Finding the right email frequency is key to attracting engagement and building a positive relationship with your subscribers. By building a reliable cadence, you can ensure subscribers look forward to your emails. In this post, we’ll answer the question: How often should I email my subscribers? We’ll also explore the best days to send, the importance of send time optimization, and how email frequency works with automations.
How often should I email my subscribers?
The answer to this question depends on several factors, including your industry, audience, and the type of content you’re sending. Most businesses find success in sending at least one email per week. However, this may be too much for some audiences.
To find the right send frequency for your audience, consider using segmentation. Because your audience members will engage with your emails in unique ways, they may prefer to receive emails on unique schedules. Try sending at least one email per month to all your subscribers and sending more frequent emails to the most engaged portion of your audience. This can boost opens & clicks without overwhelming your audience.
If you’re a Mailchimp user, you can use several segmentation tools to tailor your send frequency to your audience. To build a successful strategy, consider booking a call with an email expert like Pure Firefly.
Email Frequency & Automations
Automations can be a powerful way to increase engagement with your audience while managing your email frequency. For example, you can set up a welcome series to introduce new subscribers to your brand through several emails. You can also create a re-engagement series to win back inactive subscribers without bombarding them with too many emails.
Because automations are triggered by a subscriber’s actions, they often send on a more frequent schedule than typical campaigns. An automated welcome series, for example, should begin sending as soon as a subscriber joins your audience. Depending on the length of your series, a welcome automation should have only 1-5 days between each email.
While subscribers are going through a welcome journey, it is recommended that you pause other emails to these new subscribers to avoid overwhelming them.
What are the best days to send?
The right day to send will vary depending on your campaign, audience, and industry. However, a study by SendinBlue confirmed that weekdays perform more highly than weekends, comprising roughly 95% of the total weekly click volume.
Studies have shown that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday tend to have the highest open rates. On Monday and Friday, people are busy catching up or preparing for the weekend. However, these trends may vary depending on your industry and audience.
Some email providers offer tools to guide your choice of send date. For example, Mailchimp’s campaign manager includes send day optimization, which makes recommendations based on your industry & subscriber behavior.
Send Time Optimization: Does it matter?
Send time optimization aims to schedule your email send time around when your subscribers will most likely engage. Many email providers offer send time suggestions based on various factors, including subscriber location, behavior, and more.
While these can be helpful, it’s important to remember that everyone’s inbox habits are different. Instead of relying solely on send time optimization, consider testing different send times and analyzing your data to see what works best for your audience.
Whether you test send times manually or use optimization algorithms, send time can significantly impact an email’s opens and clicks. For example, if someone receives an online shopping discount at the start of their workday, they are likely to forget about it once they have time to shop. Place yourself in your subscribers’ shoes and tailor your send time around the type of content you send.
Pure Firefly Can Help You Build a Send Frequency Schedule
If you don’t have the resources to create & test a sending schedule, consider working with an email expert. Pure Firefly’s team has experience testing email send frequency for clients in different industries. Set up a one-on-one call to get our input on send frequency, or contact us for a free quote.