{"id":3669,"date":"2017-06-02T15:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T14:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=3669"},"modified":"2018-01-29T12:59:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T12:59:58","slug":"best-frequency-for-email-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/email-marketing\/email-communications-strategy\/best-frequency-for-email-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the best frequency for email marketing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How often should businesses mail their subscribers? Research reveals\u00a0the average number of monthly contacts.<\/h3>\n

These are classic 'tough questions' for email marketers which always raise a lot of debate.\u00a0A question on our LinkedIn group about\u00a0email reminder frequency<\/a> for events had 20 comments.<\/p>\n

Choosing the best frequency for sending email emails is challenging since we are looking to maximise response, but avoid 'over-mailing' which can lead to unacceptable levels of unsubscribes and an increase in inactives since our audience may\u00a0feel they are being spammed.\u00a0Even if they don't unsubscribe they will\u00a0become \"emotionally unsubscribed\"\u009d. Worse still, with overmailing,\u00a0the business may have email delivery problems and messages aren't getting through to the inbox at all.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, with 'under-mailing', opportunities to explain the proposition and promotions or to get the right product in front of the right subscriber and sales may be\u00a0lost.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0DMA's National Email Client Report<\/a>\u00a0now known as the 'Marketer Email tracker' shows us that, generally, there is a trend over the past four years where companies are contacting individuals less on a monthly basis. Email Marketers look to be\u00a0becoming more strategic in their approach, recognising that content needs to be relevant and are moving more towards behavioural and triggered based marketing<\/a>, rather than programmatic timed campaigns. \u00a0It's very apparent that irrelevant, low quality emails can damage a brand and increase the number of unsubscribes.<\/p>\n

The research from the DMA highlights that 17% of companies are still sending 4-5 emails a month to their contacts, \u00a08% 6-8 times and 8% more than 8 times a month.<\/p>\n

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On the other hand, frequency can be too low and companies still need to be careful, as too little contact is not good for brand awareness. In 2015 25% of respondents were sending just one email per month to each contact.<\/p>\n

Of course, this data is cross-sector, so we would expect some types of businesses such as retailers and publishers to email at least weekly, possibly daily. The research also doesn't show the effect of lifecycle emails like welcome emails, personalisation, and dynamic content which can help make content more relevant and contextual, but can increase email frequency for subscribers showing content.<\/p>\n

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\n \n Advanced lifecycle email marketing guide\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Download Expert member resource \u2013 Advanced Lifecycle Email marketing guide<\/strong><\/p>\n

This guide steps you through the options to deliver more relevant emails and manage frequency throughout the customer lifecycle.<\/p>\n

Access the Advanced lifecycle email marketing guide<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

Q. What is the best email frequency to maximise response?<\/h3>\n

Is there an optimal email frequency? Is it one email a quarter, week, month or day even?\u00a0Is less more or or is more more?!<\/p>\n

This is a basic question every digital marketer has to try to answer to maximise profit or response of email activity. I thought I'd share some some testing suggestions and case studies which could help you decide.<\/p>\n

Average UK Email Frequency<\/h3>\n

Compare this to the original research when I wrote this post way back in\u00a02010 when I wrote the conclusion for the UK DMA National client benchmark report. The question here was: What is the maximum number of times you contact an address on your list in one month?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Evaluating current email frequency and customer response behaviour<\/p>\n

The first step to answer this question is to assess the impact of your email marketing frequency on customer activity and perceptions. If frequency \u00a0is too high, subscribers will tune out. The obvious thing to measure is aggregate open and click rates and most email broadcast systems are good at this. Mark Brownlow has a good roundup of research on customer perceptions of email frequency<\/a>. In one study 73% said that frequency was the main reason for opting out. Ouch!<\/p>\n

Another measure is to look at the average of number of emails you and your competitors send to subscribers per week, month or year.<\/p>\n

But you need to go beyond this and use these measures that most systems can't measure readily, so you need to do some more analysis to identify:<\/p>\n