How Much Email Is Too Much?

Companies run into two very common hesitations when sending emails to their customers…

1. Not knowing what to say
2. Fear of annoying their customers

Here’s the problem:

Sending regular-frequent emails to your customers/prospects is proven to generate more revenue.

It’s also one of the most reliable & affordable ways to market your business.

You have a list of people who signed up to hear from you just waiting for you to do so.

That’s what makes email the highest ROI marketing channel for most businesses.

So let’s talk about why you shouldn’t be afraid of annoying your customers.

The Real Data

Let’s briefly cover why you should care about email at all:

• 99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times daily. Of those people, 58% of consumers check their email first thing in the morning.
• 4.24% of email traffic leads to purchases, whereas only 2.49% of search and 0.59% of social traffic do the same.

So obviously, there’s a huge demand for marketing communications from businesses.

Consumers are actively engaged with their email inboxes and converting at significantly higher rates than all other marketing channels.

Let’s break down some of your beliefs around sending frequency:

• 61% of subscribers/customers would like to receive promotional emails every week, 38% – more frequently.
• 28% of subscribers state they’d like to see promo offers twice or even three times a week.

So… we should be sending emails every week..? Probably

There are exceptions to the rule, some businesses are more successful when sending 1-2 times per day. Others need to limit themselves to only a few times per month.

But, the point is, you’re probably not sending as much as you should!

How Much Should I Send?

The only real way to know for certain how much you should send is to try it.

But you can find a great starting place by examining competitor businesses around you.

Find the biggest names in your industry and subscribe to their email list.

What do they send you? How often do they send?

This will give you a lot of ideas for where to start, but once you’re running email campaigns it’s important to measure and test different frequencies.

The metrics to pay attention to are:

• Open Rate (are people reading your emails)
• Purchases/Leads (are people taking action)
• Unsubscribes (are people removing themselves)

Open rates trending down indicates that your list is losing interest.

Purchases/Leads trending up indicates that your increased frequency is working.

Unsubscribes sometimes means you’re sending too frequently.

I say sometimes because it can also just be a mismatch between the subscribers’ expectations compared to the reality of your sending frequency.

Some subscribers will prefer more frequent emails while others prefer less frequent ones.

The best thing to do is to be very clear when someone is opting in about how frequently you’re going to email them. Then their expectation is set.

For example, this email from the Digital Lab is sent at the same time every Saturday.

So for anyone on the list, the expectation is clearly set for when the emails are coming.

But What Do You Say In The Emails?

Coming up with what to say can feel overwhelming in the beginning.

You don’t want to feel salesy
You don’t want to waste people’s time
You don’t want to make the business look bad

So what do you do?

Start with the 80/20 framework:

• 80% of your emails should be free content
• 20% of your emails should be sales content

Your free content is intended to demonstrate your expertise, educate the customer, and ultimately keep you top of mind when they need you.

Your sales content is intended to convert the reader immediately.

Promotions, limited-time offers, new launches, upsells, downsells, referral programs, etc.

You build up goodwill with your subscribers 80% of the time so that they don’t feel negatively toward you when you make your ask 20% of the time.

Over time you’ll learn your personal sweet spot for results.

Some companies operate 50/50, 70/30, 20/80, or even 99/1, they all work for some businesses.

But 80/20 is the “safe” place to start.

Want a custom recommendation for how email can work in your business?

Our team has generated millions in revenue for companies of all types around the world using email broadcasts & automation. Run your ideas by us or ask for a custom pitch to see how you could be making more money with email.