What's Your (Email) Frequency, Kenneth? 5 Email Tactics & Best Practices

Last updated May 05, 2022

Email is among the oldest but most powerful electronic mediums to stay in touch with your customers. Everyone typically knows how to use it since there's no learning curve, and it's inexpensive to craft an email.

Many have pronounced email dead, as new technologies like Chatbots and social media have started to rule the roost.

Because it's frequently abused by marketers with little intention other than playing the numbers game—thinking sending an email more often going cut across every other offer competing for a users' attention—it also gets a bad rap for having low engagement.

But time and time again, email rules the marketing kingdom with a 4400% ROI and $44 for every $1 spent (according to Campaign Monitor and others).

1) Frequency: So what's your number?

Mine is 120/78. Oh wait.... we're not talking about blood pressure?

Email send frequency depends on a number of factors including:

• the content
• the price of the offerings
• the relevance

Send too often and your customers will opt-out, file spam reports, and go to your competitors.

Send infrequently and you lose touch with your customers and the potential ROI you could be making.

For example, I just bought a bed. Maybe don't bombard me with offers of similar mattresses... unless you frame it as replacing the one in my guest room? Or maybe make a complementary offer, such as new sheets?

We can help you figure that out and craft a strategy that will get you more opens and clicks by creating images and messaging that are bang-on effective to get the right responses.

2) Welcome sequence: who are you?

One of the most important but often overlooked aspects of email marketing is the welcome sequence. How does someone get indoctrinated into your brand? What can they expect from your email content?

Think about it... when someone opts into your lead magnet or email newsletter from your website, they are the most engaged they are ever going to be with your company.

Yet, what do most marketers do? They use the default welcome templates. What a missed opportunity!

Remember, today it's not about you... it's about them.

Users have choices. And they can also choose to opt-out, too.

A good welcome sequence gets someone excited about being on your list, what they should expect, and making sure someone whitelists your email messages—so they don't end up in the junk mail folder.

3) Segmentation: what does everyone want?

Today, email marketing is about sending someone the right content at the right time. That means some form of marketing automation.

But what do most marketers do? Blast you with generic, promotional, sales-style emails.

In fact, they even justify it with numbers: the more email you send, the more chances someone has at taking action. Sad, but true.

What's also true is that users get tired of the same marketing messages constantly being pushed their way. Your content soon becomes a commodity and thus noise in their inbox.

Our inboxes are becoming so cluttered that people are dumping their old addresses for new ones. Roughly 30% of your list will die each year.

As an example, Smart Insights described that when fashion e-retailer Net-a-Porter.com reduced the number of emails it sent to customers from 10 per week to 2, and using marketing automation to send more relevant emails, the conversion rate actually increased.

4) Strategy before tactics

Like every piece in digital marketing, you need strategy before tactics. Email is only one tactic.

A good email strategy is well-rounded. It's like a well-balanced diet: a solid blend of engaging content along with promotions and sales.

We want to send different topics to folks and then get users to raise their hands and say "Yes, this is the topic I'm interested in!"

But we still need to sell, too.

Oftentimes marketers try an "engagement" strategy and then wonder why they're not getting sales. Don't get stuck in the "friend-zone" with your customers by never asking for the sale.

Email fits into multiple places in the digital marketing roadmap.

5) Make email more friendly human

What are the email messages you want to receive and reply to?

Right, the emails you send to friends and family.

• The messages without flashy, Save 20% Today Only! text.
• The messages that start conversations.
• The messages that come from real people, not do-not-reply@companyname.com.

In fact, Digital Marketer advocates that conversation is the new lead.

You don't try to sell someone on the concept of marriage on the first date, yet that's what marketers are doing when someone opts into their email sequence.

How can we help you with your email?

So there you have it, a few ways to help you increase engagement on your list. Try them and let us know what they think.

Also, if you're overwhelmed and have been trying to "figure this stuff out" on your own for a while now, it's time to bring in the professionals!

Can we assess how you're doing with email marketing? We'd be glad to take a look and recommend some tips on getting more out of your list.

Just schedule below and get the conversation started.