Email Etiquette: How Much Email to Send

February 13, 2012

The amount of bulk email you send may keep subscribers interested in purchasing your goods and services or may turn them off completely. As communication becomes more computer-based, inboxes all over the world are filling up fast (this is not always a good thing for Internet marketers).

What this means for you is less time to entice and make a sale - it also means you need to be very careful about not sending too much messages as you run the risk of instant deletions or increased opt-out requests.

Testing Your List

Understanding how much your list is currently generating in sales can help you determine how much email to send. If you want to raise your sales rate, there are a few ways to do so: Increase the number of email campaigns to generate additional sales from those on your list or generate new leads by getting more people to sign up.

Testing your list is the only way to determine the right number of messages to send. Before testing your list, gather the following information to use as a comparison:

  • Percentage of monthly sales
  • Number of monthly opt-out requests
  • Types of subscriber complaints/comments (the key here is to see if there is an increase in subscriber complaints/comments about email received)

Next, determine how much to increase messages sent. You may want to try one or two additional messages per week to see if there's any reaction.

After a month, compare your sales against previous sales, opt-out requests and complaints from subscribers to see if sending additional mass email made any difference - positive or negative.

Continue to increase one email per week until you seen a positive increase in sales (or you see an increase in complaints or opt-out requests).

Jeopardizing Your List

If concerned about losing valuable subscribers, consider testing a small segment instead of the entire list at once. You can always add more subscribers to the test if the results are positive.

Unfortunately, you may lose a few subscribers when increasing email - but in the long run, if you earn more sales through increased messages, it may be worth it.

Most Popular Days to Send Email

Any day can be a great day to send marketing messages to subscribers; it really depends on the types of subscribers you have.

These days, people have access to their accounts at any time during the day and night. Understanding subscriber habits, where they work, daily responsibilities and even spending habits can help you determine the best time and day to send messages.

If unsure, ask. Send a quick survey asking subscribers at what day and time they typically open your email, how much time they spend reading it, when and how often they check their accounts.



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