Dec 28 2007
Email frequency… how often should you mail?
The question of how often to mail the email list has been a hotly debated topic in every eCommerce business I have been associated with. Conventional wisdom is that you should deliver as often as you can. I tend to agree. My experience has been that the ceiling is more frequent than you can imagine. I have mailed up to three times a week. That’s 156 times a year.
But how you determine that maximum frequency rate? Here are the considerations I have frequently debated.
- Opt-out Rates– If the opt-outs exceed opt-ins, you are obviously in trouble (duh). But you can’t necessarily link opt-outs to frequency. You’ll need to conduct a population test to determine where the trouble lies. Segment your mailings to 2 or 3 frequency rates and test. It takes time for fatigue to set in, you may need up to six months to test.
- Response Degradation– You will most certainly reduce your response rates as you increase the frequency. However, in most cases, frequency will override response unless your degradation is precipitous. If you have enough history you can compare like offers by season. But again, you may need a population test.
- Value Proposition– I have saved this for last because we tend not give it enough weight. We know that providing lightweight content and repeating the same offer will not be successful regardless of frequency. But as you increase frequency, the value proposition becomes more difficult to achieve if you haven’t increased your resource allocation. It seems that everyone is in the business of providing advice and information today and that only magnifies the challenge. Value comes from expert campaign planning, talented content developers and great execution. I have found that a prolific diversity of offers is the secret to campaign planning in the retail space. I will follow up with an article on campaign planning in the near future.
I will leave you with a tip for those of you who concerned that frequency is degrading your response. Right above the opt-out link in your emails, provide an option to decrease the frequency of mailings by 50%. You will decrease opt-outs by up to 30%.
