Fewer Emails, More Sales: How to Reduce Communications

Regular reminders about your brand are a typical marketing tactic. It is believed that this way, the user won't forget about the brand and will eventually make a purchase. The key is to communicate through all channels: messages are sent through messengers, email, SMS, push notifications, and even social media.

What Happens if You Send Too Many Emails

Despite the fact that people are already drowning in a sea of information, marketing communications show no sign of slowing down. On the contrary, more and more methods are being used to reach the consumer.

What do subscribers do when the number of emails and messages increases significantly?

• They stop opening marketing messages from the brand. On average, 40% of users have 50 unread emails.

• They unsubscribe from email lists. 43% say they leave a company if they receive too many emails.

• They stop purchasing the brand's products. 74% of customers refuse to make purchases because they feel information overload.

• They mark the company's emails as spam if unsubscribing from the mailing list is too difficult or impossible. 47% of users do this.

Fewer Messages — More Personalization

Sending emails or messages based on a "one-size-fits-all" approach is not the most effective marketing strategy. Customers are at different stages of decision-making: onboarding, product selection, purchase made, and so on. So sending the same message to everyone means, at best, being ignored, and at worst, getting an unsubscribe or spam complaint.

Not Quantity, but Quality of Emails

Not Often, But at the Right Time

The answer to the question of how often and when to send emails depends on various factors:

How to Reduce the Number of Emails Without Losing Sales

The data above confirms that it's more effective to focus on the quality of emails rather than the quantity. To find the optimal email frequency, several specific steps need to be taken.

1. Conduct an Email Audit

Make sure the subscription process works correctly: the user must confirm their consent to receive messages. The unsubscribe button should be visible and functional. Otherwise, your emails will start annoying users, and they'll mark them as spam.

2. Clean the Base and Exclude Ineffective Messages

After the audit, remove users who have not interacted with your emails for a long time. Eliminate messages with low performance and those that aren't yielding results. Make sure your emails don’t repeat and that automated messages are sent at the right time. For example, avoid sending an invitation to visit the store if the customer just visited and made a purchase.

3. Segment the Target Audience

Divide customers into groups based on purchase frequency, engagement level, channels used, and other criteria important to your brand. This will help plan email campaigns with highly personalized content. Use analytics to identify behavioral patterns and conduct surveys to ask your audience how often and what they want to receive.

4. Create a New Email Plan and Implement Automation

5. Implement Omnichannel

At the same time, it’s important to consider the characteristics of each channel. For example, if SMS is added to email, the best time to send is 10:00 AM, lunchtime, or 8:00 PM.

6. Check Effectiveness

Analyze the optimal email frequency using A/B testing. Divide your customer base into groups based on the number of test variations — for example, three groups if you want to compare daily, weekly, and monthly messages. Use analytics tools and summary reports to gather data on interactions — basic open rates, views, and conversions.

Compare the results for effectiveness: open rates, engagement, clicks, and purchases. This will help determine how often to send emails. To make them more effective, segment the audience, analyze behavior, and use personalized, triggered, and automated emails where they truly work.

Summary

Frequent emails don't always deliver results — users may start ignoring emails or unsubscribe. This is typically due to information overload and irrelevant content. Therefore, it's better to send emails strategically: send triggered messages based on user actions and use a personalized approach. It’s also important to consider the time of sending and the product type — for products purchased impulsively, more frequent messages are acceptable.

To reduce the number of emails and improve their effectiveness, you need to conduct an audit, clean the database, revise the content plan, segment the audience, implement automation and omnichannel strategies, and test your strategy using A/B testing.