Prioritized Sending: Ensure contacts Do Not Get Bombarded by Emails

There are plenty of times where marketers wish to send out several different deployments around the same time as each other. The biggest issue that arrives with this tactic is that the deployment lists/segments being used in the deployments, often have overlap between each other. Therefore, those recipients receive multiple deployments within a very short period of time. This creates a negative experience with your contacts and they are more likely to unsubscribe. Below is a way for you to help ensure that your contacts aren't being bombarded by emails.

1.  Determine your Sending Priority

• Before deploying, you want to choose the message you want recipients to receive above all others. This might mean planning out your deployments as far ahead as two weeks.
• For example, if you are sending out three offers (25%, 15% and 10% off) and you want to ensure that a specific group of contacts receives the 25% off discount, you would place that message at the highest priority. 
• This prioritized list determines the order in which you will send out your deployments.

2.  Setting up your Segments or Lists

• This part is easy. All you need to do is ensure that you have a list/segment for each deployment. 
• This means, if you are sending to an entire subscription for one of the deployments, you want to have a segment that has the criteria "Subscription equals X". 
• You will use these lists/segments to not only deploy, but ensure that contacts only receive one message.

3.  Setting up your Deployments

• This step is where you put your prioritized list of deployments to use. You will begin at the top of your list. The first deployment you will set-up like any other. Choose your message, your list/segment and deploy. The important step lies in the subsequent deployments.

• For the next deployment, you will select your message and select the list/segment for that deployment. The difference in this deployment is that, you will select the list/segment you chose for the first deployment, as a "Suppression" for this deployment. This means that anyone sent to in the first deployment, will be removed from this deployment.

• Once you have sent the second deployment, if you have another deployment, you will suppress the first AND second deployment's list/segment from the third deployment. Continue this process for all subsequent deployments.

• EXAMPLE: Emma first set's up a deployment sending out a message containing a 25% off discount to her newsletter subscribers (10,000 contacts) for being loyal to her email program. Then she decides she wants to send out a 15% off discount to her Promotional email subscribers (2500 contacts). She sets up the deployment by choosing her message and then select her "Promotional Subscribers" segment. Then as part of the set-up, she chooses the "Newsletter Subscribers" segment as a "Suppression". This removes 1000 contacts whom are both in her Newsletter and Promotional subscriptions. Therefore, she has a final deployment list of 1500 potential recipients. Finally, she wants to send a 10% off discount to her eFlyer subscribers (1000), so she sets up her deployment by choosing her message and selects her "eFlyer subscribers" segment. Then she selects the "Newsletter Subscribers" and "Promotional Subscribers" segments as suppressions. This removes 250 contacts whom are either in both the eFlyer and Newsletter subscriptions or in both the eFlyer and Promotional subscriptions. This gives her a final deployment list of 750 potential recipients.