Project Email: A Quick Look at Mood's Recurring Emails

Fans of the show "Project Runway" will be happy to know that the fabric store shopped at in every episode creates winning email looks off-camera through automated recurring campaigns.

Using Listrak, Mood rotates three emails on a weekly basis - recommendations based on recent purchases, newest trending products and top sellers from that month - based on what's new and what people are clicking on and buying. 

The right technology is needed to execute these campaigns, of course, as marketers will never be able to deliver that kind of personalization at scale. 

Within an email platform or marketing automation system marketers can automate personalized emails based on items/content that subscribers have previously viewed or purchased, but this isn't possible for every contact. Therefore, Listrak recommends having a backup plan for recipients who haven't visited the site lately. They can still receive highlight reels based on top sellers, top-rated items, staff favorites, most-read articles and more. 

Ryan Hofmann, chief brand strategist at Listrak, warns that these campaigns do take a bit more time to set up initially but drive efficiency in the long run, because they do not require much upkeep. That said, it takes minimal effort to occasionally update the primary message to promote a sale or update for a season if desired. 

There are ways, however, to ensure these automated emails remain fresh - enticing opens and click-throughs - like through design choices. Mood, for example, omits the classic 3x3 product recommendation grids (seen in most recommendation-type emails) and opts for a very dimensional layout with beautiful imagery (see images). 

Another way to keep highlight reel emails fresh is to modify the subject lines and tailor timing and messages to suit subscribers based on their activity levels - no activity, some activity and past buyers, as recommended by Experian Marketing.