Email sending frequency can be a tricky subject for eCommerce owners. After taking the time to build up a list of quality subscribers, the last thing you want to do is squander your efforts by sending content to their inbox at the wrong time.
How often should you be sending emails? The unsatisfying answer: it depends. There are many factors that go into determining the optimal sending frequency, which means that what works for one eCommerce business may not work for another.
To help you find the sweet spot, here are some tips to determining your optimal email sending frequency:
Generally, Less Is Not More in Email Marketing
It’s common for eCommerce merchants to believe that they are annoying their subscribers by sending them frequent emails. While receiving too many emails is a common reason for consumers to opt out, it is less of a concern than you might think.
Why is that, exactly? The answer is simple—your subscribers have opted in to your email list because they believe you can offer them something of value. As long as your content is relevant, consumers will generally not mind a higher frequency.
In fact, they might even welcome hearing from you more often. Sending too few of emails means less engagement from your subscribers and a missed opportunity to stay top-of-mind. If you are thinking about increasing your send frequency, make sure that your emails always offer something of value.
Get a Good Baseline by Analyzing Past Data
Before you begin testing, it’s helpful to have a starting point. If you have been running email campaigns for some time, you can look back at your past data and analyze it.
This analysis might include looking at metrics such as unsubscribe rate, clicks, opens, and conversions. Analyze your campaign results with the email sending frequency to get a good baseline.
If you haven’t rolled out your email marketing campaigns yet, you might consider subscribing to some of your top competitors to analyze both the frequency and content of their emails.
Break It Down by Segments
As we mentioned, relevancy beats frequency when it comes to your email campaigns. The best way to deliver relevant content to your subscribers is by segmenting your email list.
Your customers aren’t all the same. Some may respond better to the occasional email, while others want to hear from you daily. By building segments based on customer data, you can give each subscriber the optimal sending frequency.
Additionally, segmenting your email list provides a better experience for your subscribers and your bottom line. Sending them relevant content at exactly the right time can increase your ROI and improve relationships with customers, so why wouldn’t you want to use segmentation?
Keep Context in Mind
There is no one-size-fits-all email sending frequency for eCommerce stores, simply because context is important when it comes to testing for the best sending frequency. As you can imagine, some of your subscribers may be more excited about receiving discount emails than product update emails.
Similarly, the time of day that you send your emails can affect how your subscribers feel about them. It may be helpful to look at your customer data and note what times of day that people are purchasing from your eCommerce store, as this may be an optimal time to send emails.
Offer Unsubscribers Multiple Options
Consumer inboxes are more crowded than they have ever been, despite marketers sending them fewer emails. Even with a high degree of personalization and relevant content, your subscribers may simply need to downsize on how many emails they receive.
As many email marketers know, it is a requirement of the CAN-SPAM act to provide an unsubscribe option. However, you can make the best of the situation by making a strategic unsubscribe page.
For example, your unsubscribe page can offer subscribers the option to receive fewer emails instead of completely opting out. One study found that 40 percent of consumers would stay subscribed if a brand offered to send fewer emails instead.
If they are determined to opt out, you could ask them to state their reason for leaving, to help you improve. Despite losing a subscriber, you now have some extra data that might be useful for determining sending frequency.
How often do you send emails to your customers? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter!
