How many emails should you send in a month?

Email.  It’s one of the great tools you have as a brand to connect with your prospects and customers. For BattlBox, we highly segment our list so that we are delivering an optimal experience for our audience and not bombarding them.  At the end of the day, one could still argue that we are sending too many emails or not enough emails.  The reason I say that is because email frequency is not a one-size-fit all strategy.

Before diving into the importance of email frequency, let's briefly touch upon the significance of building a strong subscriber list. A well-curated email list is a valuable asset that allows you to directly communicate with individuals who have expressed interest in your brand, products, or services. It provides a direct line of contact with your audience, offering an opportunity to nurture relationships and convert leads into customers.

For the entire month of May, we conducted a study.  We selected 9 brands that were on our radar (for various reasons, all positive) and decided to see what their email frequency was for a non customer opt in.  It should be noted that for these opt ins, all emails sent were opened but no links were clicked in the email themselves nor did we visit their website again.  These are important variables.  For BattlBox specifically, if you click on an email we send, that behavior (and other behaviors once you land on our site), triggers you into additional email automations.

On May 1st, we opted into all of their email lists.  We did this via their website email capture pop up (or form on their home page if we were not served a popup).  To keep things honest and transparent, we also signed up for Battlbox’s email list. We unsubscribed from all lists and stopped tracking when the month ended.

These were the brands we chose for the test: BattlBox, Hotel Collection, Birddogs, 47 brand, BYLT Basics, Yeti, Gymshark, Rodd & Gunn, Obvi, and Hello Bello.

Let’s start with high level first.  Below is the amount of emails each brand sent in the month of May to us:

BattlBox: 7

Hotel Collection: 23

Birddogs: 14

47 brand: 15

BYLT Basics: 30

Yeti: 19

Gymshark: 12

Rodd & Gunn: 11

Obvi: 15

Hello Bello: 17

Big range here.  The mean is 16.3 emails.  BYLT and BattlBox are outliers in the mix.

30 emails seems like a lot to send in a month (30 emails in 31 days).

7 emails seems like it might not be enough.

So what’s right? As I stated before it’s not a straightforward question and answer.

Determining the ideal email frequency requires a thorough understanding of your target audience, their preferences, and the nature of your business. While some industries may benefit from daily or weekly emails, others may find that a less frequent cadence is more appropriate. Finding the sweet spot ensures that you maintain engagement without overwhelming your subscribers.

Let’s breakdown BattlBox here first since I can obviously speak to it well.

If during this test, the user had clicked on some of the emails and/or interacted with our site afterwards, the likely monthly total would be in the 14-18 range on average. A couple of years ago we were in the 14-16 range on low end sends but after some testing, throttled down our send frequency (the impact on revenue and opt outs from the test lead to us taking down the monthly sends).  At the same time as the throttle down, we created more behavior based automation emails. That being said, this month we are taking up the low end send from 7 to 9-10 to test and see performance vs degradation.

Next up, BYLT.  30 emails in 31 days to a user that opted in, but then never clicked a single email.  That seems excessive, but perhaps they have done testing and this is the correct amount.  To be fair, the clothing industry is huge.  Perhaps their model is less about community and more about pushing their prospects to purchase.  Comparing the types of emails to other brands, there is way less product or brand education in their emails than the others.  

In second place on most sends, was Hotel Collection, at 23 emails sent in the month of May.

They started off with some educational emails but a third of the way into the month had switched to aggressive sales emails.

So is 23 or 30 emails a month aggressive?  One would assume these brands segment their lists so what would have happen if the user clicked on some of the emails or engaged on the website?  Would 30 have turned into 40? 

Negative Impacts of Excessive Email Sends

Excessive email sends can have several detrimental effects on your email marketing campaigns and overall brand reputation. Let's explore some of these impacts:

When subscribers receive an overwhelming number of emails from a single source, they may experience fatigue. This email fatigue can result in disengagement and, ultimately, lead to unsubscribes. Your audience may view your brand as intrusive or annoying if they constantly find their inboxes flooded with your messages.

Sending emails too frequently can lead to a decline in engagement metrics. As subscribers become overwhelmed, they may be less likely to open, read, or interact with your emails. This reduced engagement can negatively impact your open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.

Excessive email sends can harm your brand's reputation and erode the trust you've built with your subscribers. When your audience feels bombarded, they may start perceiving your brand as spammy or untrustworthy. This negative perception can extend beyond your email.

The Data

Below is the data from the study.  Date sent, Brand, Subject Line, Explanation of email type, screenshot(s), and the # email for the month is below.

Enjoy.