How to Do E-mail Marketing Without Pissing People Off Part 3: How Much E-mail is Too Much?

By Carlon Haas | May 18, 2007

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OK…so how much e-mail marketing is too much?

This is a question most people ask me, and unfortunately there is no one right answer. The biggest problem I see in email marketing campaigns is that people either send too much e-mail (welcome to the SPAM game) or fearing they will be labeled a spammer they don’t send enough e-mail and lose the chance to promote their products or services.

This next bit of advice will assume that you have followed the principles set out in my last 2 blog posts and you have built a list of people who are genuinely interested in your products or services.

But I will give you some rules of thumb that will help you determine that “sweet spot” where you can send offers and promotions.

Rules of Thumb on E-mail Content

If you have product or services to sell, I recommend not sending sales pitches every single e-mail. One thing that annoys most people is constantly getting pitched to.

The #1 rule of e-mail marketing is content. Provide quality content. Even if people delete it, I believe there is a funny magic aura that tells people that someone has been pitching them or that someone is really trying to give good content.

I can’t prove it scientifically, but I do believe it.

My rule of thumb is AT LEAST 3 e-mails of content per 1 offer.

Frequency

Here’s the question I am almost always asked, “How often should I send e-mail.”

Again, the short answer is “It depends.”

What it depends on is who is on your list. You really have to know who is on your list to determine how much email you can send them. By understanding their habits, you not only increase your chance of getting them to convert to sales, but you also will get a better idea on how often you can send them offers.

Let me give you some examples:

Let’s say you have a list of people interested in business opportunities. You also know that they are on A LOT of other lists. So, you know they get a lot of e-mail. For these people, you could probably e-mail them every single day.

The reason is that this type of list probably gets A TON of emails. They hardly read all their e-mails, so you have to keep sending them emails just to get it read. In other words, you might have to send 10 emails before they’ll even open it up.

But if your list is comprised of corporate types, if you send them an e-mail every day, you’ll get a resounding amount of anger directed at you.

Another example would be if your list is international. I have known some people who have lists that include people from the UK. He sends out e-mails maybe once a week. His unsubscribe rate is low, but among people from the UK, it is very high. The way people from Britain deal with e-mail is different than in the U.S. So, you should take that into consideration the e-mail habits of non-Americans if you have a substantial list of international readers.

Here are some general of rules of thumb that should help you determine how frequently to send e-mail:

1. If your list is comprised of mostly corporate types, don’t send more than 1 e-mail a week. These people are very busy, and more than once a week is too much for them. If you want to send e-mail more frequently, then make sure they are signing up for a daily e-mail or something of that nature so they know beforehand that they will get frequent e-mails. But make sure your content is really good if you’re going to try this.

2. For most lists, if e-mail marketing is a big part of what you do, then I suggest sending e-mail every 4-5 days.

With either of these, you can play around. If you are not getting response, then maybe increase the frequency. But if you are getting massive unsubscribes, cut back.

There is no one right answer, but the key to e-mail marketing is paying attention to your list. They will tell you when they want your e-mails or when they don’t want them. It is your job to listen to them and deliver what they want.

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