How often should you send email marketing messages?

Email marketing is a great way to build trust with potential clients. But how often should you email?

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a set number or a schedule you could follow? While it would be great if there was research that suggested that mailing exactly every 5 days gets you the best results every time, there is no such thing.

Every market, every niche, every audience and even every person is different.

However, while there’s no magical answer, there is a lot you can do to make just about any email frequency work.

Maximum and minimum email frequency

First, let’s establish the boundaries. You don’t want to have too much time in between emails, or your readers will forget who you are. Anything less than once a month isn’t really a good idea. For many businesses, you wouldn’t want to email less than twice a month.

On the other end of the spectrum, you don’t want to go any higher than one email per day. Yes, you may have days when you have a good reason to send multiple emails, but in general you don’t want to email more than once a day and that’s probably best for short period of time.

So what’s right for your list?

Step 1: Reflect and decide what you want to achieve

Start by taking stock of what you’re doing now. What’s working? What isn’t?

For example:

• Are your subscribers engaged and opening your emails?
• Do some emails fare better than others? Which ones?
• Do you email sporadically or without a plan?
• Have your readers forgotten who you are?

Secondly, why do you want to make changes? What’s your aim?

• Do you want to grow a closer connection with your clients or potential clients by emailing more often?
• Do you want to drive more traffic back to your blog posts by emailing them links frequently?
• Do you want to grow your income by making more frequent email offers?

Once you know where you’re at and where you want to be, you can start to make a plan.

Step 2: Gradually increase your email frequency

What you don’t want to do is to go straight from emailing once every few months to daily emails. It’ll get your readers clicking the spam button pronto.

If you haven’t been emailing as often as you’d like, it’s best to gradually increase the frequency of your emails.

Start with monthly emails for a couple of months, then let your readers know you have more to share with them and start mailing weekly. Then a few months later, ramp it up to emails every few days if that matches your aims.

Daily emailing should be for a good reason. For example, running a 5 or 30 day challenge for your readers is a great excuse to hit their inbox daily without seeming pushy or spammy. You can also send daily emails during a promotion but it’s good practice to use groups or segments to allow people to opt out of those emails while remaining on your main list.

Step 3: Choose the right time to send emails

Again there’s no universal solution to this. However, there are a few factors to consider including the type of email you’re sending and your target audience. Personal preferences may also come into play – for instance you may choose not to send emails at the weekend.

Generally speaking, emails sent during specific times of the day or week can maximize their impact. For example, sending emails in the morning or early evening can help increase engagement and lead to more clicks and conversions.

You may have to play around a bit here, which leads us nicely to the next step.

Step 4: Test and monitor results

When it comes to email marketing, it’s important to test and monitor results regularly. That way, you can make sure that your campaigns are reaching the right people and leading to the desired results.

Looking at data like open rates can help you get a better feel for what frequency is working best for you and your audience.

Ultimately, it’s important to test different times and message frequencies to see what works best for your business (not forgetting that you can’t please everyone).

Sending emails at the right frequency is important for reaching your subscribers and informing them about what you do and why it matters to them. By following these steps, you can create successful email campaigns and engage with your audience.

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