Piggyback Email

Piggyback Email in the context of email marketing, this term refers to messages, which transfers third-party advertisements to a subscriber list. Often, advertisers look for new ways to contact a wider range of potential customers to increase their own customer base. To reach a larger number potential customers, these advertisers will sometimes connect with marketers who work within their target demographic. These advertisers may pay a marketer to distribute their message to their email list, or may trade a similar distribution list in return for advertising to their mailing list.

In these piggyback messages, an email marketer will compose an email to his opt-in email list. This list will be comprised of members who best fit the third-party advertisers’ target market. The email itself will contain the third-party advertisements embedded into the body of the email. If the marketer’s list considers them to be a trustworthy sender, there is a high likelihood that the recipients will open the message, and possibly engage with the third-party’s ads. However, email marketers should be wary of sending too many piggyback emails. List subscribers may feel as though they are bombarded with marketing that they do not want if these messages appear too often, and may even respond by marking messages as spam.