Think of your email marketing blast like it’s one book in a larger series

Each one plays a role and needs a good title, plot and ending

Photo by Hope House Press - Leather Diary Studio on Unsplash

You don’t need to tell your audience everything you have to say about something in a single email blast. In fact, when you try to cram too much into a single piece of communication, it can overwhelm the reader. Some of your points can get lost.

Instead, you want to lead your followers on a journey, telling them a story over the course of an email campaign, getting them to take action at the end or along the way. Think of the marketing emails you send as part of something larger, the way one book fits into a series.

Plan the full campaign and map out the series

Let’s say you’re marketing a business event. Send your audience an email that announces it, giving them a high-level overview along with information on how to register.

A week later, send them an email highlighting the main event, like the panel discussion or keynote speaker, and the value it will deliver to attendees.

The email after that could focus on new, just-announced speakers, content related to the event or a post-event reception and the power of networking.

Later, you can sell people on the destination or booking their hotel, if that’s involved. You can work in testimonials from past event attendees and other happy customers and/or create one email with these as the main focus.

You can also recap previous emails in your series, provide links to them, or borrow copy from them for summary blurbs in other emails. Think of this as your “Previously on [insert you favorite show here]” strategy, just like what’s used to catch people up on anything they missed in a TV series.

Map out all of this. Sketch it. Bullet it in a document. Get it all down and think about how you want it all to flow from start to finish. It’s fine to shift along the way and alter your plan — that happens to me all the time. But, look at the end goals and when you need to get there on a calendar.

Stack your email campaign up alongside everything else you’re doing: social media, advertising, the content on your…