create messages or allows you to improve targeting and segmentation – Sendiblue can help you achieve your goals.

Creating professional emails doesn’t have to be a time consuming process. With the help of predesigned templates and drag-and-drop capabilities, you can create beautiful emails that are sure to convert in no time. Image courtesy of Sendinblue.

Email Marketing Highlights:

Use templates or build emails from scratch with their drag-and-drop building tool that allows anyone on your team to create amazing emails
Integrate personalization into each message with dynamic text or tap into advanced email personalization tools
Easily segment your subscriber list to ensure you’re sending the most relevant content to the right audiences at scale
Ensure your message is sent at the most opportune time with machine learning-powered send time optimization capabilities

Pricing: There are three plan options available for the Sendinblue platform including the Lite plan starting at $25 per month, the Premium plan starting at $65 per month, and the Enterprise plan that has customized pricing based on business needs. Plan pricing increases based on the number of emails you send each month.

Other Tools: Sendinblue has a variety of other tools available including SMS marketing, chat, inbox, CRM, landing pages, Facebook Ads, and more.

5. AWeber

AWeber is a marketing automation platform that has everything you need to run effective email marketing campaigns. With tools that make email creation simple and automation capabilities, you can make the most out of every customer interaction while saving time.

Create automated experiences that you can set and forget. These experiences can help nurture customers, move them towards a purchase, or re-engage them after a period of inactivity. Image courtesy of AWeber.

Email Marketing Highlights:

Create and design emails with the Canva tool that is integrated into the AWeber platform
Build automated email marketing campaigns that help move customers through their purchasing journey and keep them engaged over time
Improve segmentation to send targeted messages to your audiences at scale and drive more conversions
Send automated newsletters to broadcast news, updates, and recent content like blog posts

Pricing: There are two plan options available for this platform including the Pro plan starting at $16.15 per month and a customized plan option for companies with large subscriber lists. Pricing varies based on the number of subscribers you have.

Other Tools: The AWeber platform provides you with additional tools beyond just email marketing including eCommerce tools, landing page builder tools, web push notifications, and signup form building tools.

6. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is an all-in-one marketing platform that will help your business connect with customers via email, among other channels. It’s a great tool for small businesses looking to make the most out of their customer interactions and elevate their email efforts.

Use customer data and insights to help build more relevant and personalized experiences. The more information you know, the better you can target campaigns towards the wants and needs of your audiences – and increase conversions. Image courtesy of Constant Contact.

Email Marketing Highlights:

Tap into hundreds of pre-designed email templates or use the drag-and-drop editor to easily create professional emails every time
Use customer data and insights to send relevant messages that make it to the right customer at the right time
Set automated campaigns that include things like welcome series, nurturing campaigns, and abandoned cart messages
Track and analyze the success of your email marketing efforts and use that data to improve future campaigns

Pricing: There are two email marketing plan options available including the Email plan starting at $20 per month and the Email Plus plan starting at $45 per month. Plan pricing does vary based on the number of contacts you have.

Other Tools: Constant Contact has a variety of tools in addition to email including listing building capabilities, social media marketing, mobile apps, surveys, event marketing, and more.

7. Drip

Drip is an email marketing platform that is designed for eCommerce businesses looking to connect with their customers and increase revenue. This tool will help you reach your customers via email and get your products in front of them all from one central platform.

Use customer data to create more personalized experiences that resonate with your audiences. With powerful segmentation capabilities, you can easily narrow down communication to your audiences and make the most out of every message. Image courtesy of Drip.

Email Marketing Highlights:

Easily create emails with pre-built templates and a point-and-click visual editor to send appealing messages every time
Create automated experiences that drive customers towards completing a purchase and follow eCommerce best practices
Segment your emails to improver personalization and help your messages standout in your customers inbox
Test messages to better understand what your customers resonate and use that data to improve future campaigns

Pricing: There are two plan options available for the Drip platform include the Email plan starting at $19 per month and the Email + SMS plan starting at $22 per month. Pricing varies based on the number of contacts you have and how much communication you plan to send.

Other Tools: The Drip platform has additional tools beyond email including SMS marketing, forms and popups, and more.

8. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a marketing automation platform that gives you all the tools you need to connect with your audiences on a regular basis. From creating personalized experiences to building comprehensive automated workflows, Mailchimp can do it all.

Know how each email is performing and how your audiences are engaging with your content. This information will allow you to identify improvement opportunities that you can implement to improve your future marketing campaigns. Image courtesy of Mailchimp

Email Marketing Highlights:

Build personalized, automated workflows that can nurture customers and move them through their purchasing journey
Tap into the platform’s send time optimization capabilities to ensure you’re sending messages to your customers at the right time
Send transactional, trigger-based messages to keep customers up-to-date on recent purchases and account activity
Integrate your eCommerce platform with this tool to make the most out of every message and drive sales

Pricing: There are four plan options available for the Mailchimp platform including the Free plan, the Essentials plan starting at $11 per month, the Standard plan starting at $17 per month, and the Premium plan starting at $299 per month. Prices vary based on the number of contacts you have and any additional add-ons you need.

Other Tools: Mailchimp offers additional tools beyond marketing automation including audience management, creative tools, and insights and analytics.

Email Marketing Trends for Spring 2022

In the world of email marketing, the trends are always changing. Whether it’s due to new regulations, technology, or shifts in customer expectations – you need to stay ahead of what’s happening to keep your content relevant.

Keeping an eye on these trends will help you stay ahead of the competition and improve the email experience for your customers. This will result in more effective campaigns that drive more conversions and increase revenue.

In this section, we’ll take a look at a few trends that you should keep an eye on in the spring of 2022. Each of these trends will help you to improve your email efforts and measure the success of your campaigns more effectively.

You Can No Longer Rely Solely on Open Rates

If you rely on open rates as one of your main measures of success for your email marketing campaigns, then you’re going to need to shift your way of thinking in 2022.

That’s because Apple recently released a set of new features that will change the way you track and measure the success of your email marketing efforts.

You may be wondering how much of an impact this will really have on your email metrics since Apple is only one of the many ways people check their emails. Well, when compared to the other email platforms in 2020, Apple iPhone opens accounted for 38.2% of email opens.

People are using their iPhones to check email everyday. In fact, when compared to the other email platforms Apple is the most used channel and comes in above Gmail. This means that over 35% of your customers are impacted by the new features released by Apple. Image courtesy of Litmus.

With the release of the Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) features, users can now hide information about when, where, and how they open emails. This means that when someone has the MPP feature on, email senders will not be able to access things like:

IP address
Email opens
Timestamps
Geolocation
Device type
Browser or platform

Losing insight into this type of data on who is opening your device at what time and through what platform means that open rates will no longer be as reliable as they once were. That’s why it’s important to start to shift your focus now and adjust how you’re reporting on your email campaigns.

While you’ll still be able to gain some insight from the metric, to truly understand the performance of your emails you’ll need to look at other metrics.

So what metrics should you be focusing on?

In 2022, you’ll want to shift your focus to click-through rates and actual conversions on the emails you’re sending. These will provide you with more accurate measurements for the success of your campaigns.

There’s always ways to measure the success of your campaigns. If you relied heavily on open rates for reporting purposes, you’ll just have to shift your focus and find new ways to show the success of your messages.

Move Into the Future With Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Predictive Technology

Advanced marketing technology that uses things like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and predictive technology has become more prevalent in the marketing industry in the last few years.

If you haven’t already started to look into how these different technologies can help elevate your email marketing – 2022 is the year to do it.

The right technology will allow you to create automated workflows that make data-driven decisions without the need for manual intervention. As the needs of your customers change, so will the content they receive.

That means as a customer moves from one touchpoint to the next, they receive relevant content based on their real-time needs. This will provide you with a number of benefits from improved personalization to better performance metrics and higher revenue.

Using technology such as AI in your email marketing strategy will provide you with a number of different benefits. It will provide your customers with a more personalized experience, give you new ideas on fresh content, improve metrics, and drive increased revenue. Image courtesy of Wordstream.

But it’s not only about what the current needs of the customer are. With the help of predictive technology, you can start to forecast what content your customers will need next. This helps you to stay ahead of their needs and get the right message to them at the right time.

Each of these different technologies will help to improve the personalization of your email marketing and enhance the experience for each customer. They also make it simpler for you and your team to manage these interactions with your customers and keep messages relevant to their needs.

Luckily, many email marketing platforms available today already have these tools built into them and will make it much easier to adapt the technology. Keep this trend in mind when you’re looking for a new platform to handle your email marketing, this can be a very useful tool to have handy.

Make the Most Out of Behavioral Triggered Emails

Behavioral triggered emails are a great way to connect with your audiences and keep the content you’re sending them relevant.

Triggered emails boast an open rate of 38.03% and a click-through rate of 6.76%, meaning they’re some of the most successful emails you can send to a customer.

When compared to the many other email marketing efforts available, triggered emails rank as the most successful. That’s because each message is highly relevant to the customer because it aligns directly with their recent action. Image courtesy of Smart Insights.

So how do behavioral triggered emails work?

They react to customer interactions in real-time and trigger a follow-up message based on what that action was. This real-time interaction means the message they are receiving is timely and relevant to their needs – meaning they are more likely to open and engage with it.

For example, if you’ve ever filled out a form to receive a discount code on a website you were browsing this could be considered a triggered email. It was triggered to be sent to you because the behavior you took – i.e. filling out the form

Here are a few common types of behavioral triggered emails businesses are already using to keep audiences engaged:

Sending a welcome email series after an subscriber has joined your email list
Sending abandonment messages after a customer left an item behind in their cart or didn’t purchase after browsing your website
Sending messages to customers post-purchase to confirm the order and keep them updated on its status
Sending alerts and notifications when a product the customer is interested in comes back in stock
Sending campaigns to inactive users to encourage them to come back to your site and look around

Behavioral triggered emails are a highly effective way to connect with your customers and provide them with timely emails that will resonate with their current needs.

Design Emails That Encourage Customers To Convert

When it comes to designing your emails, you need to sit down and really think about what the goals of the email are. Once you know what you want the customer to do, then you can design your emails to help achieve that goal.

Your emails don’t have to be overly flashy or complex to get the messages across. In fact, it’s actually more effective to create a clean, simple email that makes it clear to the customer what the email is about and what the next action should be. Image courtesy of Medium.

Make it very obvious to the customer what action you’re expecting them to take next with a clear and concise call to action. If a customer has to scroll too far into the email to find what the next step is, they’re going to abandon the message and never look back.

That’s why it’s so important to keep your email design clean and simple. Don’t muddy up the water by adding unnecessary elements that clutter up the message and push down the most important elements.

Here are a few additional email design tips to help get you started on creating more engaging emails:

Design emails with the Z pattern to encourage subscribers to read through your content
Optimize CTAs for the most visibility
Make important elements larger and more visible
Add contrast to help readers scan through the message

Almost every email marketing platform available has some form of email creation tool or pre designed templates available. Use these things to your advantage to simplify the design process and pull the most important elements into your messages.

Create Connected Customer Experiences Across All of Your Marketing Channels

Connecting with your customers across various marketing channels is a must in 2022.

In today’s day and age, shoppers are using multiple devices and channels to find the products they’re looking to purchase. You need to be creating robust marketing experiences that take this into consideration and leverage multiple channels at once.

You customers may start their search on Google but between that first search and the time they complete their purchase – they’ve likely used several outlets to gather information on the products.

Tapping into these cross-channel experiences is a great way to connect with your customers at various touchpoints in their journey and email marketing plays a vital role in this.

Email is seen as one of the highest value channels to integrate into a cross-channel marketing strategy. When used with other high-value channels like websites and SEO, you can create a highly effective cross-channel experience that your customers love. Image courtesy of Salesforce.

These are just a few ways you can put email at the center of your cross-channel marketing strategy:

Easily integrate and use the data from other channels such as social media and SMS marketing into your email marketing efforts
Provide incentives to your customers to encourage them to join your email campaigns
Create more personalized messages across all platforms with the help of data collected through email
Use custom workflows to intertwine the different channels and create a truly comprehensive experience for the customer

With the customer data you have from your email marketing database, you can easily create more personalized and connected experiences across all of your platforms. This will result in more effective campaigns and higher customer conversation rates.

Make 2022 Your Best Email Marketing Year Yet

With a new year comes a fresh start.

Taking time to reflect on how your email marketing strategy performed last year will allow you to set yourself up for success in 2022. There are numerous ways you can elevate your strategy this year to reach your goals.

Make the most out of your email marketing strategy with the right platforms and by staying ahead of the latest trends. Taking all of these elements into consideration will set you up for success this year and into the future.

So what are you waiting for – get out there and make 2022 your best email marketing year yet.

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Refresh Your Email Marketing Strategy with These Top Tools and Trends for Spring 2022