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Do you create a sense of continuity within your email campaigns?

I have been doing quite a bit of work recently on email marketing campaigns. Mostly for larger-sized companies.

And something has struck me.

There is often no continuity within the communications. It's as if each email is the first email ever sent to that prospect or customer.

In one case, even within a sequence of three emails, there was no hint anywhere in emails two and three that the company had recently sent them the first in the series.

How does this happen?

First, I think this lack of continuity is more common with large companies than it is with small companies. And when you get down to very small companies, you see a great deal more of an ongoing thread running through email communications.

But with larger companies, there is this sense that each email is somehow the equivalent of placing an ad in traditional media.

I think the idea is that if you make a series of "impressions" on the reader, eventually some people will make a purchase. It's just the same as a print campaign running over a fixed period of time.

The trouble is, when you take this approach with email marketing, you are missing out on a huge opportunity.

People's inboxes are not traditional media "buys".

Their inboxes are where they receive emails from friends and family, on a regular basis. It's where they keep in touch with people. It's where they write, "Hey, Chuck, where have you been? Haven't heard from you in ages."

If you want to use email effectively, you have to fit in. You need to go with the flow and use the medium in a way that fits naturally.

So if you are writing a series of three or four or five emails to your list, make each email follow on naturally from the last.

It's OK to say, "We emailed you a few days ago to tell you about...etc." Taking that approach is much better than somehow pretending that you have never written to them before.

Email marketing shouldn't be about advertising "impressions". It should be about building relationships.

And you can't build a relationship with a prospect or customer unless you acknowledge that you have written to them before.

So next time you plan an email marketing campaign, write them as a series of emails, each building on the last. Just the same as if you were writing to your family and friends.

You'll still be delivering "impressions", but you'll also be developing a relationship and hopefully, building reader loyalty and attention.