Why Email Marketing is Like ‘The Hunger Games’: 5 Tips to Survive the Spam Folder

4. Tick tock … deception is coming. Competition is fierce during the holiday season. While "The Hunger Games" arena is filled with competitors, obstacles and traps, customers are often sent confusing and useless offers during the email marketing games. For example, some marketers may be inclined to try and beat the competition by claiming that their deal is ending in the next 30 minutes, when, in reality, it's available for 24 hours. If you choose to adopt a similar strategy, you'll surely burn bridges with your customers. No one wants to find out they made a purchasing decision based on scare tactics. Loyal customers will stay true to the companies that send honest promotions and realistic offers.

5. Your email marketing "Tribute." Katniss always remains loyal to her family and loved ones, as seen in her willingness to volunteer as tribute in place of her sister. You can do the same for your returning customers by implementing a customer loyalty program. An effective program will offer personalized, relevant and targeted discounts to returning customers. Instilling loyalty in your key customers will increase sales and build an effective customer base to reap the rewards time and time again. Combined with email marketing tools like segmentation and A/B split testing, you'll improve your customer experience, brand loyalty and bottom-line results — effectively surpassing the spam folder and entering the inbox.

Seamas Egan is the manager of revenue operations at Campaigner, an email marketing services provider. Seamas can be reached at seamas.egan@j2.com.