Email Campaign Frequency

1
Email Campaign Frequency

• How often should you and do you talk to your
  customers?

2
Agenda

• What is the Minimum?
• Frequency Statistics
• Work Within Your Resources
• Watch for Trends
• Frequency Segmentation
• Rules of Thumb

3
What is the Minimum

• Monthly
• If you mail less frequently you run the risk of
  lost mindshare
• Keep your brand in front of your readers
• Quarterly
• Not our recommendation for most people, but it
  does work for some industries and content layouts
• Be impactful

4
Industry overall

• Merchants / Marketers
• More than once per week 17 / 5
• Weekly 32 / 9
• Bi-Monthly 26 / 13
• Monthly 14 / 51
• Quarterly 4 / 22
• Source Marketing Sherpas Email Marketing
  Benchmark Guide 2006

5
Frequency by Industry

• News, Media, Entertainment 4.0 times month
• Retail 3.5 times per month
• Non-profit 3.0 times per month
• Consumer goods 3.0 times per month
• Travel 2.5 times per month
• Financial services 2.5 times per month
• Software/ASP 2.5 times per month
• Government 2.0 times per month
• Publishing 2.0 times per month
• Business/consulting 1.5 times per month
• ISP 1.5 times per month
• Hardware 1.5 times per month
• Education 1.0 times per month
• Manufacturing 0.5 times per month
• Source Marketing Sherpas Email Marketing
  Benchmark Guide 2006

6
Frequency by Purpose

• Direct sales lead the way for more frequent
  mailing
• 6 weekly
• 14 weekly
• 21 2-3 times per month
• Branding is most common on a monthly basis with
  53 of branding email being taking place on this
  schedule
• Lead generation is the least frequent 43 on a
  quarterly basis.
• Source Marketing Sherpas Email Marketing
  Benchmark Guide 2006

7
Preferred Frequency

• There is a disconnect between what people want
  and what people get. Recipients prefer mailings
  to be / what they are willing to accept
• More than once per week 5 / 4
• Weekly 11 / 8
• Bi-Monthly 11 / 18
• Monthly 50 / 32
• Quarterly or less 23 / 39
• Source Marketing Sherpas Email Marketing
  Benchmark Guide 2006

8
Work Within Your Resources

• Just because your readers would like a daily
  email, is it within your means?
• A daily e-mail requires many more resources than
  a monthly.
• Dont skimp, turn out a quality email.
• How often can you produce fresh content?

9
What are you emailing about

• Ecommerce driven email focusing on sales then to
  be on a very different schedule than your
  standard newsletter
• Can you put together discount codes?
• Do you have the product
• Is your copy catchy?
• What else do you have going on in the email
  world?

10
Watch for Trends

• Look for declines in response open and
  click-through rates if this is the case it
  could be due to fatigue.
• Though some decrease is normal, watch carefully
  and cut back frequency if you see a problem.
• Unsubscribe rate is a good measure, but don't
  assume it is everything. The majority delete
  their email instantly or forward it to the trash
  folder rather than unsubscribe.
• Keep an eye on the industry as a whole, what has
  worked for other companies in your industry.

11
Frequency Segmentation

• Consider mailing to segments at different
  intervals
• Ask at signup - what works for them daily,
  weekly, monthly, quarterly.
• If you dont ask, always tell potential readers
  how often you mail at sign-up, so they can decide
  if the frequency works for them.

12
Rules of Thumb

• Create a master calendar
• Appoint a gatekeeper
• Watch performance