Email Marketing News and Trends

Subject Lines That Swindle

Want to scam people? Or, instal some malware?

In Q4 2019, KnowBe4 analysed tens of thousands of email subject lines from simulated phishing tests along with ‘in-the-wild’ subject lines from actual emails that people received and reported to their IT departments as suspicious.

Here are the top 10 general topics:

• Change of Password Required Immediately – 26%
• Microsoft/Office 365: De-activation of Email in Process – 14%
• Password Check Required Immediately – 13%
• HR: Employees Raises – 8%
• Dropbox: Document Shared With You – 8%
• IT: Scheduled Server Maintenance – No Internet Access – 7%
• Office 365: Change Your Password Immediately – 6%
• Avertissement des RH au sujet de l’usage des ordinateurs personnels – 6%
• Airbnb: New device login – 6%
• Slack: Password Reset for Account – 6%

When examining ‘in-the-wild’ email subject lines, the company found that the most common ones are:

• SharePoint: Approaching SharePoint Site Storage Limit
• Microsoft: Anderson Hauck has shared a Whiteboard with you
• Office 365: Medium-severity alert: Unusual volume of file deletion
• FedEx: Correct address needed for your package delivery on [[current_date_0]]
• USPS: Your digital receipt is ready
• Twitter: Your Twitter account has been locked
• Google: Please Complete the Required Steps
• Cash App: Your Account Has Been Closed
• Coinbase: Important Please Resolve Error Now
• Would you mind taking a look at this invoice?

KnowBe4 also reports that 39% of users have been falling for simulated phishing tests saying a password should be checked immediately.

The most-clicked social media subject lines referenced LinkedIn (55%) and Facebook (28%).

Email users should be “especially cautious if an email seems too good to be true, such as a giveaway,” states Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of KnowBe4.

Three Big Email Marketing Trends For 2020

Based on what went down in the email marketing industry in 2019, here are three significant email marketing trends that you need to watch out for in 2020:

• Compliance. With the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) already on board, the PDPA in Thailand coming up in May 2020 and LGPD in Brasil in August 2020, marketers have little choice but to act as if they were headquartered in Europe and under the control of Brussels. In general, that means limiting data transfers, securing data, providing access to consumers and allowing people to be forgotten. More tough state bills are in store as well.
• Interactivity. Wiseguys used to joke that email hasn’t changed in 20 years. Well, who’s laughing now? Google announced AMP (accelerated mobile pages) for Email in 2018 and brought it online in late 2019 with support for Android and iOS. And it is beginning to attract big players, like Adobe Campaign. You can presume to see more vendors signing on for AMP in 2020, even if most email marketers haven’t latched onto it yet.
• BIMI. BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is a security standard that allows brands with DMARC protection to display their logos in email subject lines. This addresses the larger issue of security and the use of email to deliver malware, but it can also be an effective brand-building tool. Preliminary data from Yahoo shows that displaying the logo increases open rates by around 10%. In 2020, expect to see more big names going public with their support – Google will be running a pilot, and CNN will probably do the same.

However, it might be a while until both businesses and consumers grasp the idea around these trends. Especially, when it comes to compliance considering GDPR compliance rate remains low and it’s been quite a while since the regulation was announced.

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source https://www.reddit.com/r/Emailmarketing/comments/eum2q3/email_marketing_news_and_trends/