Do you remember what TV was like?  If, like me you watched TV before the internet and streaming took hold, you know how different a time it was. A limited number of channels to watch… and a set schedule of what you could watch and when.  

Saturdays at about 5.30 – the Dukes of Hazzard on BBC1

Sundays at 6pm, the NFL on Channel 4

Fridays at 9pm, Cheers on Channel 4

…and you could set your watch to my Mum and Dad watching the News on the BBC at 9pm.

(and trust me, I did, as they always wanted a cup of tea to watch it with, which was my job!)

Things are different now.

The on-demand generation is all about getting things now.  No waiting.

…and unlike back in the day when you had to wait to see the resolution of a cliffhanger, nowadays you just press “next episode” and dive right back in.

Instant Gratification.

…so in a world where we all want things without delay…  How can you incorporate this strategy in your email marketing?

Well first of all, you need to have binge worthy content.  If you’re sending a newsletter each month, and that’s it… then you’re probably not in the best position to take advantage of binging.

…but if you deliver high quality content at a higher frequency, and even use email to deliver course content on a set schedule, then you’re ready to take the next step and let your subscribers take control.

…and that’s where a recent addition to Mailchimp’s automation set up could really help you.

It’s all about “wait”.

If you are a standard user of Mailchimp, one of the main advantages is the ability to get extremely creative with automations… and have sequences much longer than the 4 steps you get with the essentials plan.

…and if you’ve developed a series of emails on a specific subject, you can set up a customer journey to deliver the emails on a set schedule.

Currently we’ve got a customer who, once someone joins their email “course”, gets a welcome email for the course itself, and then an email every 2 or 3 days with the actual content.

…but what if the content is so good that the subscriber doesn’t want to wait the usual time gap for the next email… and they want to “binge” the content, it’s that good?

Well you can set up your automations so that instead of having a specific time delay between the individual emails, you can give your subscribers the chance to “click”… and get the next email instantaneously (just like that binge-worthy series on Netflix!).

This is done by using the “wait” function in the sequence.

The wait function is an alternative to the delay option you have.

Delay sets a specific time limit between actions in a customer journey.

A “wait” function allows you to “wait” for a specific action to take place… and if it doesn’t happen within a specific time frame, it automatically moves to the next step.

…and what if that specific action was to click a link in the prior email saying “can I get the next email right away please?”… as if they were pressing the “fast forward” button.

That’s how you can technically make your emails bingeable (whether they merit being binged is down to you and your content!).

Here’s how we do it…

• We create a “thanks for wanting the next email now” landing page in Mailchimp and publish it, grabbing it’s URL.
• Then, in each email in our sequence, we add a button or clickable link connected to that page with the text along the lines of “I can’t wait, give me the next email now!”
• … and then within the automation, instead of the typical “delay”, we use the “wait” option… and the trigger to move on is the clicking of that link in the prior email.
• If they click it, the automation moves to the next step and sends the next email.
• …if they don’t, then the next email is sent based on how long you wait for the click, which is part of the “wait” function.

…set it live, test it and you’ll find that binge-worthy emails are now something you can use!

Again, the key part of this is not actually the tech and how Mailchimp works, it’s making your content so good that people can’t wait to get the next email.

…but if your emails really are that good… then it’s a great way to generate momentum towards a specific goal.

For example, you can use this to deliver a free course… but then because people are so engaged and onboard with your content, their momentum will drive them to the next “big” step of buying a course….

Nowadays, nearly everything is available on demand… whether it’s groceries, take aways or TV.

…and now you know how to make your valuable email sequences on demand, giving your subscribers the ability to “binge” on your content.