Email Marketing Frequency: 4 Factors to Consider

How frequently should you send email marketing messages? How often is too often? The answer to those questions is deeply personal.

For example, research published in 2023 suggests that 41% of nonprofits send email newsletters monthly, 17% send them twice monthly, and 10% send them weekly. With data scattered so far and wide, it’s hard to declare one timeframe a standard.

A few key factors should influence your email frequency. I’ll outline them here, and I’ll give you some tips you can use to measure your performance and adjust as needed.

4 Factors That Influence Your Email Marketing Frequency

Rather than just sending email messages randomly and hoping your strategy works, start with a bit of data mining. The following key points typically influence how often companies reach out via email.

1. Your Sales Patterns

Some businesses have a short sales cycle. Their customers buy products repeatedly, and they need to replenish their stores often. If you sell products like food, tea, pet food, and other similar items, you can send email several times per month without exhausting your customers.

Some businesses have a longer sales cycle. Their customers buy products infrequently, when they need a little treat. If you sell things like houses, cars, jets, or high-end jewelry, you may need to send messages less often for a better return.

2. Your Audience

Every business is different, as are the consumers that take part in it. For example, you may see the same names and faces inside your shop every day. Your neighbor may not know the names of customers at all.

The more often you see your customers, the less likely they are to be annoyed by more-than-monthly messages. They may be annoyed, in fact, if you don’t talk to them enough.

3. Your Content

Successful email marketing starts with content. Several different types of content can be shared inside an email message, but each one deserves a different schedule.

For example, if you’re promoting a sale, it might be reasonable to send a note a few weeks before it starts and another the day before. This strategy ensures your potential customers are aware of the date and don’t miss out.

However, if you’re publishing evergreen content like customer reviews or product how-tos, there’s no need to repeat the notes. Doing so could irritate your customers.

4. Your Goals

Don’t send email marketing messages because everyone else is doing so. Instead, start with a specific marketing target. That could be increasing sales, filling up tables at an event, or increasing your market share.

Every goal could come with a different publishing timeframe. For example, promoting events often requires more frequent reminders than highlighting your brand promise.

Too Much or Not Enough? What to Measure

A strategy can only take you so far. To ensure you’re making the right decisions with your email marketing, it’s critical to check your work.

Key data points to measure after you start using email include the following:

• Open rates. How many people actually open the messages you send?

• Click-through rates. How many people tap a link you’ve placed inside an email message?

• Unsubscribe rates. How many people unsubscribe from your marketing plan when they’ve received an email?

Start with a set of baseline numbers, and then compare how they change when you adjust your frequency. If you make a change and your numbers dive, go back to your original plan immediately.

Other Options to Try

Running a few tests can help you make even more sense of your email frequency. For example, you could try sending messages to one segment of your email list on a different schedule and see if the numbers in that group jump.

You can also ask your customers how often they’d like to hear from you. Some email marketing platforms allow customers to select their message frequency, which can eliminate your guesswork.

Get Help With Your Marketing

Creating high-impact email messaging isn’t easy, and neither is deploying it appropriately. I can help. Contact me, and let’s have a conversation! I would love to help you.