How Often Should You Send Marketing Emails? 6+ Best Practices

There are 4 billion daily email users, making it prime real estate for marketers looking to get their brand out there. Offering valuable, engaging content is key to effective email marketing. But how do you avoid turning into annoying spam? Where’s the sweet spot?

Well, it’s a sticky situation. These questions have plagued businesses since the dawn of time. So how often should you send marketing emails? Here’s your guide on how to master email frequency, increase sales, improve engagement, and maximize your ROI.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

What Makes an Effective Email Marketing Campaign?

If you find yourself asking just how effective an email marketing strategy can be, consider that 78% of marketers have seen increased email engagement over the past year.

Here are 3 examples of email marketing strategies you can employ:

1. Segment your list. Segmenting your email list can allow you to target your customers better. Segmented lists saw increased open rates by 14.31% and click rates by 100.95% (compared to non-segmented campaigns).
2. Design mobile-friendly emails. Almost 1 in 5 email campaigns is not mobile-friendly. If you don’t have your campaigns optimized for mobile, you’re missing out on clicks. A mobile-responsive email can increase unique mobile clicks by 15%.
3. Provide engaging content. With emails, you have the opportunity to deliver this content directly to your customers’ inboxes. For example, you can create blog posts, share customer stories, include testimonials, and send birthday emails. Doing so puts your brand front and center.

How Often Should You Send Marketing Emails?

While there is no universal truth, sending frequent and consistent emails is the way to go. Start by sending at least one email a week. Any less than that, and your audience will become disengaged. 

After segmenting your main list, send one or two automated campaigns per list. Adapt the frequency of these campaigns to your segments to see up to a 760% increase in revenue. Ensure you have adequate tracking measures in place.

3 Factors That Determine How Often You Should Send Marketing Emails

While there’s variability between businesses and industries, a few things remain constant. All companies could benefit from keeping these three factors in mind.

1. Base Email Cadence on Customer Life Cycle

Your customers may have a long or short life cycle depending on your industry. Fashion brands, for example, have a quick repeat purchase rate. Five or six emails a week (especially those containing promotional offers) might be relevant for those brands. 

On the other hand, if your customers are making repeat purchases twice a year, you won’t want to bombard them with emails directly after they purchase. 

It’s all about strategy.

2. Study the Curve of Diminishing Returns

An increase in email frequency slides down a curve of diminishing returns. No matter how great and valuable your content is, you’ll become a nuisance if you send too many emails.

Find the sweet spot. It’s the spot where you enjoy the best ROI without irritating your audience. You want to find the mark on the curve before things head downward.

3. Get Familiar with Industry Averages

As we discussed, there’s no one-size-fits-all regarding email frequency. Study your industry averages and figure out what works. Learning from the experience of others can save you time, money, and resources.

Bonus: Give Your Subscribers Control

Not all customers will put in the effort, but giving them the option to choose their email frequency can go a long way. You can easily do this at sign-up or with a section on your unsubscribe page. 

Case Study: Redmond Life

Big Leap is a marketing agency with extensive experience in email marketing. One of our clients, Redmond Life, experienced tremendous success in email marketing. Without an email marketing support team to keep in touch with their rapidly growing customer base, they were losing their grip. 

After using Big Leap’s expert team, Redmond Life leveraged our strategy to generate nearly $1 million in email-attributed revenue. 

So how did we do it? Our strategy consisted of the following:

1. Conducting a thorough email marketing audit
2. Implementing missing workflows and automation
3. Leveraging existing Shopify sales data
4. Creating pop-ups and promotions

Redmond Life saw improvement in many areas through this strategy, including:

• 25,000 increase in form submissions
• 65.1% email open rate
• $27,000 earned from 1 email

Get Your Timing Right with Big Leap

Mastering email frequency can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be. With Big Leap’s team of marketing experts on your side, you can nail your timing and provide value to your customers. 

Our digital marketing experts can help you take your email marketing campaigns to the next level. Let us help you increase your conversions and build relationships with your customers. Get in touch today.

Got questions about email marketing, automation, or other marketing topics? We have a wealth of information on our digital marketing blog covering these topics and more.