Email Marketing Tactics #18: Define a Send Frequency

Send frequency is an important aspect of email marketing. Defining a send frequency serves two purposes:

  • It sets a production schedule.
  • Provides communication delivery expectations to recipients.

Setting a production schedule is critical. The #1 biggest killer of email marketing campaigns is that the person running the campaign didn’t set a production schedule. When an email marketing campaign is run without a frequency schedule it is usually chronically late or has no discernable pattern. Inconsistent production decreases interest in the communications and builds frustration in producing them. Once this trend starts it’s only a matter of time before the email campaign is scrapped.

Delivery expectations are important for recipients. There is no set rule for send schedule. A general rule is that there should be at least a monthly communication but no more than weekly. This applies to the majority of email campaigns. Having said that, there are successful newsletters that are produced quarterly and for sophisticated email marketers, multiple emails a week cause no negative impacts on results. Having a send schedule helps define consistency and builds credibility. A communication that is always off schedule gives the impression that they are produced haphazardly and not a high quality.

Set a frequency schedule and define production actions that need to take place to meet that schedule. Sticking to it will ensure high quality communications that recipients are expecting.

Email Marketing Tactics #17: Provide Options for Recipients to Respond

All email recipients won’t respond to the same offer. That seems like simple common sense but many email campaigns ignore the advice. The person running the email campaign (or their boss) has a single item or event they’d like to promote and the email campaign pounds it to a pulp. For those people that aren’t interested in that particular promotion, they are never given a chance to interact. Intermix multiple promotions within the email campaign so a varied group of recipients have incentive to take the next step.

We’ve previously covered several common promotions: products, services, events, etc. It’s a good idea to include a few options in an email campaign. Ideally the options would span categories so that recipients have a chance to review products or specials but also get event announcements. At minimum, the single item should change. If there is one product offered over and over, sooner or later the email list will grow immune to the communications.

Varying the offers to recipients serves two purposes:

  • It hits a wider demographic. Subscribers to email marketing campaigns usually have a host of reasons for opting in. Varied offers takes that difference into account and casts a wider net on what the individual might react to.
  • It prevents list exhaustion. Even if a recipient is interested in a single promotion, they won’t continually be. Changing options keep recipients more engaged because they are seeing new promotions available to them.

Think of your email marketing campaign like a television station. You can’t show the same episode of the same show over and over without people tuning out. Mix up the promotions so different demographics find what they want and stay engaged with the communications.