The holidays are a wonderful time of the year, especially for marketers. As subscribers start planning out what gifts to give their friends and loved ones, they frequently check their inboxes for inspiration. To take advantage of this, many marketers ramp up their frequency over the holidays. However, while subscribers may be looking to buy more and might appreciate an increase in email offers, they will still get annoyed if you take it too far.
Significantly increasing your send frequency can result in increases in complaints and unsubscribe requests, which will, in turn, harm your reputation and deliverability. So while increasing your frequency might seem like a great way to increase revenue, if you do it incorrectly you could end up harming your program during this crucial season.
Increasing in send frequency presents both an opportunity and a risk. To safely increase your frequency and take advantage of the holiday season, follow these five tips:
- Gradually increase your frequency. Don’t suddenly go from three emails a week to ten. Instead, slowly increase your frequency to get your customers used to the new, higher frequency.
- Monitor your subscribers’ reactions. Complaints are bound to increase with a ramped up cadence. Make sure that you are signed up for all available feedback loops and whitelists. Immediately remove complainers from your list. Continuing to mail customers who complain will have an adverse effect on your reputation and can prevent your engaged customers from receiving your mail.
- Give them something they want. You always want to make sure that you are sending your customers information and offers that they will find valuable. If your increased messages are not relevant, subscribers will start to disengage with your brand.
- Segment your list. Review your email metrics (opens and clicks) to segment your customers based on their engagement with your brand. You can then adjust your frequency based on activity. For example, it may be possible to increase frequency for customers who consistently open or click your emails, but you may need to decrease the frequency for customers who engage less often.
- Give them options. When customers feel that they are being over emailed, they are more likely to unsubscribe. Send them to a preference center so that they can set the frequency they feel most comfortable with.