Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
0
How much is too much?
How many email marketing emails are too many? I know there is a fine line between email marketing and spam, but where should I draw that line?
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
9 Answers
The simple, straightforward answer to your question is that you don't draw the line - your individual subscribers do. Two emails a month might be one too many for one subscriber whereas another might be fine with one per day.
As a marketer it comes down to creating value for your subscribers so that they will continue to want to receive your emails.
In an Email Insider column I wrote awhile back, I stated: The better, though more complicated, question might be: "What demographics, preferences and behaviors can I use to drive a continuous program that maximizes the lifetime value of my customers?" - http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_a...
In other words, focus on creating value by being relevant, using great content, solving customer problems, moving more of your emails to triggers - those that are triggered based off a subscriber's behavior, data or preferences.
In a more bottom-line perspective, that fine line is one where you maximize lifetime customer value, while keeping list churn to a reasonable level.
In the end, there simply isn't a simple answer to "What's the right frequency." There are just too many variables. But what is clear, is you will find out very quickly if you increase frequency too much as your unsubscribes and spam complaints will increase significantly.
Sometimes, I wish these spam comments at least made sense. It seems normal for the first few lines, then veers off down Weird Road.
Anyway, I digress.
Emma - A good question, that only trial and error can help you solve. Some say that you should send 3 emails, each with a variation, to get your potential customers engaged. Others say send once a week, until you get a response (Personally, I wouldn't do that :)).
On the whole, it's something that you should test. Either use a service like ActiveTrail, or make sure you are able to see how many people click links in your email - you can use Google Analytics for that. See what makes the most impact - maybe it's the third email? Maybe it's email sent Monday morning? Maybe it's the middle of the week?
Start off sending your leads 2-3 emails, and just keep testing your results, until you find what works best for you.
Hope that helps,
@avi_kaye
www.butterknife-marketing.com
Hi Emma,
In my humble opinion, it's not the quantity of emails but the quality of content and messaging that counts. Relevancy is the secret to success on the Internet as customers use search engines to filter out the online spam and zero in to find sites and information that is relevant to them. Relevancy is also job one in using emails to communicate a shared opportunity with your customers in order to improve your open rate. If the subject line is personalized and suggests a unique opportunity meant for them as an individual vs. an email blast for the masses you will at least earn yourself a look. Of equal importance to address your question, you won't be filtered out as spam the next time you have a similar shared opportunity to discuss with them.
The subject line should personalize what is to come if they open the email and then a similar shared wisdom with internet proven best practices -- transparency -- should take over to improve your conversion rate of customer's responding to your message. In the case of an email, the transparency can best be accomplished by limiting the copy to specific relevant added values being offered to them with calls to action facilitated -- and monitored - through embedded informational links that allow them to find out more if their interests warrant it.
If the first email doesn't follow these rules then the second will be filtered out before they have a chance to read the third, fourth -- etc..
I hope that helps?
At least once a month - less than that, and folks will forget they signed up for your newsletter.
My ezine goes out twice a month with business or marketing tips, recommendations, and my events. Then I send out special editions -- usually something that is on special, something new, a list of upcoming events, etc.
I sometimes sign up for someone's 30 days to.... or 7 days to .... and then get those emails, then after that other emails.
I have unsubscribed from emails when the sender sends me more then 2 a week on a normal basis.
Best thing is to ask your audiance. Those who care, will complete a short survey.
It depends entirely on your content, how relevant it is, and how frequent new content is available.
The Washington Post sends email every day, because news happens every day. This wouldn't work for other marketers, because they can't provide valuable content each day.
There are a couple of ways to figure out what is best:
- Ask customers how often they want to hear from you. However, if you offer weekly versus monthly, you have to be able to manage that cadence effectively.
- Track customers from sign-up through to "dis-engagement" or to unsubscription. I'll bet you can determine (or atleast estimate) where drop-off begins to occur. When you do, you can either provide an incentive a couple of emails before the expected drop-off to proactively stop dis-engagement, or you can try to understand what part of your creative/content leads to the drop-off.
Good luck
I'd approach the issue of e-mail oversaturation from the following perspective. E-mail is a message, an announcement, a ping to your customer if you wish to deliver some information. If certain issues you are trying to communicate require frequent e-mails you might want to explorer the implementation of status feature. It's more permament, less intrusive and more effective in my opinion.
Here's an example: you receive an e-mail after you placed an order online, confirming that it is being processed. Maybe another one after it's shipped. After that there's no reason to e-mail about your package leaving the warehouse, arriving in another FedEx facility, being processed, etc. For that there's a landing page where you can track all the misc. steps.
Relevance is king and the frequency of your messages should be dictated by how often you have relevant information to provide your audience. Per George's response, daily can be OK if you're a newspaper and I agree with Maria that you shouldn't send less often than monthly. The other three thoughts I have are:
- Make sure you're clear during the sign-up process what they should expect
- Let them dictate frequency if it something you can manage
- Keep an eye on your unsub rate to gauge if you're sending too much.
/mm/
We don't touch our contacts with HTML emails more frequently than 1 time every 2 business weeks.
Rob
Unless you wish to impart a negative opinion of your company once should be enough. The best companies only send one solicitation. Diverse items of interest on your site can retain traffic.
If you change them constantly you will get multiple viewings of your site without any negative feelings of spam. Returning is voluntary. The secret is to intrigue customers.
I'll give you a book with examples of interesting here:
https://public.me.com/gentlewar
password: higentle
"It was almost scary, I couldn't put it down!" she said in an astonished voice.
You need creativity to generate viewer interest. My shop made $300,000 and had 300 employees when I was 21. I had an additional 165 workers and 2 more businesses before being hit by a car. "There are no failures on Earth, only quitters." I'm back.
Free trial 3 questions. You have 2 left.
Resume+: http://www.zyworld.com/gentlewar/Resume.htm
Contact: gentlewar@gmail.com
Doug Miura
Answer This Question