Behind the Scenes: How Litmus Uses Live Polls in Litmus Personalize

At Litmus, we personalize our emails with purpose: to create tailored inbox experiences that go the extra mile—the kind that surprises and delights our subscribers (and goes beyond “Hello %%first_name%%”). It’s our way of making a more human connection with our subscribers. Something we think is especially important during a time dominated by artificial intelligence (AI).

It’s a new era of email, and we’re here for it! Today, we’re sharing one of our favorite ways to add a human-touch to our email marketing campaigns—and that’s with Litmus Personalize Live Polls. It’s what our email marketing manager Tracie Pang deems a “quick win” that’s sure to give your engagement metrics a nice boost.

Did you know that Litmus offers personalization for all levels? 💡 From Litmus Personalize Essentials—which includes a whole suite of time-saving, quick-start personalization templates—to Litmus Personalize Pro, we’ve got plans for teams of all sizes. Personally, we like to use a mix of both (more on that later!).

Example 1: Dynamic live poll

Add a fresh twist to the subscriber experience by by turning the inbox into a place that captures audience insights and instant feedback. Iinstead of just reading, subscribers can engage directly with the content—like participating in a Live Poll—without having to leave their email. This makes emails not just a message, but a whole experience on its own.

We make good use of these in our Product Pulse newsletter. They’re a key feature that we use regularly as a pre-designed module, making it easy to include whenever the inspiration hits us to ask our subscribers a question. We think of it as a temperature check: we ask a question, subscribers answer (with a click to vote), and in return, we get the insights!

Here, we used Live Polls as a pulse check to get a feel for what our subscribers are prioritizing this year:

Made with Litmus Personalize Essentials →

In this issue, we wanted to know what our subscribers’ list hygiene habits were like:

Made with Litmus Personalize Pro →

In return, this click-data can be used to help us refine our content strategy (and segmentation, too!).

Example 2: Voting booth

For the Email Excellence Awards, we set up an exclusive voting booth just for our Litmus Weekly subscribers. The winners were determined over multiple rounds, with each round kicking off with the weekly dispatch of our newsletter. 

And because only subscribers could vote, we encouraged folks to subscribe on our social channels to ensure they didn’t miss out. More engagement, more subscribers—it was a win-win!

Example 3: Just for fun

We’re big fans of surprising-and-delighting our subscribers whenever possible. And Live Polls are a great way to do just that!

Plus, they offer your subscribers a chance to share their voice. They’re easy to participate in and each vote counts as a click.

In this issue of Litmus Weekly, the Live Poll account for 17.3% of unique clicks.

What ideas will you bring to life? 

The sky’s the limit with Live Polls! How will you use them in your email marketing campaigns? Maybe you’ll host a voting booth or bring gamification to the inbox. Whether you aim to gather insights, boost engagement, or simply entertain, Live Polls offer a creative and dynamic way to connect with your subscribers on a deeper level.

We can’t wait to see how you’ll leverage Live Polls!