Chad White of the Retail Email blog was impressed when he recently received an email from Lands' End with this subject line: Free Shipping + 20-50% off summer! Swim, shorts, polos and more. "I really liked this checklist approach to listing departments," he explains. "It feels less like it's pressing for a sale." But then things changed.

When White clicked through to see more information on water shoes, his positive impression began to fade. Instead of the product information he wanted to see, he was taken to a landing page that indicated his discount was activated, and then to a landing page that—once again—displayed a full range of summer-themed items.

When recipients have to sift through page after—seemingly irrelevant—page, you're going to lose their interest, or annoy them, White says.

"Instead of making your subscribers work to find what they want from your email," he advises, "do the work of creating intuitive links from your emails to landing pages that serve up the right information."

The Po!nt: Don't send them on a wild-goose chase. "When I click on a product category name or a product image in an email," says White. "I expect to be taken to that category or product."

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