Testing for Email Frequency Tolerance

Brave souls test for email frequency tolerance. Good for you. The ‘sweet spot’ between sending too few and too many emails is unique to each list. To find your list’s limit, you first have to accept that you will need to exceed it. That’s going to annoy some people. (Best to limit this test to a small, randomized segment—and exclude donors!).

Firstly, take a moment to understand email cadence, and the fact that frequency tolerance is linked to the nature and quality of your communication.

Next, design your frequency test, like this one. The trick is to maximize your positive metric (cumulative click through volumes) against the force of negative metrics (unsubscribes and lowering click through rates). Also consider how many emails you actually want to send (you’re a metric, too); it makes no sense to double your output for a tiny bump in clicks. Consider carefully the long-term impacts that high frequency can have on list health. List health has inertia. Meaning, there may be a delay on corrosive effects such as disengagement and loss of subscribers. Avoid interpreting results too early. Continue the test until any negative metrics have stabilized.

The longer you can sustain the test, the clearer any long-term impacts will be.

If all this sounds a bit much, try these hacks instead.

From: What’s the ideal email frequency?