Every email marketer should figure out the ideal number of email campaigns to send. You might go for a base frequency of monthly or weekly email updates, depending on the relationship your target audience has with your brand. With the exception of senders who already have very high frequency of multiple sends per week, an increase in the total number of emails per subscriber can have a direct positive effect on your bottom line results.
Although an increase in frequency is often deemed as negative, note that in this instance it is not - it is neutral to the recipient and based on previous interactions with your brand and marketing program. If people love your emails, they want more. Everything in customer satisfaction is about the management of expectations.
The question every email marketer should be asking himself or herself is how can we delight or – at the minimum – make it a neutral experience to increase frequency?
- Pick the optimal timeframe
We all love a good deal and retailers know when their selling season is. In December people spend a lot on retail and luxury products. Most industries have similar seasonality and slower/better selling times. An email spree is not something you do every day (because that would just make you a daily sender). So pick your moments to send more, and make sure it is in the period that counts.
- Give a Reason, include a plot
Giving a reason for sending more can make all the difference - an advent calendar, a promotions week, back to school countdown, anniversaries. These are all understandable reasons to increase frequency and should be included in your email planning. Wherever possible, try to create a story or plot. If the story is strong and interesting, the next email will be anticipated even more. Moreover, giving a solid reason to buy is probably always a good idea; even without increasing your email sends.
- Claim and Name your sequence
You can use this naming tactic too. By including the duration (day, week) in the name you acknowledge a reason for sending more and show that it is temporary. Make your business logo visible each time so the customer automatically associates you with the brilliant deals on offer.
- Do earn, but don’t burn
There will always be a portion of your subscribers that will want to unsubscribe once they start receiving more email. On average the opt-out rate per email will go down during an email spree, but in total it can still be quite a number. You don’t want them to mark you as spam; so don’t make your opt-out link hard to see, which would be a bad influence on email deliverability success. The smart thing to do is to let them opt-out of the series, not of your complete email program. This can be presented on the unsubscribe or preferences page.
Touching your subscribers more often is one of the ways to easily increase your revenue and results. But that doesn’t mean it is easy to increase frequency. There are many other factors that can come into play depending on your business and your audience, so consider the use of a temporarily increased email frequency wisely.