Maintaining five brands in a single inbox is fine, but when launch week arrives and three campaigns require approval simultaneously, it becomes easier to see why it isn’t so straightforward.When it comes to the inbox, it’s easy to see how managing five brands can become a daunting task until launch week arrives and three campaigns are ready to go simultaneously for approval. It’s at this time that the cracks are revealed. If there’s no system, teams will find themselves creating and sending out duplicate templates, forget to include brand guidelines, or even worse, a Brand A’s promotion with the Brand B logo. According to the 2023 Litmus survey, lack of process is the primary cause of email campaigns being delayed, due to the fact that 42% of marketers indicate it as the main reason for delays. Multi-brand production increases that risk because of the increased number of approvals, assets and opportunities to let something slip through with an added brand.
How to Build a Separate but Consistent Email Structure for Each Brand
These brands should have a distinct identity, however the production process should remain constant. Imagine it as slightly like a house but different colours in different rooms and the same frame. Create individual brand folders containing ‘locked’ brand colours, fonts and logo images no need to guess which blue is which brand.
I am sure that this is a system that helps teams that have 3+ brands to work well:
- Develop a master template that can be switched out for different brand logos, colors, and footers.
- Set font and spacing rules per brand so they don’t end up with mixed up formatting.
- Keep all of the assets associated with a particular store in their own labelled folder, NOT a shared one.
- Keep using version control to avoid accidentally sending out old templates
An easy-to-use email tool like Stripo can come in handy here as it enables teams to create a template from a single source and customize it for each new campaign without requiring a tech guy to recreate code if there are campaign changes. This saves massive amounts of production time if you’ve 3 brands that require emails to be sent out during the same week.
How to Organize Your Team’s Roles Across Multiple Brand Campaigns
Have one point of contact for each brand, preferably different, but not necessarily different, than the designer. That person has ultimate control and will see brand specific errors before they get sent out.
A simple role breakdown looks like this:
| Role | Responsibility |
| Brand Owner | Final approval, brand voice check |
| Designer | Template build, visual consistency |
| Copywriter | Brand-specific tone and messaging |
| QA Reviewer | Link checks, rendering tests |
Brands don’t ruin each other’s send dates by scheduling weekly sync meetings no matter how brief, they’re still important. Overlapping send times are avoided and last minute rushes are minimised when shared calendars are used, that show each brand’s send schedule. Clear ownership per brand means teams will have fewer errors and quicker turnaround, since no one will be making an educated guess about whose job it is to verify the final product.
How to Maintain Brand Accuracy During Review and Approval Stages
Mismatched logos and incorrect colour codes get caught and/or missed in these stages of the review process. When you approve it on the spot, you’ll be able to catch mistakes; and if an email goes out, it’s out. Create a two-step review process: design review followed by content review which is completed by different people so as to prevent rubber-stamping.Most teams will find 24 hours before the approval date to be an appropriate cut-off or deadline to avoid last-minute rushes and skipped steps. Where higher standards of compliance are required, such as in finance or healthcare, an additional step in the compliance review process may be needed for compliance.
Recap of Key Points: What It Takes to Run Email Production Across Multiple Brands
Production of multi-brand e-mails doesn’t have to be a headache if structure takes the place of guesswork. Consistent workflows, naming and clear role assignments end the chaos that befalls teams handling multiple brands simultaneously. Errors are prevented before they enter the inbox by locked brand assets and detailed review checklists, safeguarding everything from brand identity to trust.Never leave anything to chance with locked brand assets and detailed review checklists that help keep errors out of an inbox and help to protect brand identity and trust. A common calendar eliminates double sends, and tight deadlines ensure quality controls aren’t missed out on in rush. There is no need to have a large team of staff it just takes simple steps that are taken in the same manner each time.