Email Trends: Reflecting on 5 Trillion Processed Emails


February 15, 2022
Written by
Jesse Sumrak
Contributor
Opinions expressed by Twilio contributors are their own

Email Trends: Reflecting on 5 Trillion Processed Emails

Twilio SendGrid reached a major sending milestone: 5 trillion emails! Let's write it out (just because):

5,000,000,000,000 emails.

That scale is hard to fathom. We get it. It feels like just yesterday we hit 3 trillion emails. It's even crazier to imagine that we reached our first trillion emails back in 2017—8 years after Isaac Saldana, Tim Jenkins, and Jose Lopez founded the company.

To celebrate our big 5T mark in 2021, we want to celebrate 5 big-time learnings from the year. Let's jump right in!

Top 5 email learnings from 2021 (and what it means for 2022)

We've learned a lot from our email experts and customers in 2021, and that knowledge will come in handy throughout 2022 (and beyond). Here are our top 5 email learnings from 2021 and how each will play out in 2022.

1. Inbox placement reigns supreme

Email deliverability is still (and may always be) a top priority. That’s why senders will do whatever it takes to stay out of the spam folder and get into the inbox, and they're using sending data to make it happen.

Tired of ending up in the spam folder? Give 10 Tips to Stop Your Emails From Going to Spam a read. We've been updating this piece periodically (whenever updates roll around) for almost 5 years, and it's still a top-performing piece year after year. If you're tired of landing in the dreaded spam folder and would rather enjoy the cozy comfort of the inbox, this is the post for you.

Want more insights into your sending? Our new Deliverability Insights dashboard (now in public beta!) helps you better understand your rich first-party data about your customers’ email engagement. Use these learnings to optimize your campaigns, increase your inbox rate, and boost engagement. Check out Get Started With Deliverability Insights to learn more.

Shopify maintains a 99.5% average delivery rate and 91.3% inbox placement rate while providing services to more than 1.7 million merchants. Learn how Shopify uses Twilio SendGrid’s Expert Services team to build a reliable email infrastructure and educate merchants on how to improve their email programs. 

2. Authentication is critical for brand protection

Authentication is far from the sexiest part of building an email program, but it's a nonnegotiable aspect if you want more attention. That’s especially the case with Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) coming to Gmail, which means brands can't afford to push off authentication any longer.

BIMI displays your brand's logo next to your emails in the inbox, increasing consumer trust in a message and helping build brand awareness. And although BIMI has been a hot topic over the last couple of years, now Gmail has announced it'll roll out general support for the new industry standard. Protect your brand while standing out in the inbox with BIMI! Here's what you need to do now to take advantage of this.

Email authentication gives mailbox providers (like Gmail or Outlook) the confidence that the emails from senders are legit and not messages sent from bad actors. Fortunately, authenticating your email program is relatively quick and easy—just follow these 5 steps.

Klaviyo helps businesses and entrepreneurs build unified marketing stacks to better connect with customers, and email is just one part of the equation. Working with Twilio SendGrid helps them focus on building innovative solutions without having to fret about email delivery—in other words, businesses can keep sending great email campaigns without worrying about everything going on under the hood.

3. Rising recipient privacy concerns are making email tracking tricky

Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) went live on September 20, 2021, as part of a larger initiative to protect user data. However, it makes things a little tricky for email senders. We’ve made it easier with Apple Open Indicator, but you can expect to see other mailbox providers make changes to protect user data in 2022 and beyond.

Learn how MPP impacts you and what you can do about it in our up-to-date article: Apple Mail Privacy Protection in 2022: Guide for Gmail Senders

4. Email (still) isn't dead. Sorry, Zuck

Email is still alive and kicking, despite previous predictions of it dying off. It’s also still the most popular communications channel globally, followed by SMS. And looking at our email sending data (5 trillion and counting!), it's clear that email isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Check out our Global Messaging Engagement Report to learn how consumers from across the world interact with email and SMS.

Spotify understands the importance of email, which is why it sends around 2 billion emails every month. Learn how it manages this scale while maintaining top-notch deliverability and industry-leading customer experiences (Spotify Wrapped, anyone?). 

5. Personalization isn't a nice-to-have—it's a need-to-have

Personalization is essential to improving customer experiences and engagement. Dynamic templates help senders personalize emails at scale based on location, language, imagery, and more. Additionally, customers are taking advantage of customer data platforms like Segment to collect and use data to more effectively send hyper-personalized email campaigns.

Vacasa is leading the way when it comes to personalization with data-powered email campaigns. Combining the power of Twilio SendGrid and Segment, Vacasa has built an intelligent email program that enables more personalized, real-time communications with customers.

5 trillion and counting ...

Our new milestone of 5 trillion isn't a destination—it's just a stepping stone along the way. And we couldn't do it without our customers. You’re the ones using email to help customers, provide care, reset passwords, send order confirmations, and make the inbox a better place. 

Whether you're a long-time customer, brand-new user, or potential buyer, Twilio SendGrid is here to help you stay ahead of the email trends and create a world-class email program. Learn how our reliable deliverability expertise and infrastructure make us the number 1 choice for sending your emails.

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