Listrak Email Marketing

It’s not easy to determine whether your email marketing campaign should consist of one perfect deploy or a series of thoughtfully designed and carefully deployed messages that tell a story. Know that subscribers may elect to stop receiving your messages if you deploy too frequently with off-target messaging. Always keep your eye on both relevancy and frequency when planning an email marketing campaign that will consist of a series of emails instead of a one-off deploy.

1. Tell a story
Be certain that your series of emails tells a story. The messages need to follow each other in a logical sense and lead to a conclusion. For example, you may consider a campaign of emails presenting the top 10 summer vacation spots for families with children under age 10. Your first email may list locations 10,9, and 8; your second email may list locations 7,6, and 5; your third email may list locations 4,3, and 2, and the final email would announce the number one location.

2. Respect subscribers
At the beginning of your email marketing series, explain that this is the first of several messages. Be as specific as possible. You may state that this is the first of several messages clearly in text (one of three messages), or use visual cues like a list that is not complete or that has certain items presented with a different font treatment. Here’s a great example from Neiman Marcus using a visual list.

3. Advertise what’s coming next
Include a teaser for what’s coming next in the email series. Again, consider using visuals in addition to text to build excitement and create interest.

4. Empower subscribers
If possible, provide a link to your preference center so that subscribers can remove themselves from this particular series, but not your list.

Another opportunity to build brand awareness
Repetition breeds familiarity. A series of emails is a great opportunity to build top-of-mind awareness and recall for your brand. There is a residual value to the impression left by email. Measure length of page visits that result from your serial email marketing campaigns. Longer visits indicate interest, and support that your message was relevant. Pay particular interest if items were placed into a wish list or shopping cart. (Employ ETM to follow up on these “partially placed” orders.)

See an example
Here’s a great examle of an email series from Return Path. Note the clarity and positioning: Above the fold we see that this is one of three messages. Below the fold we see a preview of what to expect next week.