Email Frequency - Too Much, Too Little?

Many people believe that sending as many emails as possible is the key to success. Their premises for their reasoning is logical – more emails sent equals more people reached equals more possible engagement. Or, if they are limited to a certain number of e-mail addresses, then the more emails sent to those emails means a higher probability that recipients will open at least one and be intrigued enough to respond.

Recent studies show, however, that the real truth is that “engagement is not expressly dependent on frequency”. In other words, sending 5 emails to the same list of 5,000 people may or may not have a more positive effect over sending only 1 email. Also, too many emails may actually cause a negative impact. More likely than not, people will be more receptive of well written, nicely organized, specifically targeted emails rather than frequent, hard to read emails.

For your emailing campaigns, it is better to think of your marketing as a long-term ongoing effort rather than separate campaigns. If your goal is to get people to engage with your email and not simply open it and read it (meaning you want them to actually click on something that brings them to your website or store), you need to focus on how to get those clicks rather than how many emails you can possibly send out each month. 

Ultimately, how often you send out emails is going to vary per business, so it is difficult to determine exactly how many emails you should send out each month. It is important for you to determine over time what solution is best for you. Test out different theories with new email addresses every month for your first 6 months of email campaigns (if possible). By analyzing this data and determining which month you had the best responses, you may be able to determine the best email frequency for your business.

After reviewing multiple studies for different business types, economists can give a general outline of what the best method is in general. By using data from different types of businesses, these conclusions are general and should not be considered the perfect formula for any specific business. It’s important that rather than sending exactly 3 emails a day just because you saw it work for one person, that you try to understand your audience and respond accordingly. 
