Dear Lucy... Pure360’s email marketing clinic: serialisation

In this series of blogs Lucy gives bitesize solutions to the most common email marketing problems.

This week...

Help!  My email recipients are no longer engaging with me! 

What to do when you are struggling to keep the recipient opening and engaging and you don’t know why? 

The problem - disengagement

Every week you send what you think is very relevant content to your recipients.  They open your first three weekly emails, but two months in they stop.  They don’t opt out or junk you, for whatever reason they just stop engaging.

The solution - serialisation

Ask yourself, what incentive did you give the reader to open your next email? 

Ever wondered why Heat magazine does an ‘’In next week’s issue...” or “Turn over to find out what Becks bought Posh for Valentine’s Day...” It’s to keep readers interested, to tease them, to build up suspense about what they can expect.  In other words it’s a kind of serialisation. 

Why not try something similar in your email marketing campaigns?  Give them a teaser about what’s going to be in next week’s email that might interest them.  Give them the first half of a story or voucher code but, of course, they can only get the second half if they open up next week’s email.  Avoid talking to them in the same tone in isolated messages which are unconnected to each other. 

Coronation Street have used the ends of programmes to persuade you to watch the next one for 50 years so there has to be something in it. 

Have you got an email marketing problem?  Why not contact Dear Lucy