The 101 On Email Frequency – How Often You Should Send Emails

As a business owner, you know how important email marketing is. But how much is too much? And where is the sweet spot that keeps you from being forgotten? Worry no more. This article will cover the basics of how often different types of emails should be sent out.

What Content Are You Sending?

Different types of content are best sent regularly. Here’s a quick little best practices guide. You should mix and match the types of content you are sending to your list. A healthy mix is how you grow connections, and make sales without coming across salesy.

Newsletters: Sending these once a week or once a month is standard for many businesses. Weekly keeps your audience engaged, while monthly ensures you stay in touch without overwhelming them. So it depends on how much is going on in your industry.
Promotional Emails: You can send these more often, especially if you have new offers or products. The key here is to promote things, not beg for sales. You can share reviews and give insight on products, ingredients, and methods.
Updates and Announcements: Send these as needed, but usually not more than once or twice a month unless there’s something really important to share. Things like hours changing or community events are perfect for this type of email.
Transactional Emails: These are based on user actions (like purchase confirmations or password resets) and don’t follow a regular schedule.

What Does Your Audience Want?

Consider sending out a survey to find out how often your subscribers want to hear from you. Or you can even utilize your email segments. Keep an eye on your engagement metrics (like open rates and unsubscribe rates) to see if your current frequency is hitting the mark. Many email services have unsubscribe opt-out options. For example, you can offer a “light” option to help stop them from leaving your list entirely.

What’s Normal in Your Industry?

Some industries have their own norms for email frequency. For example, e-commerce businesses might email more frequently than services. It can also depend on your customers. Do you have fashion forward shoppers who want to see your newest products? Or perhaps your audience would be interested in all of the local events monthly they can take their dog to.

Check out what your competitors are doing to get a sense of the industry standard. However, this is just a starting point. Because let’s face it, not every business is doing email marketing well.

Furthermore, your business is not “one of the big guys”, and you shouldn’t be marketing yourself the same way.

McDonalds can buy billboards and just slap their logo on it. Why? Because they are a household name. Their marketing is to entice the masses of people. You are most likely not trying to marketing to everyone (and you shouldn’t be!).

Taking a few extra moments to look at companies people love (even outside your industry) can be a source of inspiration to how often you should be chatting with your customers. It’s all about relationships.

Quality Over Quantity

Fewer, high quality emails can be more effective than daily low quality emails. You want to provide value to your subscribers. Furthermore, sending a ton of low quality, promo emails is the fastest way to land in the spam box.

Focus on sending your customers a connection. Build your relationship through your emails. This can be by sharing stories, news, general tips and information. Using email should be about them. 100%. Not you, not your sales or bottom lines. It’s all about them. In return, they will be more likely to shop with you and spend more.

General Recommendations

Weekly: A common frequency that keeps your audience engaged without overwhelming them. This is great for product round ups. Testimonials. And even community news and events that you think your audience would enjoy.
Bi-weekly: Sending out an email every other week is perfect for sending out resources. Share a video, share your most recent blog posts, share news or other things you think your list will find interesting.
Monthly: Perfect for in-depth newsletters and full roundups.

Final Thoughts

Email marketing can be hard, but being consistent can help. Furthermore by keeping each email as a single topic (don’t mix sales and news!) will help you keep fresh content, and new things outbound.

Struggling to grow your pet business? Get the strategies you need for success! Sign up for The Pet Business Breakthrough newsletter and grab your FREE copy of “7 Growth Rules for Success” today!

Pet Copywriter Lori