Email Frequency Depends on Relevancy

It’s a basic idea, but one many e-mailers frequently forget: How frequently you contact your subscriber base should be based on how much relevant content you have to share with them.

“There’s no magic number to work towards,” says Heather Blank, vice president of strategic services at Responsys. “What matters is what the content is and who you are sending it to.”

Email marketers need to consider how much content they have to share when planning their calendar. “How many great content stories to you have to share and talk about?” she says. “And who would be responsive to these stories?”

It’s also important to take your cue from subscribers, and how they express their desires for more or less contact.

For example, if someone signs up for daily deals, then by all means increase the frequency of contact with them. But, if they haven’t engaged with you for a year, pull back.

Last year, Responsys saw promotional campaign frequency go up 15%, a trend Blank expects to rise this year. But, she adds, theirs is definitely a trends of the more advanced marketers figuring out a way to pull back on lower performing segments in a drive to increase overall revenue.

Many marketers may be inclined to increase their email frequency if they see their campaigns becoming less effective. “Often, when overall responsiveness is down and emailers aren’t targeting or segmenting their files, the only lever they’re pulling is frequency,” says Blank. “And that’s when fatigue starts to step in.”

Is Valentine’s Day one when marketers should pull back? Apparently not. According to Responsys, retailers sent each of their subscribers 3.8 promotional emails on average last week, a 19% increase from the same period in 2011.