How Often Should I Send Marketing Emails?
The answer varies but we´ll try to break it down for you in this article.
Context is king when it comes to frequency. There is no magical number that will apply for everyone.
The amount of communication I can stand from your company depends on how I interact with you and how you respond in return.
Use your conversion rates, click rates, open rates, and unsubscription rates to guide you. If you learn to understand your metrics, you will be able to tell when something is working and when you’re being annoying.
In the end, the golden rule is that you should provide your customer with something of value, however that value may be defined. It could be a tip to save time or a coupon to save money.
So, How Often Should I Send Marketing Emails? Really?
Whatever your value is, make sure your message is relevant, appropriate and timely. After all, if you give me what I want when I want it, how could that be annoying?
- Customers (no matter how much they love you and your brand) will SPAM you if you bombard their inbox. Less is definitely more.
- If you have a great compelling campaign, SEND IT OUT. A number of people who unsubscribe won’t at all offset a number of people you get to purchase. Trust me, it’s worth it.
- Click-thru rates are better for ‘general’ campaigns. IE: 30% off ALL items vs. Look at our new Scooter! Customers want to know that the email can be viewed/ directed at them. The more general (with a promo code or discount of some sort) work best.
- Use the terms: free shipping/ limited time only/ exclusive. They really get the consumers head around the ‘deal’ being offered.
In email marketing, relevance is more important that frequency. In fact, if you have enough relevant content you will find sending an email each day might be the right frequency. If you have nothing new to say – or offer – it might be monthly…or less. Relevance will drive engagement (clicks, store visits, social sharing, Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers, product reviews, etc.)
Relevance is driven by your objectives, what people have signed up for (and what they expect from you) and your content strategy.
One way to increase relevance – and possibly frequency – is to segment your database ad target specific people with highly relevant content and offers. If you don’t have this data you will need to get it. The best way to do this is through a relevant contest or sweepstakes where your try to capture the top 3-5 data points you can segment against. You can also use past behavior such as clicks and purchases to in a segment.
At the end of the day, email frequency shouldn’t be your main concern. Relevance and engagement should be the focal point. When you understand this you will also have your answer to the how often you should be sending email.
The biggest thing I can emphasize is that email campaigns definitely work. They help send a friendly reminder to your opt-in consumers that you’re there, with a great product, and that you want to share the discounts with them.
Thank you for reading “How Often Should I Send Marketing Emails?”. Hopefully, you´ve now learned the answer to that question and can adapt it into your own email marketing.
