Research has shown that over-mailing to your list leads to apathy, unsubscribes or even spam reports. Finding the right e-mail frequency has become a balancing act: you don’t want to turn off your recipients by e-mailing them too, but you also need a permission grant that allows you to contact your list between scheduled mailings without appearing to violate the original agreement.

Below are some tips and strategies that will help to show you how to work out your own frequency.

Understand Who Controls Frequency

Research over the years is showing how today’s e-mail user had become savvy at sorting the good e-mail from the junk mail and at knowing what they want from e-mail and how to deal with e-mailers that do not respect their inboxes.

Realize that your recipient ultimately controls your e-mail frequency in the long run. Keep this in mind when scheduling your next e-mail campaign.

Choose Your Own Frequency

Frequency must be a combination of how often you want or need to send your messages and how often your list wants to receive e-mails from you. How you balance these two things will determine the success of your e-mail program.

Use the following factors to help you set useful frequency parameters:

• Feedback
• Market Conditions
• Preference Center
• High-Volume Numbers

Respect Your Subscribers’ Choices

You need to keep your promise to your subscribers. Although most will forgive an extra mailing or two, it is important not to over-e-mail them. You don’t know exactly where the tipping point is that will drive them to unsubscribe or report your e-mail as spam.

An easy solution – refine your list description that allows you to reserve the right to send relevant messages between scheduled mailings. And be realistic in your expectations.

Beware of Under-Mailing

As discussed in the entry Determining E-Mail Frequency, it is also possible to e-mail out too infrequently to your list. If you go for long periods of time without e-mailing your subscribers, you may trigger unsubscribes or spam reports. Try to e-mail your list once per month – at minimum.

To read more about the strategies to finding the best e-mail frequency for your company’s e-mail campaigns, click here.

E-mail campaigns are one of the best ways to reach out to your current and potential customers but don’t let determining the frequency of your e-mails become a marketing challenge. Althrough there is no quick answer or perfect formula for determining how often you should e-mail out to your list, here are some rough guidelines to adhere to:

• Mail At Least Once per Month – if you e-mail out to your list less often than this, you risk being forgotten by recipients. You want your company name and services to be top of mind.
• Let the Content Be Your Guide – Evaluate what you are sending out to your readers and analyze how often the information changes and how quickly readers must receive it in order to act on it.
• Take the Lead From Your Readers – Always tell potential readers how often you mail when they sign-up, so that they can decide if the frequency will work for them.
• Work Within Your Resources – A daily e-mail requires much more work and resources than a monthly newsletter. It is better to send out a well-done monthly e-mail than a shoddy-looking weekly or daily e-mail.
• Watch for Trends – Declining response, open and click-through rates can be signs of list fatigue. Watch carefully and cut back frequency if you see a problem.

Read more about e-mail frequency and list control here.